October 27 [16:00 EDT] -- When the faceless Residents make an appearance, it's not a concert, it's an artform, and fans will have the chance to witness four such events when the San Francisco-based collective appears at the Fillmore West this week. The shows, their first in seven years, run Tuesday (October 28), Wednesday and Friday (October 31) with an additional extravaganza Friday midnight.
Most think of the Residents as being born of the late '70s, early '80's new wave/punk period, but the pioneers pre-date the era they championed by years -- they've occupied a spot in recorded musical history since 1972. The members continue to work together in an art collective and think tank known as the Cryptic Corp.
The Residents are probably best recognized by their oversize eyeball masks and other odd images. Few know who the members are of what they really are or what they look like. Their music has been described as "avante garde bubble gum." But there's much more to the group than music. They were among the first to do so in new mediums. They foresaw the video revolution in the seventies, and by the time MTV signed on in 1981, The Residents had five productions in heavy rotation. In the 80's, the band made innovative use of sampling and other recording techniques--1982's "The Tunes of Two Cities" is heralded as the first all-sampled album. Now the '90's has seen them at the forefront of the CD ROM revolution, most notably with their controversial "Freak Show."
Their recorded revolutions are showcased in more places than record stores. Their video work is part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art hosts the costumes from their Mole Show.
The concerts, along with a retrospective CD set called "Our Tired, Our Poor, Our Huddled Masses," is a celebration of the band's 25th anniversary. The San Francisco Chronicle calls "Our Tired, Our Poor, Huddled Masses," which in their typically non-typical approach to a greatest hits situation, includes condensed versions of much of their work, "a psychotic reaction to nostalgia." Resident Hardy Fox, they note, calls it the "Mr. Potato Head'' theory of revisionism, "where you put different eyes and a different nose'' on anything you see fit.
