13th Anniversary Live in Tokyo [Live]

Residents | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 1, 2000)
• Original Release Date: February 1, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Live
• Label: East Side Digital
• ASIN: B000044U2V
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #405,347 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Lizard Lady

2. Semolina

3. Hello Skinny/Constantinople

4. Jailhouse Rock

5. Where Is She?

6. Picnic in the Jungle

7. Smelly Tongues

8. Eloise

9. The Ship's A'goin' Down

10. The New Machine

11. Tourniquet of Roses

12. Passing the Bottle

13. Monkey and Bunny

14. Theme from an American TV Show

15. Man's World

16. Walter Westinghouse

17. Easter Woman

18. Amber

19. Red Rider

20. Die in Terror

See all 22 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An improvement over the Mole Show Live recording, April 16, 2000

By 

David Fields (Lincoln, Nebraska United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 13th Anniversary Live in Tokyo (Audio CD)

In 1985 the Residents, suffering from losses from the Mole Show, the loss of Ralph Records as a viable alternative record company, and needing a new lease on life,were talked into a Japan tour by Bomba records. Happily, they accepted the challange.

The resulting album from that tour is an improvement over the flat sounding "Mole Show" recordings that have come from that earlier act. The music rises and fades, and sounds like they are actually playing instruments rather than suffering the flat synthetic sound of the Mole Show.

By far the highlight to this recording is the guitar workings of Snakefinger, a man who was probably one of the most underated and overlooked guitarists of his era. His range of musical abilities, ranged from folk to advant garde, with blues and jazz in the middle show his considerable talent, and the world is a poorer place without him. Of course, we hear the rock and advante garde ranges in this recording, and it is recommended that you seek out and find out more about this lost talent.

This is a recoring of a "greatest hits tour" rather than of the concept tours of the Mole Show or E Cubed. However, in the sense of musical talent shown and pure entertainment for the audience, this recording is a success.

Happily the show ends with "Cry for Fire" with Snakefinger blistering his way throught the acme of a guitar solo that ends this song, and this album. Inexplicably (was it purposely done in the show?) the guitar solo fades out, the audience can be heard applauding, and the show ends.

Recommended for fans, and for the open minded uninitiated.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a great reinterpretation of the residents, April 6, 2000

By 

Christopher Kingman "Philosopher / Revolutionary" (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 13th Anniversary Live in Tokyo (Audio CD)

this is a great live album. i think the residents did an absolutely fabulous job recreating and reinterpreting these songs for a live setting. the residents had always considered themselves a studio band and had released about 10 albums and numerous singles (not to mention filmed half of a movie that was never released) before they did their first tour (for the mole show). that tour almost destroyed them financially and morally, and they vowed never to tour again. a couple of years later, through the combined efforts of a couple different maniacal fans, the residents were made an offer they couldn't refuse, and so they set out on the road again for this tour.

this tour, they kept the scale simple to avoid the disasters they had with the ambitious mole show, and instead of embracing one over-arching concept piece, they presented a selection of tunes from their (at that point) 13 year career. the arrangements on this album are minimal and sparse, but they do a good job of translating the essentially untranslatable nature of the residents' studio work. snakefinger's guitar playing is excellent as well. the selection embraces almost every major album, and throws in a few oddities as well.

i think this could be a good introduction to the work of the residents. you get a broad selection of the material from their first 13 years, the playing is flawless, and the sound is excellent. no, don't expect the songs to sound like their studio albums, but that doesn't mean they're worse, simply different. the songs here are equally amazing in their own right.

i also don't know what the previous reviewer was talking about when he said the audience was inaudible, as you can definately hear them applauding at the end of sections and also singing along on some of the more popular tracks (particularly at the end of "Walter Westinghouse"). perhaps (unlike many rock audiences today) the audience was merely respectfully silent during the performance of the music. i know i would stand silently in rapt attention if i ever had the opportunity to witness such magnificent music.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Album to Start With, November 28, 2000

By 

Phylo Brag (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 13th Anniversary Live in Tokyo (Audio CD)

As a matter of fact this WAS my first Residents album. I am now an owner of most of the Residents' music. The music in this show is dark, haunting, manical (Smelly Tongues), aggressive, and absolutely satisfying. Its long enough to hold hour of listenig value, but all of the "retranslations" are different from one another. Listen to this at 3 AM, in a dark room, with sterio headphones. I did when I first got it. The climax of the show might give you a migraine.

Thanks to technology, this performance can be heard with the audience. Previous releases of the show included the "empty house" affect.