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Alien Ant Farm On BET Awards Angle For 'These Days' Video
07/25/2003 5:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
LAUNCH Radio Networks
(7/25/03, 5 p.m. ET) -- Alien Ant Farm used guerilla tactics to film the video for "These Days," the first single off the band's August 19 release, truANT. The band performed on the rooftop of the El Capitan Theater in Los Angeles on the evening of June 24, the same night as the 3rd Annual BET Awards were taking place across the street at the Kodak Theatre. Alien Ant Farm repeatedly cranked out the song "These Days," while director Marc Klasfeld rolled tape on the performance and on the stunned reaction of the celebrities on the red carpet on their way into the Kodak Theatre for the BET awards.
Alien Ant Farm didn't purposely target the BET Awards. Singer Dryden Mitchell explained that the award show was just the biggest chance to cause a ruckus during the time frame they had to shoot the video. "The concept was, kinda like, performing where you shouldn't be performing, and we thought of like more low key ones like a 24 Hour Fitness or a church in session or something just ridiculous," Mitchell said. "And then we thought going a little grander and kinda started just, kind of, trying to scout out what events were going on."
Police tried to get to the rooftop to shut down Alien Ant Farm's performance, but the band had cleverly locked a series of doors leading to the roof that slowed the police down. The law eventually did shut down their guerilla performance, but not before the band ruffled the feathers of BET Awards guests, Magic Johnson, James Brown, and Johnny Cochran, among others. The police threatened arrest, but instead gave them minor citations.
Michael Lewellen, vice president of corporate communications for BET, was surprised by the Alien Ant Farm performance. "It was purely a coincidence that both our event and what sounded like a practice session for Alien Ant Farm happened at the same time," Lewellen said. "The funny thing is that no one involved with our event even recognized those guys."
Alien Ant Farm is on tour through August 4 in El Paso, Texas. The band will follow the U.S. tour with some festival appearances overseas.
"These Days" is at Number 34 on Radio & Records Alternative chart.
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