After a pretty long time away from Saturday Night Live, Arcade Fire returned to the show tonight in grand fashion. They always bring a pretty elaborate performance, which tends to happen you have this many people in your group. You make complete use of the stage, and there’s still something thrilling about having a big band present on the show.

(For the record, Arcade Fire made a fantastic appearance years ago in one of our favorite sketches — New Cast Member or Arcade Fire? Tina Fey was left to make some pretty difficult guesses! If you haven’t seen that sketch, check it out below and prepare to laugh.)

As for the performance that we saw right before Weekend Update tonight, it was of the band’s recent track “Unconditional I (Lookout Kid).” This was a natural evolution for the group, at least in that it felt both familiar and yet new. There’s something so nostalgic about the band’s sound. It brings to mind the past few decades of folk-rock, but we love about the song choice in general tonight is that it’s such a catchy tune. It’s a great entry point for people who are excited to hear a little bit more of them from the past several years. There’s SO much great stuff to dig into from their catalogue.

Just how new is this song? It only started to make headlines last month, which is why the timing of this appearance is pretty much perfect for them.

It’s clear at this point that the show (and Lorne Michaels) love having Arcade Fire on board — they’ve appeared so many times, including one stretch where they performed four times in six years. We hope that after this episode, there will be an opportunity to bring them back again, as well.

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What did you think of Arcade Fire’s new Saturday Night Live performance?

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