‘Saturday Night Live’ music: One Direction perform ‘Night Changes,’ ‘Ready to Run’

There was most likely a strong influx of young viewers watching “Saturday Night Live” this weekend, and for one simple reason: One Direction was performing. This is their second appearance as musical guest on the show, and tonight they came back in order to perform “Night Changes.”

While we’re familiar with the group and some of their songs, we’re going to be honest here in saying that this tune was new to us, and upon a first listen, it reminded us somewhat of something that the Eagles would perform. It had a little bit of rock to it, and we are mostly happy that the group is working to evolve beyond just being another pop-focused boy band.

Maybe there was a certain cognizance on the part of “SNL” that the average One Direction viewer is a little bit younger than most other viewers, since the second performance of “Ready to Run” came a little bit earlier than most other second performances do on the show. We’re mostly surprised that they didn’t do “Steal My Girl” or something else a little more upbeat, since it would have added that extra bit of variety to the performance as a whole.

We hope that One Direction gets a little bit of time to relax over the holidays, since these are guys who have a pretty insane schedule coming up in the new year. They are going to be going on tour throughout the upcoming year, and that means a whole lot of time on the road, away from so many loved ones.

What do you think about this performance? Share with a comment, and head over here to get some other updates about tonight’s episode, including a review for this episode. Also, sign up to score some further TV updates on all we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: NBC.)