When I think of “avant-garde artist collective” my mind immediately wanders to visions of buckets of blood dumped on silent white-clad actors, artists donning strange animal masks and moving around the room crouched and ready to spring or, quite simply, Crispin Glover (check out his pet project of the mid-00′s “What Is It?“). I think it’s pretty safe to say that The Residents loosely fall into this category.
Using everything from imagery, lighting and strange costumes they don’t just entertain with music… they put on a show. I honestly have no idea what to expect tonight at The Neptune as this group takes the stage. Maybe they’re going to take a complete 180 and come on dressed in their civvies and sing, but I highly doubt that. Instead, I expect they’ll come on with at least one member wearing the iconic “eye in a tux” costume (that thing freaks me out) and who knows what else. They must be doing something right, they’ve been at it since 1974 with their release of Meet the Residents. Since then they’ve barely stopped to take a breath with 47 proper albums released and at least twice that in compilations, eps, live albums and multimedia. Wow.
Despite being so prolific, they still tend to stay off to the side of the radar and work happily within their own niche. Tonight, I’m stepping into that strange, magical place and I’ll let you know what it looks like when I come out the other side. Jason will be joining me tonight to capture whatever it is they’re tossing our way, so keep your eyes peeled for some interesting imagery. Tickets are still available if you want to catch this show for yourself, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
The Residents @ Neptune Theater
Thursday Feb 21st (tonight!)
tix: $32.00
