Marching to the See: The Wonder of Weird Tour

Audio Mixer: El Ralpho.
Recording information: Amsterdam Muziekgebouw Aan Het IJ, Amsterdam, Netherlan (05/20/2013).
The Residents' 2013 "The Wonders of Weird" (WoW) tour was kind of a combination retrospective/history/catch-up of the band and part therapy session for Randy Rose (the Residents' lead singer). With Chuck (Charles Bobuck) on keyboards/laptop and Bob (just Bob) on guitar, the band delivered fantastic reworkings of tunes from throughout its career. Between songs, Randy went through the history of the Residents and discussed what they'd been up to recently (which made a lot more sense if you were following Randy's blog or keeping tabs on Charles Bobuck via Facebook). Marching to the See: The Wonder of Weird Tour is basically the performance of a show in Holland with all the spoken parts and a handful of tracks taken out (the lack of spoken parts actually makes for a better listening experience in some ways). Randy was in fine vocal form (with the aid of a bit of effects in some spots), Bob served up some scorching solos, and Chuck was responsible for the rest of the sounds. Of course, the Residents have been at the forefront of music technology for decades, but the sounds Chuck conjures up from his small rig are still pretty amazing. It's kind of difficult to believe that the Residents have been able to do what they do for 40-plus years now. It's a safe bet that even longtime fans couldn't have imagined it, and the WoW tour was a fabulous celebration. A full, unedited show was also released by the Residents as a limited-edition two-CD set, so if you need to hear the 2013 version of "Santa Dog" or about Randy's adventures in the porn world, you'll have to track down The Wonder of Weird. ~ Sean Westergaard