Concerts

[niminy-piminy]

ha, i am almost sure that those hands that start messing up with the phone (extensively snapshotting, starting at 2:25, right lower corner) in the third video (dripping sun) are mine!

2:25
https://youtu.be/0ybRqaY1Wpc?t=143

i was standing approximately on that spot and remember going berserk snapshotting during the slow part of the "dripping sun" — you can see (in the video) fingers moving on the phone screen (moving from long shot → to medium shot → to close up).




i love this part of the song when the mellow voice starts singing the enchanting gibberish lyrics...

Ryutate totatetu tuttuu tuusai
Esate kosateshu gyuttuu shuusai
Esate kosateshu ryuttuu shuusai
Esate kosateshu ryuttuu shuuno
Esate kosateshu ruttuu shuusai
Esate kosateshu ryuutuu shuuno
Esate kosateshu tuttuu shuusai
Esate kosateshu ryuutuu shuusai

Takana kotou kittuttaano mita
Notta nousaai kiren kottuu
Akano tokaa rittuttaane turu
Kossu tousaai kinen tuutou
Akana kitaa tokkunoukinasu
Kotto baaki etaa noutuu
Kutate koraa kittettaane tumo
Kotta riishu akan tessuu

Ruu ruushutuu kossainousutuu paareetuusa kosshuutou
Kiituu haakaanattee taariikuuna tuuruutou
Keetaa hekkouryuushuu taareetuusa korruutuu
Tuuttuu ettaanousaa teeniituukii shuuryuusaa

Kotane tokatetu tuttuu tuusai
Etana kotaketu ryuutuu touka
Etani kirekuto nattou tuuta
Esuno kokakena kuttuu shuusai

i love these lyrics so much that i made them (in the past) "my review" of "Ringing in the Ears" on lbox
→ https://letterboxd.com/jiri_nvk/film/ri ... -the-ears/

i can also identify the snapshots from this very moment because it was the only time when the dude played this little "drum".


i was really "moved" (as you can see in the "moved" pic below) because this part of the dripping sun (with gibberish lyrics) was the first moment (on my first Kikagaku Moyo gig) i started to really like this band (before the first gig i never heard of the them — i got there by chance).


so, hearing the very same sequence (that made me like this band) during the band's farewell tour was something i wanted to petrify via snapshots.



btw. i believe that within a few years they are back (with another tour — a post-farewell (rebirth) tour).

[niminy-piminy]

no wonder that in Kraut-Berlin (gig preceding Prague) this Japanese krautrock was so well received.
tho, in Prague, whenever they switched from mellow to metal (or from metal to mellow and vice versa again), during the "psychedelic metal" sequence everyone was no less crazy than the Krauts in Berlin (viz the video ↓ ).

https://twitter.com/kehdabra/status/153 ... 4UADTuCGrA

[niminy-piminy]

warming up for the evening...
https://youtu.be/8W_QerWy65Y

attending "Dog Stab! Tour" for sentimental reasons (loved "Duck Stab" as a late teen)...

https://youtu.be/4YEPU68zqik

gig is preceded by a film (TRIPLE TROUBLE: A RESIDENTS FILM).
the trailer looks rather bad, so i am somewhat scared this sentimental time travel journey might not end up well.
at least, i hope The Residents are not anti-vax (or something) now — with boomers you never know...

Shot in 10 days during the 2020 COVID lockdown, this long-gestating feature is the latest work from America’s legendary art collective The Residents. In this hallucinatory noir comedy, “an idealistic but emotionally isolated man replaces his belief in God with faith in a fungus.” Incorporating footage from their unfinished 1970s video feature Vileness Fats, Triple Trouble boasts an original score by The Residents and Eric Drew Feldman.

[...]

I hope it doesn't disappoint, but I gotta say I wouldn't go back and tempt fate. I saw the Residents 13th Anniversary tour and thought it one of the best concerts I've seen, so I'd rather keep that memory than risk seeing their age (and mine) illuminate a folly of youth.

[niminy-piminy]

I gotta say I wouldn't go back and tempt fate

Here I come Constantinople
Here I come Constantinople
I am coming Constantinople
Here I come


it was fine!
i mean, the film was terrible (another terrible side-effect of Covid) but the music was delightful.
tho, i don't want to condemn the film altogether.
there was an old (senile???) guy sitting in front of me, permanently sipping some booze from the bottle during the screening and giggling aloud to nearly each and every line of the main hero.
so, there is certainly a state of mind in which one can relish the film in question.


btw. i have to make it clear i am not a fan of the band's whole oeuvre.
never heard most of their albums.
as a late teen, i had only a few.
but those few i kept playing obsessively over and over and over ("Duck Stab!" and "Eskimo" i fancied and can remember the most).


so, i was delighted the Duck Stab tunes were part of the current (50th-anniversary tour) tracklist.
despite being played not the same way as on the original album i could still recognize the afore-quoted (and some more) lyrics.


