Frou Frou, Remy Zero Reunite For 'Garden State' 20th Anniversary Concert

It was a big night for lovers of both ‘00s-era cinema and indie rock over the weekend, with the 20th anniversary concert for Zach Braff’s Garden State film bringing out many of the soundtrack’s biggest stars.

The film, originally released in January 2004, was the directorial debut for Braff, who had managed to attain household name status thanks to his lead role of John Michael "J.D." Dorian in the series Scrubs.

A blend of romantic comedy and drama, the film was a modest success and achieved a cult following, with the likes of Natalie Portman and Peter Sarsgaard receiving acclaim for their roles. However, it was probably the soundtrack itself that left the biggest impact upon popular culture.

Featuring names such as Coldplay, Nick Drake, Iron & Wine, Zero 7, and Australia's own Colin Hay, the soundtrack was a veritable indie music bible. While Saturday Night Live jokingly called it a “Pitchfork mix CD,” the success was notable, and it even won the Grammy for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album.

Arguably, one of the film’s musical highlights occurs when Portman’s character turns to Braff and invites him to listen to The Shins’ New Slang, telling him, “you gotta hear this one song, it’ll change your life; I swear.” The impact was so notable that when triple j held a Hottest 100 Of All Time countdown in 2009, the song was voted into #72 – giving The Shins their first appearance in poll, sandwiched between The Smiths and The Clash.

Now, two decades on, a special anniversary benefit concert has taken place at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, with many of the featured artists showing up to perform their cuts for the show.

Bolstered by clips of the film and appearances from the cast, the event featured the likes of The Shins performing both New Slang and Caring Is Creepy (given they had the rare honour of having two tracks on the soundtrack), Cary Brothers performing Blue Eyes, Thievery Corporation playing Lebanese Blonde, and Bonnie Somerville taking on Winding Road.

Colin Hay showed up to deliver both I Just Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You and the non-soundtrack Down Under, while Sophie Barker reprised her role as the vocalist for Zero 7’s In The Waiting Line.

A few oddities did occur as well, largely relating to the names that couldn’t be there. While Iron & Wine played his cover of The Postal Service’s Such Great Heights, he also took on the role of the late Nick Drake by covering One Of These Things First.

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Two names who had no association with the film also took part, with The Milk Carton Kids taking on Simon & Garfunkel’s The Only Living Boy In New York, while Laufey showed up to fill in for Coldplay and their opening track Don’t Panic. Presumably, both of the original artists had other commitments.

A couple of impressive reunions also took place for the night, too. While Imogen Heap’s Frou Frou aren’t technically disbanded, they hadn’t performed a show since 2019, thus their appearance to perform Let Go was well-received by the crowd.

Meanwhile, Remy Zero, who have been inactive since 2010, made a return to perform both the tracks Fair, and Save Me, which was famously used as the Smallville theme.

The chances of this one-off affair making its way outside of Los Angeles appear very slim, but given there’s a 25th anniversary (and then a 40th, 50th, and more!) still to come, we can always dream.