Livin' La Vida Randy: The Residents at the Abron Arts Center, NYC, Sat., March 24

I knew pretty much nothing about the Residents until about a year ago. Sure, I'd hear about them, but I never actually heard them.

Anyway, last year they played World Cafe Live, and I went to the show out of curiosity and with zero expectations. The show was great and I became a fan.

So, upon hearing that Residents singer "Randy Rose" (not his real name) was bringing his one-man show to the Abron Arts Center NYC, I decided I had to go. There were several California performances last year, but the Abron shows were the first (and most likely only) East Coast shows, so I bought a ticket and hopped on the Greyhound. Also, it was really close to my old NYC neighborhood - I lived at 169 East Broadway from 1995-1996.

There are actually three characters in the play: Sam (played by "Randy"), Mack the Piano Player (Joshua Raoul Brody, in a full clown costume), and an unnamed waitress. As we filed into the theater, Mack was already playing. After being seated, the waitress wandered through the crowd, offering drinks in a thoroughly unpleasant fashion. (I had one - pretty sure it was Hawaiian Punch.)

Then, Sam enters, howling the words to "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" while propping himself up with a walker and swigging from a pint of Jim Beam. It's his birthday, and he's drunk and miserable, so he wants to sing a few songs.

Sam lost everything. Once a child of wealth in privilege, he was drafted and sent to Vietnam, spent time as a POW, cheated on his wife, was fired from the family business, and had a falling out with his son. He's now a broken-down (and broke) alcoholic.

If this sounds like dark stuff, it is, but there are also of humorous moments, especially in the first act. The play makes use of lots of pop songs as both plot devices and comic relief.

"Randy" remains a heck of a singer, though a decidedly nontraditional one, and a compelling performer. His "Mack The Knife" was pretty amazing, and his snarling on "Who Do You Love" was truly convincing. Brody's piano work was stellar. He left the piano a few times over the course of the evening to dance and act, and the switch to pre-recorded piano tracks was seamless.

All in all, well worth the trip.