What are Ghosts

“Now we have invited all of you people to come into our little living room here so we can play a few songs and tell you a few stories. Now some of these stories are kinda spooky!” Randy of The Residents, in an old man mask, intoned through a Vocoder. Boy, he wasn’t kidding. A day ago, I noticed that my friend Austin had become a fan of The Residents on Facebook, and then I saw that they were playing the Middle East tonight. Back in Chicago, Austin turned me on to so many good bands, I trust his inclinations. Anyway, I needed to get out of the house and escape the accumulation-less snowstorm blues; the faux-storm. Jess and I walked to Central Square and watched The Residents play.

I don’t have words to describe the performance. Going in, I knew nothing. Now at least I know that there are lots people who enjoy The Residents; the show sold out the Middle East Downstairs. The guitarist played these heavy, droning riffs that sounded similar to the soundtrack of Terminator 2: Judgement Day. That or maybe a Decepticon’s death screams. The keyboardist alternated between a child’s xylophone, a drum machine, samples of commercials for obscure products, and a manically giggling baby doll. Both instrumentalists sported welder’s masks over dread lock wigs. The lead singer, Randy, told stories on the microphone; he augmented his tales with video clips shot onto round screens with a hand-held projector.

For example, Randy would shoot onto the screen a talking hot dog man who describes owning two pets, a boa constrictor named Leonard Cohen and a rabbit named Ralph. The rabbit gets eaten, but chews his way out of the Leonard Cohen’s stomach, killing the snake. The boa constrictor comes back to haunt the talking hot dog man, who admits he’s nervous, because even though its a ghost snake, it is wrapping itself around and around him… In between each vignette Randy rambled incoherently into the microphone, the volume turned up to eleven, or chanted such gems as “Love is just a little lamb, lookin’ for a hunk of ham.” The talking hot dog man admits to eating fourteen hot dogs in a single sitting to calm his nerves, the story ends.

The Residents website / blog describes the Talking Light show in the following manner: “‘What are ghosts’ ask The Residents – spirits of those no longer inhabiting the flesh, but unable to leave their lives behind? Or could ghosts be a manifestation of something even less tangible, like loneliness, unfulfilled desire or isolation? In a world where nearly everything has become defined and categorized, how do we fill our obvious, purely human need for the fuzzy, vague and supernatural – with TV commercials?”