The Residents, art rock pioneers famous for their tophat eyeball costumes brought their original brand of freakfest to College St. The evening started with the film Theory of Obscurity, a documentary of this traveling circus with interviews from fans like Les Claypool. The members of this band have successfully remained anonymous for their 40 year run, impressive. The second half of the evening was a live set, Shadowland, the third part of their trilogy on death, life, and birth. The shrouded trio consisted of Randy, Chuck, and Bob on vocals, drum-synths, and guitar. They bill themselves as the world's best Residents cover band. Chuck and Bob had some weird alien masks that seemed like they were pinched from the movie Buckaroo Banzai. Randy wore a fat suit and a mask that looked different when he moved his head up and down. Randy prowled the stage with his patented sinister crab walk singing "hits" old and new. The music was interspersed with vocal snippets shown on a bizarre mushroom shaped video screen behind the band. The nearest kindred spirits in music are probably the Flaming Lips, whose shows have also taken on "happening" status. The Residents are worth googling, to view the scope and variety of their theatrical projects. I will say that I got hooked on this band in the 80s, when they appeared on David Sanborn's tv show Nightflight. On that show the disparate guests closed each show by performing together. On this particular evening, the Residents were paired with Conway Twitty and eyeballed their way through the classic "Take this Job and Shove It". YouTube that, I'm not kidding.
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