Conan, White Stripes' Wistful Au Revoir

It seems ludicrous to imagine that Late Night with Conan O'Brien is no longer. After successfully hosting the show since 1993, Conan and his iconic wavy red hair have been a staple of late night, making anyone who stayed up past midnight not regret it, with the assurance of guaranteed laughs night after night. Fortunately, it is not the end of the late night for Conan, who will take over the humbling role of host of The Tonight Show on June 1 upon Jay Leno's departure to his new 10pm show.

In the indie community, Conan garnered additional respect for breaking and showcasing some interesting bands throughout the years. Fun fact: Radiohead was the first ever musical guest on the show. The last? None other than one of Conan's personal favorites (and mine), The White Stripes. The Stripes have not played live since truncating their tour in 2007, so this is not only a touching gesture for them to play the last episode of Conan, but promising that maybe, just maybe, a new White Stripes album will drop this year (there has not been a year without a Jack White album since 2004).

Here is Jack the Third and Meg, awkwardly playing another instrument poorly, playing an alternate take on the gentle "We're Going To Be Friends":

The White Stripes - We're Going To Be Friends (on Late Night with Conan O'Brien)


Sure, not the best performance ever, but the song was performed under Conan's request, and since there is no drums in the first place, what else do you do with Meg? A soft, heartfelt concluding performance for the show.

Also, in case you missed it, here is Conan's touching ten-minute goodbye, where he thanks everyone who made the show possible and successful over the years. Most encouragingly, he promises not to grow up despite the move to The Tonight Show. Very promising. The only disappointing thing in this whole thing is the fact that Jimmy Fallon is replacing Conan on Late Night. I feel like there could have been many other better replacements, but we shall see. It is awesome that The Roots will be the in-house band for Fallon, though, so there's one positive.

Late Night with Conan O'Brien has always been my late night show of choice, and hopefully from June onward, it will be The Tonight Show. In the downtime in between the transition, you could do worse than to relive one of the show's more famous jokes by visiting here.

Update: Here is the link to the entire episode on Hulu. Gotta love Hulu and its free, legal, high-quality videos.