Kettles Of Fish On The Outskirts Of Town

***Kettles Of Fish On The Outskirts Of Town*** is a box set compiling archival live material by The Residents, released April 7th 2003 by Euro Ralph in celebration of the group's 30th Anniversary.

The box set contains three CDs and a DVD; the first two discs present several live tracks by The Residents in mostly chronological order, and the third presents selections from the group's one-off shows.

The DVD features a selection of (mostly previously unreleased) video material from The Residents' shows between 1983 and 2001; it had been previously released in limited numbers as *Live! ...On the Outskirts* in October 2002.

## History

### Background

Aside from a few one-off performances as Residents, Uninc. between 1971 and 1972, The Residents refused to perform live for much of their first decade of being, with the 1976 "Mummy" show being their only official live performance during the time. The Residents were perfectionists and weren't confident in their ability to recreate their studio-based sound in a live setting.

This changed in 1982 when the group purchased their first sampler, the E-mu Emulator, which would allow them to playback any recording using the device's keyboard. The Residents promptly began planning their first tour, The Mole Show, which, although an artistic and critical success, left the group dissatisfied and financially dire. Deciding that live performance wasn't for them, they vowed never to tour again.

This vow proved short-lived, as in 1985 a Japanese record label commissioned the group to tour Japan. The tour and its subsequent legs were designed to be minimalist and cost-effective, and proved to be very successful. Said tour immediately led to the development of Cube-E, a more visually and sonically advanced show which toured from 1988 to 1990. Once again, the show was very successful. Still, after suffering further mishaps on tour (including an incident where a speaker caught fire after falling into the audience), The Residents again vowed never to tour again.

For the next eight years, the group refused to tour, but did agree to occasional one-off performances (for those willing to pay for them). But this policy changed when the success of a one-off performance of their *Wormwood* album inspired the group to take the concert on the road. By early 2003, the group had just completed their follow-up tour to Wormwood, Icky Flix, which ran throughout 2001.

### Box set and DVD

Starting in November 2001, The Cryptic Corporation and Starr Sutherland (with assistance from Guido Randzio) began compiling a box set of archival audio and video from classic live performances by The Residents to celebrate the group's upcoming 30th anniversary.

Euro Ralph sold an early version of the DVD, titled *Live! ...On The Outskirts*, on the Demons Dance Alone tour, which began on October 25th 2002, six months before the box set's official release in April 2003.

The DVD mainly contained unreleased material, but the content featured on the CDs had had mostly been previously released, except the "Black Barry / Engine 44 / Voodoo Queen" outtake from *Cube-E Live in Holland*, "I Hate Heaven", "Mr. Misery" and "Walter Westinghouse" from the Wormwood 98 performance, excerpts from the Brava performance of Icky Flix (including pieces left off the official live album for this material), and excerpts from the Adobe Disfigured Night show and the Snakey Wake.

## Track listing

### Disc One (61:10)

1. Penn Jillette's Greeting (Live, October 30th 1982) (0:26)
2. Marching To The Sea (Live, June 6th 1983) (1:54)
3. Mole Show (End Of Act 1) (Live, April 10th 1982) (7:42)
	* Final Confrontation
4. Happy Home (Live, October 30th 1982) (2:58)
5. Rich Shupe's Greeting (Live, February 10th 1986) (0:46)
6. Hello Skinny (Live, October 25th 1986) (3:15)
7. Picnic In The Jungle (Live, October 30th 1985) (Residents/Snakefinger) (5:40)
8. Monkey And Bunny (Live, October 30th 1985) (Residents/Renaldo/Loaf) (4:20)
9. Walter Westinghouse (Live, October 25th 1986) (8:20)
10. David Sanborn's Greeting (Live, January 13th 1990) (0:14)
11. Buckaroo Blues / The Stampede (Live, March 29th 1990) (9:55)
12. Black Barry / Engine 44 / Voodoo Queen (Live, March 6th 1990) (5:48)
13. Shorty And Shirley (Live, March 6th 1990) (8:33)
	* The Baby King (Pt. 1)
	* Love Me Tender
	* The Baby King (Pt. 2)
	* Theme From Buckaroo Blues

