Oh, dear. In a recent appearance on the Howard Stern Show, rapper-turned-pop-punk star Machine Gun Kelly and his band performed a cover of System of a Down's 2001 Toxicity cut "Aerials."
Before the song, MGK stated that his band had "never done 'Aerials' at all" and "I'm here to just jam it and see what happens." Well, even for a casual jam — which probably isn't the best idea on arguably the most popular radio show of all time — MGK's performance is not good.
To his credit, it's not quite the viral debacle that was Puddle of Mudd covering Nirvana's "About a Girl," and the backing band perform the track admirably, but the results are still abysmal. Kelly doesn't even attempt to replicate the operatic grandeur of Serj Tankian's original performance, which shows at least a modicum of self-awareness. Unfortunately, it fails to cover up the fact that MGK can't really carry this tune at all.
Casually puffing on a joint throughout, MGK attempts to cover up his lackluster vocal performance by pretending to be the coolest guy in the room, but any discerning audience can see he's easily the corniest.
Most baffling of all is at the end of performance, Stern says, "You gotta do that in concert. That works." Really, Howie? Did we just listen to the same thing?
Watch the performance below, if you're into that.
Before the song, MGK stated that his band had "never done 'Aerials' at all" and "I'm here to just jam it and see what happens." Well, even for a casual jam — which probably isn't the best idea on arguably the most popular radio show of all time — MGK's performance is not good.
To his credit, it's not quite the viral debacle that was Puddle of Mudd covering Nirvana's "About a Girl," and the backing band perform the track admirably, but the results are still abysmal. Kelly doesn't even attempt to replicate the operatic grandeur of Serj Tankian's original performance, which shows at least a modicum of self-awareness. Unfortunately, it fails to cover up the fact that MGK can't really carry this tune at all.
Casually puffing on a joint throughout, MGK attempts to cover up his lackluster vocal performance by pretending to be the coolest guy in the room, but any discerning audience can see he's easily the corniest.
Most baffling of all is at the end of performance, Stern says, "You gotta do that in concert. That works." Really, Howie? Did we just listen to the same thing?
Watch the performance below, if you're into that.
