Turnstile made their Saturday Night Live debut last night, becoming the first hardcore band to hit the late-night stage in 45 years. The evening also saw the Baltimore group share Studio 8H with an unexpected artist: Taylor Swift, who presented host and “Patient Zero” music video star Dakota Johnson with a birthday cake during her monologue. (Johnson introduced Swift as her “literal therapist.”) Watch Turnstile perform “BIRDS” and an “I CARE/DULL” medley, and check out Swift’s surprise appearance, below.
Turnstile are the second artist to play SNL’s 52nd season, which premiered last week with host Jalen Brunson and musical guest Katseye. Next week, Rosalía will perform alongside host Shane Gillis, and Gracie Abrams is set to play an October 31 show alongside host and Obsession star Inde Navarrette. Turnstile, meanwhile, will finish out the month on a North American tour that will see them stop in St. Louis, Austin, Las Vegas, and more over the coming months. The run concludes with a set at Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival in Los Angeles in November.
Swift has appeared on SNL many times over the course of her career, most recently in 2023 to introduce musical guest Ice Spice. The singer‘s most recent run as musical guest was in 2021, when she performed her ten-minute extended edit of “All Too Well” in support of the release of Red: Taylor’s Version. She dropped her latest album The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore—a deluxe edition of 2025’s The Life of a Showgirl with four new songs—on September 25 ahead of the VMAs, where she received the inaugural MTV VMA Artist Director Honors.
The last time a hardcore group handled SNL’s musical guest slot was in 1981, when a FEAR performance reportedly caused roughly $20,000 worth of damages to NBC Studios at Rockefeller Center. (In a 2009 Citizine interview, frontman Lee Ving contested the number, asserting it was closer to $500,000.)
Revisit Lawrence Burney’s 2025 cover story Turnstile Blew Up. Now What?