St. Paul and the Broken Bones Get Gushing Late Night TV Debut'

. (Radio.com) Over the decades, David Letterman has introduced scores of bands on The Late Show, but in recent months, he's been more openly geeking out over his musical guests (notably Future Islands and the Last Internationale). But on Monday night (January 12) on Late Show, he gushed over newcomers St. Paul and the Broken Bones before they even played a note. "I want you to beat this to death," Letterman told them, before they kicked off "Call Me."

"I'll tell you something, the first time I heard this song," he said, "I was screaming, 'til I cried. That's what I want: can you do that for me tonight? It won't be your fault, but if I don't get that, I'm gonna stop the show, and do it over!"

After mentioning that he and Paul Shaffer wanted to hire them for a gig that the band couldn't make (due to a scheduling conflict; one of the members getting married at the time), Dave said, "Let's launch this rocket!"

Turning his attention back to the audience, he said, "This is gonna be fantastic, ladies and gentlemen!"

Letterman asked frontman Paul Janeway to discuss why he put a phone number in the lyrics of the song; Janeway mentioned that it was in tribute to Wilson Pickett's soul classic "634-5789," "But unfortunately, in Birmingham [Alabama, where the band is from] it leads to some sort of hotline."

In all, Letterman's banter with the band lasted about two minutes before they played a note. Read more and watch it here.

Radio.com is an official news provider for antiMusic.com.
Copyright Radio.com/CBS Local - Excerpted here with permission.

St. Paul and the Broken Bones Music, DVDs, Books and more

St. Paul and the Broken Bones T-shirts and Posters

Share this article