before the gig, there was a huge number 50 (accompanied with the inscription "holding up the underground since 1972") adorning the stage.
which means, me being still below 50 was part of the youngest strata of the audience.
don't remember i was last time surrounded by so many old ppl.
old (grey-haired or baldheaded) males prevalently!
while the rare ladies could enter toilets without waiting, in front of males pissing quarters there was a long queue during the pause between the film and the gig.
tho, i don't really complain cuz inside the pissoirs were portraits of Pootin (i expect not the initiative of The Residents but of the staff of the venue) and thus there was a sweet reward for the long waiting.


despite (i guess) i can guess who was responsible for the political content of the pissoirs, i am still at doubt if the idea to install in the whole auditorium rows of seats and not let the old ppl stand was something that is common at all the lately Residents' gigs or if it was a local specific.
i can appreciate sitting on the seat if classical (acoustic) music is being played, but in this case, it was a bit awkward.
thus, there is no variety of points of view in these pictures (all taken from row 7, seat 7).


on a brighter note (than just complaining about the old ppl), there was a moment an elderly audience was an advantage.
the last song on the tracklist was "Die! Die! Die!" (viz previous post).
so, i must admit it was highly amusing to see the crowds of grey-haired or baldheaded elderly men cheering up with excitation when the frontman was shouting at them from the stage...
I want you to die, die like a stranger
I want you to die, die like a rat
I wanna spit on your tombstone
And then I'll laugh
Die, die, die
Drowning in the regret

[...]

btw. i have to make it clear i am not a fan of the band's whole oeuvre.
never heard most of their albums.
as a late teen, i had only a few.
but those few i kept playing obsessively over and over and over ("Duck Stab!" and "Eskimo" i fancied and can remember the most).

I was, I suppose, conceptually a fan of their oeuvre, that they pursued and had one of stubbornly earned length, but I only engaged with their albums fitfully, listening to some a fair bit, but broken up with long periods of neglect save for a song or two to sort of keep them in mind, Dimples and Toes and Perfect Love from their Commercial Album made my mix tapes for example, but I did enjoy the infrequent engagement with Eskimo, the Heaven and Hell cds, some of their video work and so on, since they were, to me, always more a cabaret type act, where the visual was as much a part of the deal as the audio. Probably because I first encountered them via music video for Perfect Love.

But the doubt comes from the things you describe. At a certain point the interest in The Residents for their particular distortive method of approach to popular culture it becomes apparent that approach draws a fairly narrow crowd of devotees, and to be a part of that crowd is unsettling for its uniformity of white maleness of a certain cynical-leaning bend that, while not inherently demanded for appreciation, did make me reflect a bit more on the path that led me to appreciate them and the limitations of that should it be too deeply embraced.

Nonetheless, the concert I did see was exceptional in all regards. Snakefinger was still playing with them and his sound is unique, the stage show was minimal, mostly costumes and some film projected behind them, but it all came together into something more than the individual pieces, with their version of It's a Man's Man's Man's World really one of the most exciting stage moments I'd witnessed. It was a major moment for my appreciation of the arts, but one I fear could not only not be repeated, but would be lessened by trying and seeing how far I've gone from that moment to this one. Holding it as it was seems more sensible to who am I now I guess.


I mean I hope they keep playing as long as they feel the urge to do so and younger people keep discovering them or those influenced by them or whatever, since there really is something potent about coming at culture from an obliquely critical angle as long as you don't try and live there like that's all there is.

[niminy-piminy]

since they were, to me, always more a cabaret type act

before the gig started, the director of the venue (Archa Theater) came on stage and recalled how 30 yrs ago he first approached The Residents in SF and 28 yrs ago (on the same spot as the current gig) was delivered the Freak Show Live (repeated in the 20 successive evenings).

https://www.residents.com/historical/in ... akshowlive

This was an unusual project for The Residents. The stage show itself did not involve the group at all. Instead, the band hired the leader of the Czech band Uz Jsme Doma ("We're Finally Home") to direct the orchestra while seven actors, singers, and dancers performed on stage. Ron Davis, who designed the Cubo-Residents and the Shorty & Shirley puppets for Cube-E as well as Dixie's Story for Bad Day on the Midway, did the set and costume design. The new book The Residents -- Eyeball to Eyeball was released at the November, 1995, premier at the Archa Theatre in Prague.

