The Residents – Demons Dance Alone
Picture:
C+ Sound: B- Extras: D Main Program: B-
The
Residents have been surviving as a band without a major record deal for so many
years that people are often surprised when they hear that they are still together. They have been one of the true alternate
bands since 1971. Continuing the Rock
Theater tradition of Genesis and Art Of Noise (see my review of their Into Vision concert DVD elsewhere on
this site); the band has come up with Demons
Dance Alone. The tracks are as
follows:
1)
Betty’s Body
2)
Mickey macaroni
3)
Wolverines
4)
Mr. Wonderful
5)
Caring
6)
My Brother Paul
7)
The Car Thief
8)
Ms. Wonderful
9)
Baha (Baja)
10) From The Plains To Mexico
11) Golden Goat
12) The Shoe Salesman
13) Honey Bear
14) Life Would Be Wonderful
15) Neediness
16) Demons Dance Alone
Though
this may have seemed initially odd, after completing the 95 minutes long
program, it actually made sense. It made
a point. Furthermore, that is not easy
when you are being so abstract and demand serious attention span from your audience,
but this works well enough. It is not to
say this is a favorite or a revelation, but it is definitely accomplished.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is from stylized analog video and does
not look great, but this would have been worse non-anamorphic, so they are
getting the effect they wanted. It is
very colorful, yet the color is against video distortion and darkness. This is much more of a true version of what
multimedia really is, even if it is from the analog video era. The box credits the sound as Dolby Digital
5.1 AC-3, but it really is a 5.0 mix.
This is not bad, but not great, showing the limits of the live recording
and acoustics of the location this was taped.
The only extra is a strange trick promo from the menu. When you go for main program, you get a
brief, weird satire of DVD menus that previews PAL DVD Icky Flix, and regular DVDs Eskimo
and the Kettles of Fish boxed set that offers a DVD with 3
CDs. It may be odd, but it is exactly
what this band goes for. If you want
something very different musically and visually, Demons Dance Alone is worth checking out. Now would someone just issue a DVD of their 20 Twisted Questions program.
- Nicholas Sheffo
