Plenty of feature films include scenes of rock concerts, and someone has to play the band on stage – so why not just hire a real band to deliver the performance? Here are 10 memorable times a real-life rock band appeared in a motion picture. Let me know your favourite band cameos in the comments.

White Zombie, Airheads (1994)

When Chris Farley’s Officer Wilson goes looking for the girlfriend of hostage-taking rocker Chazz (Brendan Fraser), it is inside a packed heavy metal concert headlined by White Zombie.

Lead singer and band founder Rob Zombie is, of course, a massive movie enthusiast himself. Since 2003 he has directed a raft of grindhouse-style horror films include House of 1,000 Corpses, The Devil’s Rejects, The Lords of Salem, and a pair of Halloween remakes.

Cannibal Corpse, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)

In the same year, Ace Ventura (Jim Carrey) goes looking for a contact out the back of an extreme metal gig in Miami, Florida. The band playing onstage is the iconic death metal band Cannibal Corpse.

It was Carrey who personally recommend the band appear in the film, and requested they play their song “Hammer Smashed Face”. The actor has spoken in interviews about his fondness for death metal, and had been a fan of the band since their founding in 1988.

Red Hot Chili Peppers, Thrashin’ (1986)

Not too many film enthusiasts are likely to remember Thrashin‘, a 1986 teen drama about skateboarding starring a post-Goonies Josh Brolin opposite Robert Rusler (Weird Science) and Pamela Gidley (Cherry 2000).

It is worth pausing on the Californian punk band playing a house gig midway through the film: it is a pre-fame Red Hot Chili Peppers playing their song “Blackeyed Blonde”, a full five years before they went mainstream with their 1991 album Blood Sugar Sex Majik.

Deftones, The Crow: City of Angels (1996)

It is not a surprise to find a real-life band turning up in the Crow franchise. Original protagonist Alex Draven (Brandon Lee) was the lead singer of a rock band, and the films’ soundtracks continued to be packed with an excellent range of rock, goth, and metal acts.

My Life with the Thrill Kill Cult made a cameo in the original film, but the second – and widely maligned – film City of Angels had a band appearance of its own. Alternative metal group Deftones appear playing their song “Teething” right before hitting the mainstream with their albums Around the Fur (1997) and White Pony (2000).

The film also had another rock appearance, with iconic singer Iggy Pop performing in the film as a cocaine-addicted gang leader.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Wings of Desire (1987)

Perhaps the classiest selection of these picks, Wim Wenders’ acclaimed 1987 fantasy Wings of Desire sees its protagonist briefly attend a concert by Australia’s Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. In a relatively extended sequence we see the band play their songs “The Carny” and “From Her To Eternity”.

Beyond Wings of Desire, Nick Cave and bandmate Warren Ellis have gone on to co-compose a number of film scores including for The Proposition, The Road, West of Memphis, and Hell or High Water.

Alice in Chains, Singles (1992)

Singles was Cameron Crowe’s 1992 romantic comedy starring Bridget Fonda and Campbell Scott, set in Seattle’s burgeoning grunge music scene. Given its specific genre focus, it makes sense that a real-life grunge band made an appearance.

Like a number of appearances on this list Alice in Chain’s performance of “It Ain’t Like That”, recorded in Seattle’s Pier 29 music club, is brief. It is, on the other hand, a pitch-perfect representation of the grunge movement. Fellow grunge outfit Soundgarden also make an appearance in the film, and the soundtrack is packed with appropriate songs by a range of bands.

Alice Cooper, Wayne’s World (1992)

Legendary shock rock band Alice Cooper don’t just make a musical cameo in Wayne’s World (1992), playing their song “Feed my Frankenstein”; they get an entire comic sketch to perform opposite Wayne (Mike Myers) and Garth (Dana Carvey).

It is one of the most fondly remembered scenes from the film, portraying Cooper himself and his band as vastly different characters to what their onstage persona suggests. It’s not the only film appearance for Cooper either: in 1991’s Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare he cameos as the title character’s abusive stepfather, and in 2012’s Dark Shadows he briefly appears as himself.

Mastodon, Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters (2007)

The Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie, a spin-off of a cult Cartoon Network animated series, opens with a bizarre parody of the old cinema in-house advertisements that encouraged movie goers to buy snacks from the candy bar. The sequence rapidly degenerates into a raucous death metal number, “Cut You With a Linoleum Knife”, ostensibly performed by a range of animated junk snacks.

The song is performed by American heavy metal band Mastodon, who successfully help make this improbable musical number into Aqua Teen‘s funniest scene. Does it count for this list? Honestly, it’s too brilliant to leave it out.

Rammstein, xXx (2002)

German band Rammstein are depicted at the start of Rob Cohen’s action film xXx, playing their song “Feuer Frei” to a crowded nightclub. It is a pretty terrible film, all things considered, and spends a lot of time attempting to push itself as some kind of “extreme” enterprise. At least it gets it right with the music. The soundtrack also features the likes of Drowning Pool, Hatebreed, Mushroomhead, and Orbital.

Skunk Anansie, Strange Days (1995)

Honestly, you might blink and miss them, but British alternative group Skunk Anansie perform live at the millennial celebrations during the climax of Strange Days. To gather 10,000 people for the street party scenes, the production put on a real-life multi-band rock concert including Aphex Twin and Deee-Lite. It was Skunk Anansie that appeared in the finished film, with their song “Selling Jesus” featuring prominently in both the film itself and its theatrical trailer.

Earlier in the film you can also see co-star Juliette Lewis performing covers of P.J. Harvey’s “Hardly Wait” and “Rid of Me”. Harvey herself was on hand to aid in developing Lewis’ performance, and Lewis later launched an entire secondary career as a rock singer with her band Juliette and the Licks.