Have you ever found yourself watching a film, and the band performing in the background looks familiar? Sure, sometimes you have actors dressing up like musicians, and looking the part, but when a filmmaker wants to make things a little more authentic, they’ll just get a band on set and shove a bunch of cameras in front of them. And that’s what we’re here to talk about today: actual bands making cameos in popular movies that you may have missed the first time around.
Let’s be real here, there’s nothing that takes you out of a film more than non-musicians miming along to a canned recording. In other words, it’s always better when actual musicians are miming along to a canned recording, because at least the drum hits and finger movements are in sync with the sound design. And it’s also fun to see some of your favorite bands pop up in unassuming places!
12 The Offspring - Idle Hands (1999)
Not only does The Offspring make an appearance in the horror-comedy film, Idle Hands, singer/guitarist Dexter Holland gets his scalp ripped off by Anton’s (Devon Sawa) demonically possessed hand. The scene takes place at a Halloween dance at the high school after Anton cuts his hand off with a cleaver, and shoves it in the microwave. The hand still has a thirst for blood, and makes its way to the dance. It’s at this dance that we see The Offspring performing a cover of “I Wanna Be Sedated,” by the Ramones.
The Offspring also re-recorded a song called “Beheaded,” of their first album, which was released in 1989, for the film soundtrack. And this song couldn’t have been a more perfect pick. When you think about the lyric “wrap the towel ‘round the bloody stump,” it works well with the film, considering that Anton himself was sporting a bloody stump where his possessed hand once was.
11 Reel Big Fish - BASEketball (1998)
Though BASEketball was admittedly not one of Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s finest hours, it’s still a great notch in the belt that is David Zucker’s career. This sports parody truly pulled no stops, and the stadiums that hosted BASEketball games included a baseball diamond, basketball hoops over custom-designed garages, “free-range chicken night” for guests attending, and of course, Reel Big Fish.
In fact, Reel Big Fish was the house band for the Milwaukee Beers for every home game. You can see them performing “Charge (fanfare)” with their brass section really belting it out, but they also performed their own song, “Beer,” which makes perfect sense in this context. Reel Big Fish also recorded a blistering ska cover of A-ha’s “Take on Me,” and filmed a music video on the BASEketball set to promote the film.
10 Gwar - Empire Records (1995)
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Gwar, the best way to describe them is what would happen if you combined shock-rock with a Gallagher show; if you’re in the front row, and not wearing a tarp, your clothes are going to be ruined. One of the more notable cameos in Empire Records is when Marc (Ethan Embry) eats a pot brownie and imagines himself at a Gwar Concert. At first, it’s all well and good, but then he gets eaten by a giant worm, which is one of their stage props in their actual live show.
Though this is a short cameo, and seemingly comes out of nowhere, it’s one of the more memorable scenes in the gen-X comedy about a record store trying to raise funds, so they don't get bought out by a soulless corporate record store.
9 Cannibal Corpse - Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)
Jim Carrey has said how much he loves heavy metal music in late-night interviews, and this sentiment was all but confirmed when Cannibal Corpse made an appearance in 1994’s Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. In fact, the production schedule for Ace Ventura had to be moved around to accommodate Cannibal Corpse’s touring schedule, which is one of the reasons the band obliged.
But Cannibal Corpse didn’t want to be turned into a joke, because they are a serious, brutal, and seriously brutal death metal band. In other words, Jim Carrey remained the funny guy, and Cannibal Corpse was allowed to do their thing, and perform “Hammer Smashed Face” in the movie. The scene took two days to shoot, and the band admittedly was not used to the Hollywood treatment. They had to mime their performance of the song in silence as the extras in the crowd moshed to their song.
8 Aerosmith - Wayne's World 2 (1993)
When Wayne wants to throw an epic music festival in Wayne’s World 2, he’s told by the spirit of Jim Morrison that if “you book them, they will come.” This joke is in reference to the fact that big bands on tour just hop on the bus and show up to the gig. Meaning, if they booked a number of bands for the festival, they’d likely show up. However, Wayne’s World 2 ends on a bum note at first.
We see Wayne and Garth driving off a cliff like Thelma and Louise when nobody showed up to the concert, but they then decide that the film needs a happy ending. So in a quick turn of events, bands start showing up to Waynestock, most notably, Aerosmith. The film wraps with Aerosmith doing a live performance of “Shut Up and Dance” to a massive crowd of fans.
