Just Announced The Residents at the Cedar Cultural Center

The Residents are an American band; not the kind of American band you might hear blasting from AM radios in rusted-out Chevy trucks at tailgate parties, but the kind that’s used its first-world freedoms to indulge in high-concept shlock and political satire for 30 years and counting. Their music is unrepentant, fearless, and often difficult. When they’re not creating the soundtrack to the American culture wars (or existential breakdown, as it were), they’re co-opting rock classics by James Brown and The Rolling Stones to devastating effect. Comparisons to Frank Zappa, Devo, and even Harry Partch aren’t far off, but The Residents’ particular whimsy is unique, and their live show is more shamanic ritual than traditional music performance. Their website offers the following description of the Talking Light tour:

“The Residents reflect the audience but they also reflect themselves. The show is a duality for them, a battlefront/coalition between the audience and the performer. The mirror changes who The Residents are. The audience also has to change as [singer] Randy holds the mirror out toward them [sic].”

What the hell does that mean? Find out when the band plays the Cedar Cultural Center on March 25. Up until recently, the group’s individual identities have been shrouded in mystery, but on Talking Light, the band offers its audience a more personal experience. For the first time, The Residents are opening up to their fans, or at the very least, trading their signature eyeball-and-top-hat getups for stage names and storytelling.