I’m glad to report that the era of terrible Residents live videos is OVER! I think I’ve talked about it before, but for the longest time, it seemed that we were doomed to not have a good document of a Residents’ live concert. My go to is when I saw them on the Demons Dance Alone tour, and it was one of the best shows I’d ever seen in my life…. but when the Demons Dance Alone DVD came out, it was one of the worst DVDs I’d seen — terrible, muddy audio, grainy footage taken from backstage — so the main video of an amazingly theatrical show was of the backs of guitar necks.
Of course, I had a feeling this might be the case — the previous videos I’d seen was the Mole Show VHS which took low-quality footage of the show, again with muddy audio, and scribbled all over it with Video Toaster doodlings, obscuring everything on screen…. Disfigured Night was much better in terms of the technical quality, but I find that project an immense letdown. As an aside: I’m looking forward to watching Demonic: Live In Oslo, a different video release of the Demons Dance Alone tour, which I’m hoping is more like the brilliant concert I attended.
On the other hand, Talking Light: Bimbo’s is traditionally shot with clean audio and clear video. Again, Talking Light is a very theatrical show, so it’s nice to see the show as staged. In fact, when I got to see Talking Light live, the venue was so hot and packed I started feeling sick — so much so I almost had to leave until I found where an air vent was spitting out cool air. So being able to see and enjoy the performance from the comfort of my living room is actually a much more comfortable experience. We get to see the video stories (which are all available unadulterated in the Randy’s Ghost Stories DVD) intercut with the performance.
How highly do I think of this release? Of all the related releases to Talking Light, like Lonely Teenager, Chuck’s Ghost Music and the aforementioned Randy’s Ghost Stories, this is the essential release. I know Lonely Teenager didn’t go over well here, but I think even Aila might be swayed if she saw the entire project as it was intended, with music, stories and video all integrated into one whole.
…Well… maybe not. But if you’re curious about Talking Light, but Lonely Teenager scared you off, give this one a shot. Hopefully, Wonder of Weird will be coming soon on DVD as well — and that the lessons learned from Talking Light: Bimbo’s stick.