Editing Late Night with Conan O'Brien (section)

===The Max Weinberg 7===
The show's [[house band]] was [[Jimmy Vivino and the Basic Cable Band|The Max Weinberg 7]], led by drummer [[Max Weinberg]]. The other six members were [[Mark Pender]] on trumpet, Richie "LaBamba" Rosenberg on trombone, [[Mike Merritt (musician)|Mike Merritt]] on bass, [[Jerry Vivino]] on saxophone and brother [[Jimmy Vivino]] on guitar, and [[Scott Healy]] on keyboards. Weinberg sometimes took extended leaves of absence to tour with [[Bruce Springsteen]] as the drummer for the [[E Street Band]]. During his absence, [[James Wormworth]] would typically fill in on drums, and the band was led by Vivino under the name Jimmy Vivino and the Max Weinberg 7.

With the departure of Andy Richter from ''Late Night'' in May 2000, Max Weinberg assumed a bigger role as an interlocutor for O'Brien's jokes. One common running gag was Max's awkwardness on camera and his apparent lack of chemistry with Conan. Weinberg was often used in sketches as well, which usually revolved around his purported sexual deviance (mostly a penchant for bedding barely legal [[Groupie|groupies]]), although long-running sketches also spoofed Max's lack of knowledge of current affairs.

"LaBamba" was also used as the butt of many of Conan's jokes. These humorous sketches usually revolved around LaBamba's sizeable mustache, his poor acting skills, and his alleged inability to read [[sheet music|written music]]. Mark Pender would often sing songs on the topic of a current event which ended with him screeching uncontrollably and climbing the risers into the audience. All members of the 7 have had successful side careers as [[Session musician|studio musicians]].

====Theme song and other music====

The show's opening theme was co-written by composer [[Howard Shore]] and [[John Lurie]] (of the band [[The Lounge Lizards]]). Lurie would later say that he was contracted by Shore to write the theme, and after he turned in the piece, Shore made minimal changes and claimed an unwarranted co-writing credit.<ref name="indie">IndieWire article: "[https://www.indiewire.com/2016/04/listen-john-lurie-talks-fishing-with-john-working-with-jim-jarmusch-conan-obrien-more-in-hour-plus-podcast-talk-292378/ Listen: John Lurie Talks ‘Fishing With John,’ Working With Jim Jarmusch, Conan O’Brien & More In Hour-Plus Podcast Talk]."</ref><ref name="maron">[[YouTube]] video: "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3wEMU80ZaI John Lurie - WTF Podcast with Marc Maron #696]".</ref> Lurie also claimed to have been a finalist for ''Late Night'''s band leader position, but said producers told him, "Conan thinks you’re funnier than him and that scares him."<ref name="indie" /><ref name="maron" />

As is common in the talk show format, the Max Weinberg 7 performed the show's opening and closing themes, played [[Bumper (broadcasting)|bumpers]] into and out of commercial breaks (they actually played through the entire break for the studio audience), and a short piece during O'Brien's crossover to his desk after his monologue. The show's closing theme was called "Cornell Knowledge", and was lifted from Jerry and Jimmy Vivino's first album together. However, on ''Late Night'', it was played at a much quicker tempo than the album version. The band also played a wide variety of songs as bumpers coming to and from commercial breaks and introducing guests—usually [[popular music]] from a variety of eras.