Show Review: 50 Years of The Residents, Castro Theatre, 09/17/2021

In mid-July, legendary art-rockers The Residents announced the “Dog Stab!” tour, a 22-date run around the US to commemorate the 50th anniversary of their first live performance (in 1971!).  A month later, they cancelled all except for three California shows in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Santa Cruz “due to continued concerns about the spread of Covid-19 cases from the Delta variant”.  The show in San Francisco also served as the reopening of the historic Castro Theatre, which has been closed since March 2020, and Spinning Platters was invited to attend!  

 

The show was split into two sets and kicked off with an introduction from fictional albino blues singer Alvin Snow (known by his stage name Dyin’ Dog).  He reappeared four more times to discuss, among other things, his fascination with Howlin’ Wolf, who was a Chicago blues singer, guitarist, and harmonica player.  

 

The eleven songs that make up the first set are from The Residents latest album Metal, Meat & Bone: The Songs of Dyin’ Dog.  It is said to be a cover album, where the songs on it were actually written by Dyin’ Dog in the mid-1970’s.  See this YouTube video for the backstory of Alvin Snow, Dyin’ Dog, and Howlin’ Wolf.  For the uninitiated, it all makes total sense after watching!  To bridge Alvin Snow’s obsession of Howlin’ Wolf into the performance, The Residents wore wolf masks while performing The Songs of Dyin’ Dog!

 

Click on any photo below for a slideshow of full-size images of The Residents tribute to Alvin Snow a.k.a. Dyin’ Dog.

After the intermission, for Set II and the encore, they reappeared on stage in these crazy suits with eyeball images plastered all over them from head-to-toe, and the singer’s mask had an additional mouth with giant teeth and an evil grin.  This set was dedicated to their 1978 album “Duck Stab!/Buster & Glen”, which is seen as one of their fan-favorite albums.