Of all the festival lineup announcements I've received in my life -- both as a music-loving citizen and as a music writer -- perhaps none has made me actually yelp with surprised delight so much as when I saw "Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem" on this year's Outside Lands bill.
If you grew up on the storied rock 'n' roll five-piece -- that's Dr. Teeth, Floyd Pepper, Janice, Zoot, and of course Animal on drums -- you already know the singular pleasure of watching our felt-covered friends perform songs that tease out exactly what makes the Muppets so genius to begin with: a graceful, perhaps unmatched ability to walk the fine line between thoughtful children's entertainment and deeply weird, subversive sh*t.
In any event: The band's early-evening set on Sunday, Aug. 7 at Outside Lands was billed as its "first live performance" ever, and if you were wondering what San Francisco did to get so lucky, the band members tossed out a few hints in their between-song banter -- not to mention their cover of The Mowgli's song "San Francisco." Have you ever wanted to hear Muppets making weed jokes while psychedelic Summer of Love-influenced animation ebbed and flowed behind them? Now's your chance.
The whole set ran just under half an hour in total; check back with KQED Arts' music editor Gabe Meline (who's been posting updates from the fest all weekend) for more tomorrow.
For now? This YouTuber managed to catch most of the set -- be sure to watch until the end for a lovely cameo from the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir. Kids' stuff? Maybe. But I dare you not to smile.
