The Strokes turned Coachella's main stage into a geopolitical indictment on Saturday night, closing Weekend 2 with a video montage that accused the CIA of decades of covert regime change and condemned ongoing US and Israeli military action in Iran and Gaza.
It was a performance that came in two acts across two weekends. At Coachella's first weekend on 11 April 2026, frontmanJulian Casablancas had already signalled the band's mood, joking to the crowd that he had been 'tempted to come out tonight with a laptop and show you guys some of thoseIran Lego videos' and adding: 'More facts than your local news.'
By the time the band returned for Weekend 2 on 19 April, the joke had curdled into something far more deliberate. They closed their 14-song set with 'Oblivius,' a song from their 2016 Future Present Past EP that had not been played in concert since its release year, while their LED screens rolled a video montage targeting the US government that went viral within hours. The clip surpassed3.7 million views on X overnight, according to NBC News.
The 'Iran Lego videos' Casablancas referenced are a series of AI-generated animated clips produced by a group calledExplosive Media, also known online as the Explosive News Team.
Modelled on the aesthetic of The Lego Movie, the clips depict geopolitical events in a way that is sympathetic to Iran and sharply critical of US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They began circulating in 2025 and escalated sharply as US-Iran tensions intensified in early 2026, accumulating millions of views across X, TikTok, Instagram, and Telegram.
One video, widely shared, depictsTrump having a nightmare about the aftermath of strikes on Iranian civilian infrastructure, concluding with him eating a taco, a reference to the phrase 'Trump Always Chickens Out.'
The videos were shared by the official social media accounts of Iranian officials and embassies worldwide. A representative for Explosive Media told the BBC the team has fewer than 10 members and acknowledged that the Iranian government is a client, despite earlier claims of independence.
When The Strokes returned to the main stage for Coachella Weekend 2, they built toward a closing sequence that bore no resemblance to their 11 April performance. The song 'Oblivius,' whose chorus repeats the line 'What side you standing on?' served as the backdrop for a rolling series of images and text.
I knew it. Coachella took down the video.Variety, NME, CNN Brasil, & Pitchfork wrote articles using this tweet.Reposting it here in clips: the moment The Strokes criticized the CIA, the US government, and the killings in Iran and Gaza.#Strokeschellahttps://t.co/DjhGGFnTccpic.twitter.com/eXbEylIpiY
As reported byVariety, the montage accused the CIA of involvement in the removal of multiple world leaders: Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953, Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz in 1954, Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba in 1961, Chilean President Salvador Allende in 1973, and Bolivian President Juan Jose Torres in 1976, along with Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos and Ecuadorian President Jaime Roldos in 1981.
Source: International Business Times UK
