Meet The Residents Wiki
Meet The Residents Wiki
⠀
1,815
pages
in: Upcoming projects, Live shows, Eskimo,
and 3 more

Eskimo Live

Sign in to edit
Mrgreen-sml This article is about a current or upcoming project.
Information may be added and/or changed as further updates become available.
If you see something missing, you can help the wiki by updating the article.

Eskimo Live! is an upcoming international live tour by The Residents, based on their 1979 concept album Eskimo, which is planned to begin in North America in January 2026, followed by a tour of Japan, the United Kingdom and Europe and Japan in March.[1]

The Eskimo tour will introduce an expanded and re-imagined version of the album, re-arranged for a four-piece live band using sampled elements from the original studio sessions, with new costumes, set design, characters, and five new "Eskimo folk tales" created especially for the tour.

The concept of a live adaptation of Eskimo originated shortly after the album's release, and was originally planned to run between (approximately) 1980 and 1981, however this version of the show was abandoned in favor of a mooted "10th Anniversary Show" (which also never came to fruition). The idea was briefly revived in 1992, this time as an opera (with set designs from Cube-E collaborator Ron Davis), and again in the mid-to-late 2000s (in a production referred to as "Eskimo On Ice"), however both of these concepts were also abandoned.[2]

On March 2nd 2024, The Residents performed a "condensed" version of the show at the San Francisco Public Library, as part of the annual multi-city arts festival Night of Ideas.[3] The fully realized show premiered as the headlining performance of the first day of the Exoticon Exotica and Tiki Festival, at the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles on June 7th 2025.

History[]

Unproduced attempts[]

Eskimo Live (1979-1981)[]

logo, 1979

Eskimo logo, 1979

Around the time of the release of their 1979 album Eskimo, The Residents were planning what was intended to be their first touring show, a performance based on the album. A concept album designed to tell stories through sound, the group felt that Eskimo would lend itself well to a visual performance project.

This initial version of the show got some way into the planning stages before it was abandoned by the group, due in no small part to the expense and complexities involved in such a large scale performance project, especially as - at that time - they had never toured. The Residents' interest in touring continued to grow, however, resulting in the development of a mooted "10th Anniversary" tour, which was briefly rehearsed by the group in 1982.

This planned tour would have included a suite of tracks from the Eskimo album, indicating that the idea of a live performance of Eskimo had not been entirely abandoned by The Residents up to this point. Ultimately, however, The Residents' first live tour would be The Mole Show, which ran from April 1982 to October 1983, and which was wholly dedicated to the group's then-current project, The Mole Trilogy.

Eskimo Opera (1992)[]

"" set design by , 1992

"The Walrus Hunt" set design by Ron Davis, 1992

The Residents revisited the idea of adapting Eskimo into a theatrical performance in the early 1990s, developing an "Eskimo Opera Proposal" - a vocal and orchestral demo suite featuring pieces of music intended for an operatic adaptation of the album, to take place at the Amsterdam Nationale Opera and Ballet Theater.

The group commissioned a number of set designs from artist Ron Davis,[4] who they had previously worked with on their Cube-E production in 1989. The Eskimo opera seems to have not developed beyond these initial designs, however, and The Residents would not produce a full live show again until Disfigured Night in 1997.

Eskimo On Ice (late 2000s)[]

In the mid-to-late 2000s, Glenn Max, a programmer for the Southbank Centre in London who often booked The Residents at the venue, proposed a live performance adaptation of Eskimo to be performed "on ice" at an undisclosed location off-site while the Centre was closed for renovations.

"Eskimo On Ice" was proposed to the Southbank Centre by Max, but the Centre ultimately decided not to go ahead with the project.[2] A subsequent proposal for a live Eskimo performance at the Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theater in Moscow also remained unrealized.

performing "" at in the San Francisco Public Library, March 2nd 2024 (photo by )

The Residents performing "The Festival of Death" at Night of Ideas in the San Francisco Public Library, March 2nd 2024 (photo by Josh Keppel)

Night of Ideas (2024)[]

The Residents performed a "condensed" 25 minute arrangement of Eskimo at the San Francisco Public Library on March 2nd 2024, as part of the annual multi-city arts event Night of Ideas.[3]

The Night of Ideas arrangement of Eskimo consisted of shortened versions of all six tracks from the album, accompanied by the graphics and narrative text from the Eskimo DVD, as well as other newly-created visuals. The Residents followed the Eskimo suite with a rendition of "Diskomo".

Despite describing the show as "a BLAST", The Cryptic Corporation later warned fans who missed the show that "it might not ever happen again".[5]

Eskimo live tour (2025-2026)[]

In February 2025, Homer Flynn of The Cryptic Corporation announced that The Residents were planning to tour a live adaptation of Eskimo in the fall of 2025, with the tour planned to take place across America, the United Kingdom, Europe and Japan.[6]

The Eskimo world tour will feature an expanded and re-imagined version of the album, re-arranged for a four-piece live band using sampled elements from the original studio sessions, with new characters, stories and music, new costumes and a new set design, created especially for the tour.

The fully realized version of the show premiered as the headlining performance of the Exotikon Exotica and Tiki Festival at the Mayan Theater in downtown Los Angeles on June 7th 2025. During this performance, the group premiered two new songs, "The Tale of Two Tupilaqs" and "The Skeleton Under the Sea". On October 1st 2025, North American tour dates were announced for January 2026. It is expected The Residents will perform "about twenty, twenty-five shows" in America and Canada in January, followed by a tour of Japan, the United Kingdom and Europe in March.[1]

For all shows on the tour, a special "VIP package" was offered to fans, including a merchandise bundle with an exclusive Residents t-shirt, beanie and record bag, and a meet-and-greet with Homer Flynn, with the opportunity for VIP fans to have their photos taken with Flynn in front of a "full sized backdrop of The Residents". The meet-and-greet sessions will take place 90 minutes prior to the shows.

Legacy[]

"" set design by , 1992

"A Spirit Steals A Child" set design by Ron Davis, 1992

The Eskimo Opera Proposal (with vocals from Chris Romero and Mark Salvatore) was released officially on the compilation album dot.com in 2000, and later featured (newly remastered by Scott Colburn) on the pREServed edition of Eskimo in 2019. 

The Residents' continuing desire to adapt Eskimo in a visual context eventually culminated in the creation of the Eskimo DVD in 2002, featuring the original album in 5.1 surround sound, with still images and text directly adapting the corresponding stories from the album's liner notes.

Dates[]

Night of Ideas[]

  • March 2nd 2024 - San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco, California (condensed version)

Exotikon Exotica and Tiki Festival[]

First leg - North America[]

See also[]

"" set design by , 1992

"The Festival of Death" set design by Ron Davis, 1992

Listen online[]

External links and references[]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Homer Flynn: Spokesperson for The Residents Interview" by Geek Retrospective on YouTube
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Fifty Years Of Weird & Wacky Wonderfulness", Musique Machine, March 23rd 2022
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "ESKIMO? NIGHT OF IDEAS? HUH!", The Residents' News Machine, February 26th 2024
  4. ↑ Uncle Willie, Uncle Willie's Highly Opinionated Guide To The Residents, 1993
  5. ↑ "THE RESIDENTS playing ESKIMO at the San Francisco Public Library?", The Residents' News Machine, March 5th 2024
  6. ↑ Jonathan Thornton, "Homer Flynn: The Outsideleft Interview", Outsideleft, February 9th 2025
Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.