Former 'SNL' cast member Fred Armisen has been named the bandleader for 'Late Night with Seth Meyers'
Late Night with Seth Meyers is set to begin on Monday, Feb. 24, which is exciting enough as he is taking over for fellow Saturday Night Live cast member, Jimmy Fallon. But there's more. Another SNL alum is being thrown into the mix, and it's actor/comedian/musician Fred Armisen, who has been named the bandleader of the in-house 8G band for the upcoming season.
When Fallon was the host, he had The Roots, which is pretty impressive. He had funny digital original sketches featuring members of The Roots, most commonly Questlove. But now the comedy and music accompaniment could take a whole new level with Portlandia star Armisen.
Meyers took to Twitter to make the announcement on Monday: "Fred will curate and lead the band, and continue to run it even when he's off shooting Portlandia."
Armisen will be backed by guitarist Seth Jabour (Les Savy Fav), bassist Syd Butler (Les Savy Fav), keyboardist Eli Janney (Girls Against Boys) and drummer Kim Thompson (Beyoncé's touring band). Armisen has shown himself to be versatile guy, playing with punk band Trenchmouth and even the Blue Man Group. So the music arrangement should be stellar. But we can't overlook the fact that Armisen and Meyers have had chemistry before. They've been on the SNL set together and shared plenty of laughs.
This is most definitely an extremely welcomed addition to the new edition of Late Night. We can most likely expect a lot of hilarious sketches and interactions in the upcoming season.
Take a look at one of Armisen's old dress rehearsal appearances on "Weekend Update with Seth Meyers" as Garth and Kat with Kristen Wiig. Chances are he'll be better prepared when they start Late Night.