Late night talk shows have always been good for a casual watch. They’re usually entertaining for the most part, even if the topics of discussion are no deeper than drunk guys arguing the Jordan vs LeBron debate. With guests from all walks of life (sport, movies, television, music, politics, etc…) conversations are at least varied enough to not bore viewers to sleep.

Most of these talk shows will include a musical guest playing 1 or 2 songs from whatever album they are selling at the time.

However, if the musical act is not sufficiently well-known, they can occasionally feel like a time-filling hindrance; Simply there to fulfil some kind of structural obligation.

Of late, however, that seems to have changed to some extent… And thankfully for the music industry, it’s for the better. I’m no expert – or religious viewer – but it may have been ever since Sauturday Night Live alumni Jimmy Fallon joined the talk show host ranks, and happened to bring along with him a genuine musical act in The Roots as his studio band. Furthermore, Fallon has deftly integrated comedy and entertainment into the music which appears on his show, whether via impersonation, surprise guests or otherwise. I’ve already blogged about his fantastic Neil Young impression in the past.

Well, it seems that Conan O’Brien is now (literally) getting in on the act by uniting tv (himself), movies (Jeff Bridges) & music (Slash) in the one performance! With Bridges a guest on the show to promote an upcoming meditation album, he and Conan thankfully agreed that something off that release would indeed send people nighty nights. So, instead, they grabbed an acoustic guitar each and started strumming. When an electric guitar was required later in the song (‘Somebody Else’ from the Crazy Heart soundtrack), then who better to join in than the hat-wearing shredder himself!?