'SNL': Greta Van Fleet Performances Leave Social Media Talking

Greta Van Fleet rocked Saturday Night Live out with two performances during the winter premiere.As [...]

By Jose Bastidas

Greta Van Fleet rocked Saturday Night Live out with two performances during the winter premiere.

As they prepare to start a world tour in Japan, the rock group stopped by the long-running NBC variety sketch series to perform two songs off their debut studio album, Anthem of the Peaceful Army, which was released in October 2018.

The Grammy-nominated group — comprised of Josh Kiszka, Jake Kiszka, Sam Kiszka and Danny Wagner — brought their hard rock sound to the series, bringing joy to many fans who had been waiting for a band to appear on Season 44.

"Greta Van Fleet. the new generation of Zeppelin. At least the closest we have seen to the gods of rock!!" one user wrote.

"Dude I've never heard of Greta Van Fleet... THEY ARE SO GOOD," another Twitter fan commented.

Not everyone was feeling the songs or the look of the foursome, however, as some fans were quick to criticize them on Twitter, including some who compared their sound as too similar to Led Zeppelin.

"This band is making me uncomfortable," one Twitter user wrote during the band's "Black Smoke Rising" performance.

"This Led Zeppelin parody on SNL is spot on," another one wrote.

"This is like What If a prog rock hobbit fronted a Led Zepp cover band," a third user wrote.

Greta Van Fleet's Saturday Night Live performances during the winter premiere — which also marked Marvelous Mrs. Maisel star Rachel Brosnahan's first time hosting the show — are the second time the group has done a televised performance in the U.S. The group previously played their single "When the Curtain Falls" on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon back in July 2018.

The band recently celebrated receiving four Grammy Award nominations, including Best New Artist, Best Rock Performance for "Highway Tune," Best Rock Song for "Black Smoke Rising" and Best Rock Album for their 2017 EP From the Fires.

Ahead of the performance, the band shared a heartwarming photo from the set of the series on Twitter.

Hours before the episode, Rolling Stone released a new interview with the band members where they discussed fans' and critics frequently comparing them to the iconic Led Zeppelin.

"Obviously we hear the similarity," frontman Josh Kiszka told the magazine. "That's one of the influences of ours. But at this point it's like, Okay, we've acknowledged that. Let's move on."

The band also discussed they are already working on their second album.

"We're setting some ground work for the next album," he said. "We hope to get an album out this year. This time, we feel less pressure than we did before the last one. We can't wait to explore a little more of the Greta Van Fleet universe."

Saturday Night Live airs weekly at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC.

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