When people talk about SNL, they don’t talk enough about band leader GE Smith, who spent much of the 80s and early 90s playing bodacious guitar and making ridiculous faces. This performance with Eddie Van Halen is a catalogue of 80s expressive excess. 1/
https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/musical-performance---eddie-van-halen/n9553
https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/musical-performance---eddie-van-halen/n9553
The episode was hosted by Valerie Bertinelli, Eddie’s wife, so naturally Eddie put on some of his best guitar-god faces.
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Between this performance and his time with Hall & Oates, GE really hammed it up with the great ones.


One more thing: the performance is seriously worth watching if you’re a Van Halen fan, even though it’s post-Diamond Dave, because it features a horn section. I can’t think of a VH song that features that. (The clarinet on Big Bad Bill, played by Eddie’s dad, comes closest.)