The Residents — Secret Show (Live In San Francisco)

Here’s a double disc CD & DVD set taking in The Resident’s Secret Show, which took place at the Conservatory of Music in San Francisco on the 14th of January of 2023. It was part of the celebrations for the project's 50th anniversary- with the twenty-one-track set featuring songs from throughout their career- with a host of guests, and some very distinctive/one-off takes on tracks. All making for an original, at points surprising, and of course wonderfully odd look back on the project’s half-a-century career.

The release is a joint release between Cherry Red, MVD Audio, and The Cryptic Corporation. The two discs are presented in a thick card six-panel mini gatefold- with each disc coming in its own card sleeve. In the middle panel, we find a sixteen-page colour inlay booklet- this features a good selection of stills from the show, track listings, and full credits.  The audio is on the first CD, and the DVD is on the second disc.

The twenty-two-track set nicely darts back & forth over the project's career-making for a wholly varied and entertaining show, which I can see appealing to not just fans of the project- but as a generally good primer to get into the project. Personally, favourites in the first half go from grandly rousing piano, horn, and glockenspiel interpretation of “Rest Aira” from the projects 1974’s debut Meet The Residents. Onto the Les Claypool( of Primus) fronted version of “Hello Skinny” from 1978’s Duck Stab- with his vocals wavering ‘n’ warbling like a demented preacher over the jerking ‘n’ bucking groove of the track.

In the second half, we have the urgent-to-uneasy swooning ‘n’ sawing strings, operatic female-backed vocals, and spurting noise textured take on the classic single “Santa Dog”.  There’s the slowly bouncing ‘n’ breathy female-led vocalizing version of “The Car Thief” from 2002’s Demons Dance Alone album. We have roughly bounding bluesy piano and gusty male vocals of “Who Do You Love” which is a cover of a 1957 Bo Diddley song.

The CD recording is studio quality- you do hear the occasional crowd noise at the gaps between tracks, but all the instruments, vocals, and soundcraft are crystal clear.

The DVD takes in the full one hour and seventeen show- which can be played as a whole, or you can select tracks. The whole thing is overlaid with layers of visual effects, which mimic what’s going on on the screen behind the band. So, for example, the first track “Would We Be Alive?” takes in flying pigeons. For “Semolina” we have purple and pink dancing silhouette figures. For “Life Would Be Wonderful” we get close-ups of flower heads. And “Monkey Man”  finds a blend of dancing eyeball & top hat-wearing Residents and spiralling maps of triangle shapes.  I largely enjoy the graphic additions- but I can see why some folks might not- so it’s a pity there wasn’t an option to turn them off.

As a two-disc set, Secret Show (Live In San Francisco) is a prime example of how to do a live release properly. It’s also a wonderful, varied, and creative look at the projects fifty years existent. Unmissable really for fans & newbies alike!.