I've always enjoyed Danny Elfman's compositions, but I never knew the 68-year-old musician was so tattoo'd and badass. Over the weekend, he performed at Coachella with an orchestra and live band that included Wes Borland from Limp Bizkit and Josh Freese from the Vandals and Nine Inch Nails.
In addition to the hardcore riff on the Simpsons theme above, Elfman and the gang also did a great medley of songs from Nightmare Before Christmas:
Here's a little more on the performance, courtesy of Deadline:
On the other end of the spectrum was the shirtless 68-year old Danny Elfman, who played half a dozen Oingo Boingo songs — many for the first time since the 1980s — as well as high-octane versions of his film and TV work. The latter included an "unhinged hardcore remake" of his Simpsons theme, the Spider-Man main title, "Breakfast Machine" from Pee Wee's Big Adventure, "Ice Dance/The Grand Finale" from Edward Scissorhands, "Alice's Theme" from Alice in Wonderland as well as his Batman theme and "Jack's Lament/This Is Halloween/What's This?" from The Nightmare Before Christmas.
At the outset, Elfman promised "a strange little show." But launching a guitar-heavy assault on Oingo Boingo tunes such as "Only a Lad," "Just Another Day" and "Dead Man's Party," and then guiding a full symphony through his four decades of film work, he likely overdelivered on that promise.
Elfman recently released his second solo album of original material, which I've just added to my queue for the day.
