The enigmatic Residents stormed through Tucson on Sunday, January 31, playing Rialto as part of their 2010 "Talking Light Tour".
The Residents have been in operation now for over 30 years serving up their own Dada-tinged blend of rock & roll, cabaret, jazz and avant-guard sounds. Through the three decades, they have kept their identities hidden from the public. They don't take interviews, and they wear costumes on stage.
The Talking Light tour consisted of a fantastic set design that looked like a combination between grandpa's den and a rave. A couch lay next to an electronic fire place and three projector screens towered over the back of the stage and were illuminated by fluorescent lights of blues and purples. Stacks of amplifiers were crouched and leaned over in the front towards the audience. It was a highly intimate set up and almost made up for the fact that there was assigned seating - deeply impacting the audience's enjoyment of the show. No matter how great the performance is, it's always better to be able to move around than to be confined to steel pull out chairs.
The show was supposed to start at 8:00 pm, and the first band member didn't come out until quarter after. Even then, the show was delayed more due to technical difficulties involving the keyboards.
Finally, the band made their presence truly felt at about 8:30 pm. The singer came out and introduced the band as the Residents, and gave surnames to himself, Randy, the keyboard player, Chuck, and the guitar player, Bob.
Three members were involved with the performance on this night, missing their usual fourth member. The band wore costumes different than their usual eyeball mask uniforms. The singer was wearing some demented old man prosthetic make up that gave him a bald head, an elongated nose bringing to mind the Child Catcher from "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" after having aged 30 years and wearing a bath robe. The other two members, both seated in chairs on opposite sides of the stage, could only be described as dreadlocked Martians; sporting all black masks with long black tubes coming from the head, black goggles and shiny black jackets. It was a visual spectacle.
Though having released two albums in 2009, The Residents didn't play any new songs from those records, nor did they play any old songs from their old records. The set was mixed between all new original tunes ranging from pure weird soundscape exercises in ambience and dissonance to some more Cabaret-influenced rock songs that were at times downright funky.
Chuck the keyboard player laid down the beats, providing samples and occasionally bringing forth melodies of science fiction futurism to fruition. Bob the guitarist was a powerhouse, playing solo riffs that rocked as hard as anything you could imagine - playing through mountains of effects and distortion while still remaining clean and audible. Randy's vocals were downright disturbing. Like Tom Waits's raspy groans had he stayed up for three weeks taking nitrous. The vocals were occasionally laced through effects, offering echo and high pitched squeals reminiscent of an infant on helium. Randy also made good use of harmonica during a few songs, playing it normally and at times through sound altering effects.
The most fascinating aspect of the show was Talking Light's ghost stories. The stories were both frightening and hilarious. Randy warned the crowd of the stories, "But you folks should know, some of these stories arreee kiiiiiiinda SPOOOOKKKYYYY!!!!!!"
And they were. The first story, literally called "The Talking Light" began with the line "Once, when I was a lonely teenager." This line was repeated by Randy and a robotic voice recording several times. Until finally, a grotesque and disfigured animated face started appearing on the back projectors to tell the story of the Talking Light.
Other stories included the haunting of Randy by a serial killer whom he had murdered and stuffed a tootsie roll in his mouth, a deeply disturbed woman's imaginary twin and a reoccurring theme, "the Mirror people."
The show only lasted about an hour and 45 minutes, and there were some people leaving noticeably early, with a "What the fuck was that?" look on their face.
Those who stayed were clearly the fans that appreciate this sort of horror comedy cabaret routine from one of the world's most puzzling bands. When it comes to The Residents, you don't go to hear your favorite songs; you go to take in a perplexing and compelling show totally unique in its execution. The Residents rewarded their faithful fans with a 10 minute encore playing songs that were as rock & roll as anything I've heard done by the band before.
