Jagger Jabs Romney, Arcade Fire Support Canadian Student Protests on “SNL”

Posted by Andrew Unterberger on 05/20/2012 at 12:07 PM News, Videos

The Popdust Files: arcade fire, concerts, mick jagger, politics, protests, rolling stones, snl

Rock and rollers old and new came together on Saturday Night Live last night to stick it to the man. Mick Jagger, host and musical guest for the show’s season finale (Keep In Touch, Kristen Wiig!) brought along Canadian Grammy superpowers The Arcade Fire for his backing band, and together, band and frontman used their platform to make some political statements. Jagger’s was the more genteel and scripted of the two, getting in a light jab on presidential hopeful Mitt Romney during a satirical musical number entitled “Tea Party”: “Mr. Romney he’s a hard-working man, and he always says his prayers / Yeah but there’s one little thing about him, don’t ever let him cut your hair.” (“Have the Rolling Stones killed!” “But sir, that was only one…” “DO AS I SAY!!”)

More pointed in their statement-making were the Arcade Fire, who wore red patches in support of the Quebecois student protest over something called Bill 78, which (according to Spinner, evidently more versed in their Canadian civil struggles than we) “prohibits protests of more than 50 people taking place without organizers checking in with police in advance, and threatens heavy fines against student leaders and student groups who organize protests.” The red patches worn by the band are one of the symbols of the students protesting the bill. Good of The Arcade Fire to use their American exposure to raise national awareness of this conflict, though would it have killed singer Win Butler to have worn some kind of T-Shirt with a written message instead? Those are a lot easier for us Yanks to understand than the less-conspicuous symbolic monochromatic patches.

Oh, and all involved played some songs as well. Here’s one of ‘em.

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