Watch Foo Fighters Perform “Everlong” For Letterman’s Final Show

David Letterman wrapped up a 33-year-long late-night career last night, and brought out one of his favorite bands to do his favorite song to put a capper on the night. Foo Fighters — who did a week-long residency on the show last year after the release of Sonic Highways — played “Everlong,” which they performed on his show back in 2000 when Letterman returned from an extended absence after heart surgery. Before the performance, he talked about how much the song helped him with his recovery. For much of the night, the long-time host opted for humor, bringing out a bevy of stars for his final Top 10 list, and looking back on some of his favorite moments, but the final “Everlong” performance was certainly sentimental enough. The song soundtracked an extended montage of vintage Late Night clips, paying tribute to a man who shaped the genre over the past few decades. Watch the final Letterman Late Show musical performance.

Watch Will Butler’s Furious, Kickass Letterman Performance + Stream Will Butler Policy

Will Butler has been playing with Arcade Fire for upwards of a decade, and he’s evidently spent some time thinking about how he’d present himself if and when he ever went solo. Yesterday, Butler released Policy, his first-ever solo album. Last night, he was the musical guest on the Late Show With David Letterman. And watching that performance, it’s clear that he thought long and hard about how he’d approach the whole thing. There was the unconventional backing band: Keyboardist, stand-up drummer, two backup singers, no bass, no guitar besides his own. There was the tuxedo and the slash of hair across his face. And there was the song: “Take My Side,” a punk song shot through with ’60s girl-group harmonies, played with basement-hardcore intensity. We don’t often hear guitar that sounds that scrambled on late-night TV. It’s a hell of a performance, and you can watch.

Hatsune Miku: "Sharing the World" - David Letterman

A holographic anime pop star by the name of Hatsune Miku performed on Letterman last night, and it was strange. Developed in Saporro, Japan, Hatsune Miku uses vocaloid software, or singing synthesizer applications, and a moving holographic image to create what people are calling a “humanoid” pop star, or a pop star who only exists virtually. The words to the song she performs, “Sharing The World,” are indecipherable, but the aesthetics of the performance definitely resonate. Hatsune Miku’s cascading turquoise pigtails are perfect complements to her song, which sounds like an explosion of rainbows and ponies. It’s only a matter of time before the humans who play on stage with her are swapped out for CGI robots.

Watch Aretha Franklin Cover Adele’s “Rolling In The Deep” On Letterman

Aretha Franklin was the guest on last night’s David Letterman, where she performed her cover of Adele’s “Rolling In The Deep” that was released yesterday (which also contains a bit of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough). For the performance, she was joined by a choir and a decent-sized backing band. She also did an interview with Letterman after singing, where she talked about not getting to be on The Ed Sullivan Show, her new Diva Classics album, and how her father helped start her career.

Watch The Flaming Lips & Sean Lennon Cover “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” On Letterman

David Letterman continued his week-long tribute to the Fab Four with a performance from the Flaming Lips, who were joined by Sean Lennon to cover “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.” Throughout the week, Broken Bells, Sting, and Lenny Kravitz have also graced the Late Night stage to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ arrival in America. Lauryn Hill will perform the final show tonight and CBS will air The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute To The Beatles on Sunday.

Broken Bells with Ringo Starr: "And I Love Her"(David Letterman Show) 

Haim perform 'Forever' on Letterman

With “Falling” and now “Forever,” sisterly act Haim are on some other shit, nailing a strain of soulful, syncopated, and clean LA studio pop with just the right touch of fashion, finesse, and familial alchemy, and their fanbase has grown by degrees wich each of those modifiers. This is a band we can get behind, let alone one to watch, in both pure musical and also pure visual terms. As such, last night on Letterman was a proper showcase for their charms, and as such, they charmed.

Girls’ Generation Bring K-Pop To Letterman

A few months ago, this New York Times article sent me on an hours-long YouTube binge of Korean pop videos. K-pop is a relatively young genre, and if you give yourself over to it, it works as a deeply fascinating funhouse-mirror reflection of the last few generations of Western teenpop. K-pop groups tend to include ridiculously huge numbers of singers, all wearing very complicated haircuts, all singing factory-pop songs put together with absolute precision by teams of professionals. The ultra-glossy high-budget videos are compulsively watchable even when the songs are boring ballads, and the entire genre is a big enough deal, apparently, that a K-pop showcase can sell out Madison Square Garden.

My understanding is limited, but apparently the nine-member Girls’ Generation is the biggest girl group in Korea, and they’re also huge in Japan. And now Universal is making a respectable attempt at breaking them in the U.S., releasing an Anglicized version of their album The Boys and getting them booked on last night’s episode of the Late Show With David Letterman. Below, watch the band performing the English version of their ridiculously catchy monster hit “The Boys,” a song that was better when only its chorus was in English but which will probably be stuck in your head all day regardless. As a special bonus, you get to see Bill Murray and Regis Philbin reacting to the spectacle exactly as you’d expect.