Teddybears

Teddybears on club tour in Sweden with “Rock’n’Roll Highschool” – without the iconic masks

Over 25 years after the groundbreaking album “Rock’n’Roll Highschool”, Teddybears are hitting the road again for a Sweden tour. This time without the iconic bear masks that have become one of Swedish pop culture’s most recognizable symbols.

Today, genre boundaries have largely collapsed. Different expressions are constantly cross-pollinating, and no one raises an eyebrow over unexpected combinations anymore. That wasn’t the case in 2000. Back then, the boundaries were much clearer, more important, and closely monitored. When Teddybears released the hyper-eclectic album “Rock’n’Roll Highschool”, they were nothing short of pioneers.

The album went straight to number one on the Swedish charts and was awarded four Grammis, including Album of the Year, marking the start of a period where Teddybears went from Swedish clubs to MTV, international radio, world tours, and TV appearances on both David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel. The band tore down walls between punk, hip hop, electronic, dancehall, and pop long before the rest of the music world caught up. At the same time, the band continued to make music that sounded like no one else and influenced significantly more than they themselves seemed interested in talking about.

“We still don’t really know what Rock’n’Roll Highschool is. But many others seem to.”, says the band.

This fall Patrik Arve and brothers Joakim and Klas Åhlund are taking the album back to the clubs. This time without the now-iconic bear masks – masks that have been worn at every performance since 2005. To comment on the constant rumors that it’s not always the members themselves behind the masks, the band states: “Our stand-ins for the past 15 years are in rehab. It looks like we’ll have to do this tour ourselves.”

And maybe that’s perfect because Teddybears have never been about the masks but about the energy. About punk’s restlessness, pop music’s immediacy, and that sense of controlled chaos that has transformed their concerts into maximalist eruptions with sing-along potential. It will likely be no less intense now.

Practical Information

Linköping Concert & Congress opens: 19:00
The ticket office is open: 19:00-20:00
Admission to the event: 19:00
Event start: 20:00
Duration: ends approximately 21:30
Intermission: No
Age limit: 13 years