I have a huge gooey wet spot for The Residents in my irritatingly artfaggy heart. So large is this spot that whenever someone gets into a conversation with me about music, within five minutes something about The Residents is bound to come up, leaving the other person sometimes confused, but mostly hateful. In fact as I’m writing this, I can look around my room and spot at least a dozen CDs scattered across my table, a poster on the wall and a few LPs sitting in a box. If I turn my head 90 degrees to the right I can look in my closet where a few Residents t-shirts are hanging. If I turn my head back to the computer screen, I can see that my download of Barely Legal 19 is finished, but that’s completely unrelated.

I should probably elaborate on the band.

The Residents are a collective of artists, musicians and general freaks who have taken a vow of anonymity, the idea being that artistic vision becomes diluted when the artist takes the audience into account. Taking away the audience leaves the group with the ability to concentrate more on the work itself rather than what will make fans happy. (This concept was taken to the extreme with the album Not Available, which was recorded and locked in a vault, never to be released until the creators forgot of its existence.) Faceless, emotionless and timeless, The Residents continue to create an extensive discography that spans traditional albums, DVDs and even Internet-only releases.

Touring, however, was always a bit of a problem with The Residents. In fact, many shows have been plagued with trouble. During their first performance, a riot broke out. On their first world tour, the band ended up having their equipment seized and locked up. There was even an incident where an audience member beat a wheelchair-bound and gagged Penn Gillette. During their 13th Anniversary Tour, one of their famous eyeball masks was stolen.

So with this in mind, the band’s Wormwood project almost felt like temping fate. Subtitled “Curious Stories from the Bible,” The Residents dabbled in theology and recorded a collection of songs based around the rougher stories found in the Old Testament. Wormwood was not designed to condemn the Bible or to take potshots at the material, but to reflect on the material itself. While the idea of using the Bible as inspirational and uplifting material was considered a positive thing by the band, they found there was a lack of emphasis on the more brutal material. (Since I can’t speak for the band, I’m only going on what the band chose to reveal during the live show.) You can’t take the good without the bad and Wormwood was the culmination of that idea.

It was certainly surprising to hear that The Residents were taking Wormwood out on the road, but it was even more surprising to see the way they were doing it. Wormwood the album was a cold, synthetic beast. While the album had its merits, Wormwood the live show was a revelation: these were live musicians playing real instruments. This wasn’t a Kraftwerk-esque display featuring a few men standing behind computers; this was a real drummer standing behind a drum set. This was a real person wielding a guitar.

While Wormwood the album is a well-crafted little piece of synthesized darkness, Wormwood Live is the true experience. The live band is expansive and vibrant (some shows even included a full piece Gamelan orchestra), playing heavily retooled pieces from the album, along with new songs that were composed specifically for the show. While you probably can’t say The Singing Resident is a particularly good vocalist, he’s full of emotion and carries himself with absolute authority. Along to share singing duties, Molly Harvey provides a more palatable voice. Able to go from sultry to anguished from character to character (each song is told from first person perspective), Harvey is a welcome addition to the band.

Just as important as the band is the stage show itself. More of a theatrical experience than a standard concert, the singers are decked out in black leotards, black face paint (though for this performance the black face paint is left out without explanation), ghastly neon masks, and neon lip makeup, all used to create ghostly figures that blend into the dark background. It comes off as human puppetry – characters wearily march onto the stage, carrying ugly caricatures of the characters they’re representing, and proceed to tell their haunting tales. Both sad and darkly amusing, Wormwood managed to garner critical acclaim, protest and even a good old-fashioned stoning (during a European performance, an irate audience member threw a rock and hit a member of the band – how appropriate!).

Of course, the roadblock one is faced with whenever talking about The Residents is the music itself. Wormwood Live is not the most accessible music in the world. In fact, one could say it’s one of the most harrowing performances to sit through. The music matches its subject matter and every instrument can feel absolutely overbearing, every growled out lyric an assault on the senses. The delivery is absolutely essential, but it’s certainly not for everyone. Think Japanese Kabuki show tunes in Hell and you’ve got a pretty good idea what to expect.

Also the disc lists two tracks on the back of the box that do not appear on the DVD: the King of Kings instrumental and Prayer/American Band. Highly disappointing.

Video
AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! The back of the box states “From a Web Cast for Museumsmeile,” but you would figure the equipment used to record the performance would still be broadcast quality, right? What we’ve got here is an absolute nightmare. For some reason, the screen flickers in and out at a quick speed throughout the performance, creating a distracting strobe light effect. The colors are dulled and muddled with an overall reddish haze. What should look like neon just doesn’t. The overall image is very soft; the few close-ups have no definition, while full-on shots of the entire band look like, well, a webcast. Gross.

Also, to add insult to injury, the constant inserted effects are fairly irritating. From shot to shot there has been a digital spotlight inserted to add emphasis on the singers. The spotlight is irritating in itself, but they’re also oddly inconsistent, from shot to shot going from circular light projecting from the front in wide shots to spotlights coming from the top of the actor. Also there have been widescreen mattes added for wide shots. This wouldn’t be overly irritating if it wasn’t for the fact that sometimes the timing is off. A full-frame close-up of the singers will flip over to a widescreen matte a split second before cutting to a wide shot. Double gross.

Audio
The Residents are known for spectacular DVD audio presentation. When their music video collection Icky Flix was released, the band actually went back and re-recorded all of the songs in 5.1, a fantastic gimmick that not only took absolute advantage of the surround speakers, but also showed how the band progressed as musicians. However for Wormwood, it seems that they simply pumped a stereo track through all the speakers. The bass levels don’t come across very well, and there’s very little separation between speakers. Even the vocals pump out of the back. That is – until 80 minutes into the performance when the sound goes completely hollow. Triple gross.

Extras  
We’re talking about a band that hasn’t said a single thing about their personal lives or personalities from day one. You can’t expect much in the way of extras can you? The only thing I’ve managed to find is a single Easter egg accessible via the scene selection – a clip from their encore performance of Old Time Religion.

Overall
One of my most favorite bands performing one of the best shows I’ve heard comes out on one of the most disappointing discs I’ve seen in a long time. The performance itself is quite strong, but I can’t recommend the disc to even the most hardcore of fanatics. Fans will probably want to rent it first – at least for the performance itself. The inexperienced should definitely stay away. My suggestion? Start off with the gentle album Demons Dance Alone, along with the Icky Flix DVD retrospective.