7 Deftones - The Crow: City of Angels (1996)
Though this is a small cameo, Deftones are seen in 1996’s The Crow: City of Angels. They can be seen performing their song, “Teething,” at the Day of the Dead festival near the end of the film, during a chaotic chase sequence. Though City of Angels was torn to shreds by critics, receiving an 11% on Rotten Tomatoes, Deftones’ cameo actually gave their career quite the shot in the arm. Though they were gaining popularity in the Sacramento area at the time of this film, it’s ultimately the exposure they got from City of Angels that gave them more widespread recognition.
6 Primus - Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (1991)
1991’s Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey is far from bogus, but still totally a weird film. There’s time travel, robot clones, and a battle of the bands with a $25,000 cash prize at stake. So it’s only natural to get Primus to make a cameo, and they can be seen performing “Tommy the Cat” at the battle of the bands. Now, we all know that Keanu Reeves is a bassist himself, and even played in his own band called Dogstar when he was starting out in Hollywood.
Though Primus wasn’t yet at the height of their popularity, and neither was Keanu Reeves, it’s so great looking back now, and seeing them both enjoy success throughout their long, and strange careers.
5 ZZ Top - Back to the Future Part III (1990)
When Marty and Doc take a trip to the old west in Back to the Future Part III, they encounter a band at the Hill Valley festival that looks quite a bit like ZZ Top. Actually scratch that! It was in fact ZZ Top in period clothing. They played along with a fiddle band, and Frank Beard even played an old-time 1800s marching snare to keep time. Michael J Fox said that the whole experience was amazing, and went on to say that they showed up, did their thing, and in between takes did some impromptu blues jams for the cast and crew to make the downtime a little less boring than it typically is.
Not only did ZZ Top act in the film as a period band, but they also provided their own song, “Double Back” for the film's closing credits.
4 Bruce Springsteen - High Fidelity (2000)
Sometimes an artist resonates with you so much that you can perceive their lyrics as a form of advice. This is the case in High Fidelity, when Rob Gordon (John Cusack) consults The Boss himself for some relationship advice. Though he didn’t really interact with Bruce Springsteen, however. It was more like a vision, if anything else. When Rob is contemplating arranging meetings with his “top five” girlfriends that got away, he wonders what Bruce Springsteen would do.
As he’s laying on his bed, we see Springsteen jamming on his signature blonde Telecaster, and riffing off of this idea, stating that he might get some closure if he meets up with his ex-girlfriends. And Springsteen is staying all of this while casually plucking a blues riff, to which Rob says, “Thanks, boss.”
3 Lustra - EuroTrip (2004)
Though EuroTrip didn’t perform well in theaters, Matt Damon performed great while filling in as Lustra’s front-man in the film. Though Chris Baird has been credited as their lead singer since 1996, their Wikipedia says that Matt Damon was their front-man in 2004, because Damon stood in for lead vocals to film the legendary performance of “Scotty Doesn’t Know.” And the song is pretty self-explanatory: here’s a list of all the lewd sexual acts that Scotty’s girlfriend, Fiona, committed behind his back in graphic detail.
If there’s one great takeaway from EuroTrip, it’s Damon’s performance. Not only does he do a great job miming vocals, but he’s also got neck tats, and too many facial piercings to count. This whole scene makes us wonder if Matt Damon could be a rocker in an alternate timeline.
2 George Clinton / Parliament / Funkadelic - PCU (1994)
We all know Dean Gordon Pritchard (Jeremy Piven) from 2003’s Old School. But before he was on the side of the administration, his Droz Character in PCU was on campus raising hell. When faced with expulsion for many infractions, like dumping pounds of meat on animal rights activists, and trashing The Pit (his frat house), he decides to throw the rager to end all ragers. And the party has a good cause: to pay the damage bill from last semester, so they don’t have to get jobs. And how does Droz do this? By recruiting none other than George Clinton to perform at the party.
When George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic take it to the stage, they give us a legendary performance of “Stomp” that will be remembered for decades.
1 Blink-182 - American Pie (1999)
Though Blink-182 only has 29 seconds of screen time in1999’s American Pie, their cameo is nothing short of hilarious. Though they’re not exactly portraying themselves, they’re just a background garage band that happens upon an all too revealing webcam feed that Jim Levenstein (Jason Biggs) accidentally leaked to the entire school district.
The scene is short and sweet, but it’s only fitting that Blink-182 had the cameo, because their song, “Mutt,” is on the soundtrack, and their particular brand of pop-punk was synonymous with the American Pie brand of humor. And known for their profanity, of course, the band lets out a collective “holy sh*t” while watching the sexual acts play out on the webcam.
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