### Disc Two (55:31)

1. Disfigured Night Intro (Live, October 31st 1997) (0:16)
2. Disfigured Night (Excerpt 1) (Live, October 31st 1997) (4:15)
3. Disfigured Night (Excerpt 2) (Live, August 16th 1997) (3:16)
4. Wormwood (Opening) (Live, July 13th 1999) (5:56)
	* King of Kings
	* In The Beginning
	* Welcome to Wormwood (God's Business)
5. I Hate Heaven (Live, October 31st, 1998) (2:45)
6. Hanging By His Hair (Live, July 13th 1999) (3:23)
7. Mr. Misery (Live, October 31st, 1998) (2:24)
8. Judas Saves (Live, July 13th 1999) (8:41)
9. Old Time Religion (Live, July 19th 1999) (3:56)
10. Icky Flix Theme (Live, October 28th 2001) (0:14)
11. The Gingerbread Man (Live, October 28th 2001) (10:07)
	* The Weaver
	* The Dying Oilman
	* The Sold-Out Artist
	* The Aging Musician
	* The Old Woman
12. Just For You (Live, October 28th 2001) (6:03)
13. Buckaroo Blues Theme (Live, October 28th 2001) (2:44)

### Disc Three (60:50)

1. American Band Story (Live, May 1997) (0:42)
2. Forty Four (Live, October 31st 1997) (3:42)
3. Six More Miles (Williams) (Live, August 24th 1987) (2:13)
4. The Party (Excerpt) (Live, Spring 1972) (2:52)
	* Eloise
	* The Sandman
5. Eloise (Live, May 1997) (2:41)
6. Numb Erone / Satisfaction / Kick A Cat (Live, June 7th 1976) (4:24)
7. Howard (Live, May 1997) (6:02)
8. Loss Of Innocence (Live, October 31st 1997) (3:35)
9. Tension Of The String (Live, August 24th 1987) (4:06)
10. Constantinople (Live, May 1997) (1:41)
11. Herman, The Human Mole (Live, October 31st 1997) (4:05)
12. Black (Live, May 1997) (2:50)
13. Snakey Wake (Excerpt) (Live, August 24th 1987) (2:24)
14. Jack, The Boneless Boy (Live, October 31st 1997) (5:52)
15. Kamikazi Lady (Live, May 1997) (4:08)
16. D Is For Doorknob (Live, October 18th 1971) (1:19)
17. Walter Westinghouse (Live, October 31st, 1998) (6:30)

### DVD (94:57)

1. The Secret Seed [06/21/1983] (2:43)
2. The Observer [06/21/1983] (1:26)
3. Cry For The Fire [10/05/1986] (7:03)
4. Man's World (Australia) (Brown) [08/1986] (5:17)
5. From The Plains To Mexico [01/1990] (4:24)
6. Bury Me Not [03/1989] (3:02)
7. How To Get A Head [04/1999] (5:20)
8. Dinah And The Unclean Skin [04/1999] (3:54)
9. Fire Fall [07/1999] (6:22)
10. Man's World (San Francisco) (Brown) [10/28//2001] (2:43)
11. Constantinople [03/30//2001] (2:43)
12. One Minute Movies [10/28//2001] (4:41)
	1. Moisture
	2. The Simple Song
	3. The Act of Being Polite
	4. Perfect Love
13. Burn Baby Burn [03/30//2001]  (3:49)
14. Benny The Bouncing Bump [10/28//2001] (9:40)
15. Bridegroom Of Blood [10/28//2001] (6:45)
16. Ty's Freak Show (NEC) [11/17//1991] (5:02)
17. Freak Show Live / Intro [11/1995] (6:20)
18. Herman [11/1995] (2:04)

## See also

* *Live! ...On The Outskirts*
* *Our Tired, Our Poor, Our Huddled Masses*
* *80 Aching Orphans*

## External links and references

* *Kettles of Fish on the Outskirts of Town* at The Residents Historical
* *Live! ...On the Outskirts* at RZWeb (archived via archive.org)
* *Kettles of Fish on the Outskirts of Town* at Discogs