 The song's widespread success has made it indispensable to the band's live set-lists. Unlike several of the Chili Peppers'other songs, "Under the Bridge" is not interpreted in a different manner than what is on the record — aside from being played acoustically the track is performed the same as it appears on Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Kiedis is, however, notorious for being incapable of achieving several high notes in live performances; the vocalist has noted that he sometimes forgets or rearranges song lyrics in the verses. Therefore, the song has sometimes suffered from his limitations as a singer. After being released as a single in March 1992, the song would be included in virtually all concerts; Frusciante, however, began to resent the song's popularity and would play convoluted intros, purposefully throwing Kiedis off. An example of this was during a televised performance on the highly rated program Saturday Night Live on February 22, 1992. Kiedis said it "felt like I was getting stabbed in the back and hung out to dry in front of all of America while [Frusciante] was off in a corner in the shadow, playing some dissonant out-of-tune experiment." The guitarist used a distortion pedal for the ending verse and screamed incomprehensibly into the microphone when providing backup vocals, neither of which were originally planned or typical of live performances. Nevertheless, sales of Blood Sugar Sex Magik skyrocketed following the show.
