On May 30, orange-tracksuited icon DJ Lance Rock did a DJ set at Studio City’s famous Licorice Pizza Records, warming up the all-ages crowd for an eggcellent instore concert by Radioactive Chicken Heads. Lance later joined the poultry punks (who he recently met at another L.A. institution, the Bob Baker Marionette Theater) for a surprise performance of Joe Jackson’s “Got the Time” and Wall of Voodoo’s “Mexican Radio.”
Lance fit right in with the Chicken Heads flock, because he is of course accustomed to sharing the stage with creatively costumed creatures. This past April, he and Yo Gabba Gabba! delivered the buzziest, bizarre-est, and bonkers-est set of both cameo-filled Coachella weekends — climaxing with a fever-dream xennial extravaganza of the Muppets’ classic “Rainbow Connection,” sung in unison by human heroes Paul Wiliams, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Thundercat, David Arquette, Portugal. The Man, and Flavor Flav, as well as by H.R. Pufnstuf, a Sleestak from Land of the Lost, Duo the Duolingo owl, Bozo the Clown, L.A. Kings mascot Bailey the Lion, NHK Japan mascot Domo, Cheer Bear from Care Bears, Billy Bob Bear from the Rocka-fire Explosion, and Yo Gabba Gabba!’s own Muno, Toodee, Plex, Foofa, and Brobee.
While hanging with Licorice Pizza’s LPTV and the Chicken Heads in the parking lot next to the store’s powder-blue ‘70s Pizza van, Lance confessed that he initially wasn’t sure if he wanted to be involved with the new-but-not-necessarily-improved Yo Gabba Gabba!’s Coachella revue. “I guess [show creators Christian Jacobs and Scott Schultz] had been working on it for a while. There’s a reboot out now called Yo Gabba GabbaLand!, and they have a new host [13-year-old Kammy Kam]. She wasn’t even born the last time we were at Coachella,” he chuckled. “That’s OK. It was very funny, too, because they were promoting the new show, but they only played three songs from the new show, and it was mostly stuff from Yo Gabba Gabba! — so, at some point they’re like, ‘Do you want to come and do this?’”
When the Coachella request came in, Lance was visiting his mother in in Missouri, where he was born and raised, but he eventually agreed to head to the desert, and “we kind of got the band back together.” And he was especially happy that Flav was involved, declaring the Public Enemy legend “the MVP” of the historic Coachella set because of Flav’s tribute to the late Biz Markie (who was a regular guest on the original children’s show with his “Biz’s Beat of the Day” segments).
“[Flavor Flav] and biz kind of grew up together — I think they’re both from Long Island – and I said, ‘Would you please?’ Because they were just going to do the Beat of the Day and just kind of have his come out and do that. But he did this nice tribute and he got everyone in the audience to sing ‘Just a Friend,’” Lance recalled with a fond smile. “And that’s what Biz deserves. So, there were a lot of moments like that that I appreciated — it was kind of an acknowledgement of what the show had meant to people.”
Yo Gabba Gabba’s set may have been the surprise highlight of Coachella 2025, but as Lance mentioned, this wasn’t his first time playing the fest. “What’s crazy to me is that the first time we were there was in 2010,” he said. “We played early on [in the Sahara Tent, at 2:15 p.m.], and we were like second. I think John Waters had done his thing already and they were just getting things warmed for the day, and they’re like, ‘You’ve got to do the kid show in the daytime.’ So, we did our thing, and then right after Perry Farrell was DJing. So, thousands of people still there with kids and everything, and it literally went from the visuals of Brobee jumping around to topless women in two minutes. That was a really funny thing. I don’t think they thought it through, but that was a good time.”
Lance has such impeccable musical taste that he should consider launching his own musical festival (during his hour-long Licorice Pizza Records DJ set, he spun awesome obscurities by Medium Medium, Electric Six, Klaus Nomi, Yello, and We’ve Got a Fuzzbox and We’re Gonna Use It). And he is intrigued by the idea of him curating his own supercool festival lineup, much like Simpsons creator Matt Groening did for All Tomorrow’s Parties in 2003 and 2010. But, of course, Lance’s triumphant return to Coachella with the Yo Gabba Gabba! gang went over so well this year, one has to wonder if that has created the demand for him to become an official part of Yo Gabba GabbaLand!. However, he seems content with just being a part of fans’ dearly held memories of the original series, which ran from 2007 to 2015.
“Here’s the thing: Doing that show was great, being out there at Coachella. It was something for the fans, and that’s what I really felt and really appreciated. That meant a lot. A lot of people would say, ‘You don’t understand, I was 6 years old [when I watched the original show]!’ Like, I ran into Dave Grohl’s wife and daughter when they were walking, and she’s like, ‘Hey, I have a picture of you on my phone.’ And [in the photo] I was holding her [as a baby], and now she’s like this tall and looks like Liv Tyler but even more beautiful,” Lance laughed. “I don’t feel old yet; maybe it’s the orange. I don’t feel so old! But a lot of people grew up with it. So, it was nice having this kind of full-circle moment. A lot of people seemed to really genuinely appreciate it.”
Watch DJ Lance Rock’s full LPTV interview at Licorice Pizza Records in the Instagram video above.
DJ Lance Rock in the Licorice Pizza Records parking lot on May 30, 2025.
