This weekend I attended Coachella -- the amazing, sun-drenched spectacle of music and folks wearing items they usually wouldn’t find themselves adorning in their own bathrooms. Including giant bear heads.
As fantastic as The Decemberists, Arcade Fire and the tremendous reunion of Rage Against the Machine were, the Teddybears show was some of the most fun I’ve ever had.
The Swedish group consists of two drummers, two guitarists and a master mixer, and all but the drummers wear gigantic bear heads. For the most part the vocals come from guest rappers or punk chicks standing in for Iggy Pop. Lemme tell you, watching a fella rock out on guitar and kickin’ at the crowd in a slick suit and bruin noggin is pretty entertaining, and they had no trouble gettin’ the crowd goin’.
So how on earth do I tie this into film? During the whole show, they played clips from movies in the background, but replaced notorious people heads with bear heads. Scarface, Alex de Large, Dirty Harry and both Danny and Jack Torrance against the Freaky Twins Down the Hall. Pretty damn funny stuff, on top of everything else happening on stage. The musicians are also filmmakers, and their sense of humor comes across in their performance and videos.
Have I sold you yet? This Scandinavian sleuth is worthy of your attention.