The orchestra consisted of Miroslav Wanek of Uz Jsme Doma, director; Frantisek Svacina and Valdimir Helebrant, keyboards; Kamil Kruta, bass; Jindrich Dolansky, tenor sax; Lenka Kavalova, cello; Romek Hanzlik, guitar; and Hynek Schneider, drums. Before the show began, Tex the Barker (played by Wayne Doba) called the audience in from the lobby. The stage was set up as a circus tent similar to the one from the Freak Show CD-ROM. Over the stage there was a gallery on which stood three female vocalists, Iva Nachmannová, Andrea Jurcova, and Laurie Amat (who first sang with The Residents on God in 3 Persons and was the vocal director of this show). Tex introduced the freaks as they came on stage to sing their songs from the album. Wanda the Worm Woman (Andrea Novakova) played with neon rubber worms; Herman the Human Mole (Vladimir Gut) hid behind the curtain until Tex forced him to show himself; Benny the Bouncing Bump (Miroslav Matyas) did his dance. Harry the Human Head and Jack the Boneless Boy were represented by props and Mickey the Mumbling Midget was not in the show.

The second act moved the action back into the freaks' trailers, again like the CD-ROM. There were four trailers, each painted onto a scrim which turned transparent when the light inside was turned on. During the live performance, unlike in the CD-ROM, the characters in the trailers interact with each other.

A performance of Freak Show Live was taped by CT2, a Czech television station. Some of this footage was released on Kettles of Fish.

https://youtu.be/216VCL9tcvs

otherwise, i can recall my first encounter with the Residents was also via video (no clue which one — i just remember they had their eyeball heads and were fooling around some branches of the fallen tree in the park — at least this is what i recall — can't guarantee my memory is fooling me).
it was a very strange event (at the dusk of the local commie regime era — some very late 1980s).
since bands like Residents were not publically on display in the country (not fitting with the preferred esthetics of late neo-Stalinism), some cool guys in our small town organized the evening where they played some "semi-underground" videos.
i remember the main attraction was supposed to be the screening of the Wall by Pink Floyd (maybe the event was framed as something in support of world peace to avoid the ban and some surplus freaky videos were sneaked in).
i never gave a fuck about Pink Floyd but went there with my two friends and the only thing that really captured my attention was the video with the eyeball men and thus later through one of these two friends (who had an older sister who was hanging out with the older cool guys who somehow had the access to decadent resources), i got my few Residents albums (pirate recordings, duplicated on the empty cassettes).
those were the hard ancient times!
not like today when the (almost) whole gig is within a few days available on YT in decent quality — so, behold what i have seen ↓↓

https://youtu.be/fx4TmB2raJ4

[nrh]

i remember drawing pictures of the top hat eyeball guy as a kid, years before i would have been exposed to their actual music, so they definitely made some way into the broader culture, at least visually (wondering now if i'd have seen the freak show comic? it was definitely around in (the right) comics shops in the 90s).

still not sure what to make of their more narrative/cabaret work from after the mole trilogy, but those '70s albums are amazing, especially not available.

never seen them live but i did see uz jsme doma, without freaks, and they were pretty great.

[niminy-piminy]

uz jsme doma

oh, i like them but never saw them live

Už jsme doma — Hollywood

I love you my baby, my sweet cherry
Houpy hou, houpy hou
I love you my baby, my sweet cherry
Houpy hou, houpy hou
I love you my baby, i love you my baby, my sveet cherry
you are my sweet strawberry
Houpy houpy hou.

https://youtu.be/z54wNl2qyNg

[cinesmith]

some bands/artists that i've seen:
(* denotes multiple shows)

Bad Brains
Bauhaus **
Beastie Boys
Beautiful South
Big Country
Blur
David Bowie
Cab Calloway
Calexico **
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds **
Cocteau Twins
Cramps
Creatures **
Crocodiles ***
Cure ***
Miles DAvis
Dead Rider
Deerhoof **
Depeche Mode **
Dinosaur JR
Dirty Three ***
Drums
Bob Dylan
Echo & the Bunnymen
Einsturzende Neubatuen **
Erasure
Faith No More
Fine Young Cannibals
Fishbone ******
Flaming Lips
Galaxie 500
Gang of Four
Godspeed You Black Emperor **
Guided By Voices *****
High Llamas **
Horrors **
House of Love
Jane's Addiction ***
Jellyfish
Jesus & Mary Chain
Loved & Rockets ***
Lush **
Mighty Lemon Drops **
Ministry ***
Monkees
Morphine
Morrissey
Bob Mould
My Bloody Valentine
New Order **
Ocean Blue **
OMD
Pavement
Pere Ubu
Pet Shop Boys
Pinback
Pixies **
Pogues
Robert Pollard
Iggy Pop
Portishead
Psychedelic Furs
Public Enemy
PIL ***
REM
Ramones ***
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Replacements
Residents
Ride
Rodan
Sea and the Cake ***
Shellac
Shutter to Think
Siouxsie & the Banshees **
Sisters of Mercy ***
Slowdive **
Smashing Pumpkins
Sonic Youth **
Stereolab *****
Joe Strummer
Sugarcubes (pre-solo Bjork)
The The ***
Tortoise ******
U.S. Maple
Violent Femmes
Walt Mink
Wedding Present **
Weezer
White Stripes
Yeah. Yeah, Yeah's

There's probably a ton more that I can't remember. I'd posted a bunch on a music board 25 years ago.