Re: The Residents, if you know the secret handshake

I just found out the Residents are coming to Austin at the end of October to play the Scottish Rite Theater, which is one of Austin's Masonic temples. Sounds like the right venue for Residency.

Just saw today that they're coming back to Portland too early next year. As much as I enjoyed the show last year, I'm not sure I'll go back. May depend on how much it costs and whether it's a weeknight.

[Link didn't work because of the # sign, I guess, so here's my quick summary of the show last year: [trouserpress.com]]



Post Edited (12-06-12 17:40)

Checked out your review Rhett - no eyeballs?! How would I recognize them?
Interesting how they're touring so much now, practically every year. Maybe they're coming out of their shells...

LA in Feb. Def gonna try to make it. Where my Cali peeps at?

MrFab wrote:

> LA in Feb. Def gonna try to make it. Where my Cali peeps at?

Hi Fab. I may catch them Feb 26th at the Belly Up Tavern. My calendar has been pretty crazy since I started my new job, which is also why I haven't been posting very much lately.

Announcing: WONDER OF WEIRD 2013 Tour - USA
This is a partial schedule. More dates to be added as they are confirmed. Tell your friends.

Thu 31-Jan Austin Scottish Rite Theatre
Fri 1-Feb Dallas Kessler
Sat 2-Feb Dallas Kessler
Sun 3-Feb Houston Fitzgerald Upstairs

Tue 5-Feb Atlanta Variety
Wed 6-Feb Carrboro Carborro Arts Center

Sat 9-Feb New York Stage 48
Sun 10-Feb DC Sixth & I Synagogue
Mon 11-Feb Philadelphia World Café
Tue 12-Feb Boston ICA

Fri 15-Feb Chicago Schubas
Sat 16-Feb Chicago Lincoln Hall
Sun 17-Feb Milwaukee Turner Hall
Mon 18-Feb Minneapolis Cedar

Thu 21-Feb Seattle Neptune
Fri 22-Feb Portland Hawthorne

Sun 24-Feb San Francisco Bimbo's
Mon 25-Feb Los Angeles El Rey
Tue 26-Feb San Diego Belly Up

2/10 in DC? That's shaping up to be some week:

2/10 Residents
2/11 Funkadelic
2/15 Yo La Tengo

if you have an extra $100,000 lying around

[dangerousminds.net]

That's an amazing cock of the snoot!

Tickets not on sale yet in this neck of the woods, but I wouldn't miss it! Thanks Michael!

I've never seen them. If I can afford it, I'm gonna go. I've never seen music at the Scottish Rite (only plays and some terrible improv comedy), but SXSW usually has a full slate of it every year, and I've heard lots of good things about concerts there. Should be a good time.

The show last weekend in Seattle was disappointing. Their whole stage set consisted of a big inflatable snowman-and-Santa stand-up, with the two characters holding a Residents banner between them. That was it. Jeez, after December, you can get those things cheap! Two band members, "Chuck" and "Bob," wore their alien-Rasta masks and sat at opposite ends of the stage with keyboards and guitar, respectively. They never moved, never spoke, never really interacted ... just played the music.

"Randy" wore a Santa suit and a creepy over-the-head rubber mask that looked like how Ebenezer Scrooge usually is depicted. Underneath the red jacket he wore a t-shirt with several bib-like overlays. He'd tear these off one at a time as he was talking to the audience; the bibs served to illustrate his stories about their past efforts and associations. (He talked about Snakefinger a lot.) He occasionally left the stage, leaving Chuck and Bob to play an instrumental; then he'd come back for the next number, with his bibs reloaded so he could "illustrate" more stories.

During the last one-third of the show, Randy started telling stories about several of his failed marriages (he claimed to have been married eleven times). As the last of those stories reached its depressing, heartbroken nadir, the inflatable stage set deflated and collapsed. They played another song or two, then walked off. Another inflatable went up for the encore: A big tall Christmas tree, with an eyeball and top hat up on top. They played another two songs, then stood facing the tree solemnly as taped accompaniment of "Auld Lang Syne" closed the evening.

Far from the "Wonder of Weird" show it was promoted as. The audience included several attendees who were more fun to watch than the band.

Delvin - just a mild rebut of your review. I saw the same show in DC a few weeks back and I'm sure it was exactly the same show you saw. I only know of the Residents from the Mole live ablum from the `80's but I wouldn't recognize any of their "songs". Up until when 'Randy' was talking about Snakefinger's passing, I felt the same way you did. But when Randy zoned out and Chuck had to get his attention, I started to think that the entire show was just that - a show. Nothing was true, more like they were satirizing the entire VH-1 storytellers type of show. When I realized that, I enjoyed it a lot more (my wife, however, agrees with your assesment).

You say Scottish Rite Theater, I say Ninian Hawick:

[www.youtube.com]

Looking forward to the show in Atlanta or Carrboro (or both if it works out)...