Rod, Farin, Bela B., End of Days

Berlin, the year 2046. Three ancient men shuffle through a retirement home without a care, thinking back on the old days when they were famous, worshipped, celebrated as heroes of music. And if you look closely—past the wrinkles, the bathrobes, the slippers—you recognize them. Rod, Farin, and Bela B. Die Ärzte, Germany’s most beloved punk band, rendered in prosthetics and soft-focus nostalgia for the video "PerfektHimmelblauBreit."

Where their "Yoko Ono" video once set some kind of record at 31 seconds, this one takes its time. Mandy and Bernd wait on the three hand and foot, and the whole thing ends with the trio dozing off together on a sofa—which is either the most punk or the least punk ending imaginable; I genuinely can’t decide. Along the way they weave in fresh versions of old standards like "Männer sind Schweine" and "Schunder-Song," giving the whole production a strange double-retrospective quality: three old men playing older versions of themselves, playing their own greatest hits.

It shouldn’t work as well as it does. But Die Ärzte have always understood that the joke and the feeling don’t cancel each other out—you can be ridiculous and sincere at the same time, and a retirement home full of colored pills might be the most honest possible image of where rock and roll eventually lands. Here’s to nursing homes, semolina pudding, and a long list of questionable pharmaceuticals.