Walton Goggins plays bongos on 'Going Shopping' with The Strokes on SNL

Walton Goggins joined The Strokes on bongos Saturday during their “Saturday Night Live” performance of “Going Shopping,” whose music video starred the actor earlier this year.

For his surprise cameo, Goggins wore an all-black suit with sunglasses. Psychedelic visuals, green-screen effects and elaborate lighting accompanied both of the band’s performances.

The Strokes began their set with “Lonely in the Future”, then came back later in the episode to play “Going Shopping.”

The appearance marked the group’s fifth turn as musical guests, according to Pitchfork and Rolling Stone, though Billboard put the count at fourth. The Strokes debuted on the show in January 2002, followed by appearances in 2006, 2011 and 2020.

The band followed the broadcast with an official “Lonely in the Future” video featuring handmade puppets created with the team behind the British satire “Spitting Image.”

The figures portrayed include Lou Reed, Bach, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg. Warren Fu directed the video, which gives the Bezos and Musk puppets a love-story subplot.

Guitarist Nick Valensi was absent from the lineup, while Steve Schiltz of Longwave has substituted for him on tour.

Valensi recently appeared as a surprise guest with Duran Duran in Paris, where he played “Rio.”

Both SNL selections appear on Reality Awaits, The Strokes’ seventh studio album, which came out in July. The album debuted at No. 13 on the all-genre Billboard 200 and No. 5 on Billboard’s Top Rock & Alternative Albums chart.

The Strokes recorded the nine-track album in Costa Rica with producer Rick Rubin, who produced their 2020 record “The New Abnormal.”

Recording started in Guanacaste in 2022 and continued at Rubin’s Southern California studios, Shangri-La and The Mansion. On Joe Rogan’s podcast in October 2022, Rubin said the musicians had arranged their equipment outside a rented house on a mountaintop. “It’s like they’re doing a concert for the ocean, on the top of a mountain,” he said.

Guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. has previously called Reality Awaits his favorite Strokes album. “I don’t think if I told you what it looked like and what it was, you’d fully understand the ‘magical-ness’ of where we were and how it was to record like that,” he said previously.

Druski made his hosting debut on the episode. He is the first digital content creator to host “Saturday Night Live,” according to The Boston Globe.

It was the show’s first episode since the midterm elections. James Talarico made a surprise appearance in the cold open, and Emma Stone appeared during Druski’s monologue.

Goggins and The Strokes joined Druski for the closing send-off, sharing the stage with Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, Austin Butler, Michael B. Jordan, Stone and Talarico. John Mulaney will host the Nov. 14 show, with Phoebe Bridgers as musical guest.

The band’s television appearance came after the North American and European legs of its Reality Awaits tour.

Rolling Stone reported that The Strokes are due to play Mexico and South America in a couple of weeks, followed by Australia in February. Their next scheduled U.S. appearances are at Arizona’s Innings Festival in February and Salt Lake City’s Kilby Block Party in May.