House Band of Conan O'Brien - History - The Max Weinberg 7

The Max Weinberg 7

Weinberg was the drummer for Bruce Springsteen as a member of the E Street Band until its dissolution in 1989. Weinberg returned to school, but soon desired to resume drumming. He auditioned to be the principal drummer for the Broadway show Tommy, but was selected only as the second alternate substitute percussionist. That night, Weinberg had a chance sidewalk meeting outside Carnegie Deli with newly selected Late Night host Conan O'Brien, where Weinberg spoke about his ideas for music on the show. O'Brien agreed to give Weinberg an audition as bandleader for his forthcoming show. Weinberg quickly put together The Max Weinberg 7, recruiting musicians he had worked with during his career, and got the job.

Rosenberg and Pender had played with The Miami Horns, and had a long joint history with Weinberg from touring or recording together with Springsteen, Southside Johnny, Little Steven, Gary U.S. Bonds, and Darlene Love. In the early 1990s Weinberg and Pender were also in a band together called Killer Joe, which also featured Jimmy and Jerry Vivino. The Vivino brothers were experienced New York session musicians and had been members of various Broadway pit bands. They recruited the final two members of the band, Healy and Merritt, who had played together in various bands such as Jimmy Vivino & The Black Italians and The Vivino Brothers Band. Fill-in James Wormworth was also a member of the Vivino bands, but was initially left out of the ensemble because there was no need for two drummers.

Members of the band have participated in skits on Late Night, particularly fedoraed LaBamba—who rarely speaks on air and is often the punchline of O'Brien's jokes—and bald, bespectacled Mark Pender, who will often sing a tribute to one of the show's guests only to invariably launch into hysterical shrieking as he climbs the scaffolding of the studio's seating area. Pender was also told by Conan to imitate soccer player Zinedine Zidane's famous World Cup headbutt due to both Pender and Zidane's lack of hair. Conan would tease Wormworth because he drummed barefoot.

Max was often involved in short, awkward, and/or humorous banter with Conan. O'Brien often made jokes about Weinberg's supposedly perverse sexual habits. Rosenberg is often the butt of jokes for both his healthy sized mustache and his often awkward demeanor on air, and his sexual orientation is occasionally questioned by O'Brien through monologue jokes and other comedy bits. O'Brien often has Rosenberg participate in potentially humiliating skits, such as dressing up his mustache in Christmas lights, or shaving it off. Additionally, Rosenberg provided the falsetto interludes for the formerly regular skits "In the Year 2000" and "In the Year 3000". A noted incident of ridicule occurred in 2007 when the camera, which had unexpectedly cut to the band for a reaction shot, caught LaBamba consulting his sheet music with a somewhat puzzled look on his face. This caused Conan to draw attention to Rosenberg's goof, and to claim that LaBamba could not read music. The others are rarely used in sketches, although Mike Merritt takes part in sketches where Conan talks about race, to which Mike's supposed thoughts are used in a voice-over where he ridicules Conan's lack of knowledge about African-American culture and Conan's own "abnormally" pale complexion.

The show often features a performance by a musical guest (a band or a solo artist) at the end, and some or even all members of The Max Weinberg 7 perform as backup musicians for the guests when needed, such as Max performing the drums for the last half of the Death from Above 1979 song, "Romantic Rights" while singer and drummer Sebastien Grainger stands on the bass drum.

Weinberg has, in the past, taken long leaves of absence to tour with the E Street Band. During his absences, he has typically been replaced by James Wormworth, and the band is led by Jimmy Vivino, then referred to as "Jimmy Vivino and The Max Weinberg 7".

The band plays an eclectic selection of music on the show, including frequent performances of songs by The Clash, one of Conan's favorite bands. Examples of songs by The Clash performed by the group include "Police on my Back", "The Magnificent Seven", "Rock the Casbah", "Spanish Bombs" and "Train in Vain".

The band will often play a song to match a holiday or event ("My Funny Valentine" on Valentine's Day), or sometimes play a song that is irrelevant to the event, causing O'Brien to question their choice of song ("Paint It Black" during Christmas).

The band's song "R.C.4" featured in the film Bewitched (2005).

Members of the band performed with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at Super Bowl XLIII.