Back in the days when we used to listen to WORT on a regular basis, I had the studio phone number memorized. I had fairly good luck at winning CD’s and tickets for shows, though I could rarely make it out of the house to go.

One evening though, Dalton and I were sitting around and WORT was on. The Residents were in town and they were very excited and were having some sort of ticket giveaway. Now I had no idea who they were. I didn’t know any of their music. He was familiar with The Residents and clued me in. His description of their music was a bit all over the board. “A breed apart” and all that…

The Residents are a band that performs in costume. Not EXACTLY like Kiss, but costume none the less. They are usually garbed in top hats and giant eyeball masks.

As the frenzy on the WORT show increased Dalton and I had decided to go for the tickets when the opportunity came. We were free that night and thought it would be fun. Live music, you can’t go wrong.

They announced the giveaway and I released my deathgrip on the phone long enough to dial the studio number. I was caller # 2. I immediately hung up and called again. Boom! I was the 5^th caller and the winner! Woo hoo!

They took my information and then described to me what I had won. NOT concert tickets as we had thought, but tickets to a VIP Party given before the show. What the?!… so, it was for some food and drink and possibly with the band in attendance (though likely not). They never appeared in public without their costumes and were notorious for refusing interviews and not talking to the press in order to keep their privacy. Were they going to reveal themselves to a bunch of locals and contest winners?

Hmph. So like running out to buy a CD with hopes of having the band sign it? No way.

We wouldn’t even know if they were there!

So basically we won tickets to hang out with a bunch of strangers before a Residents show, and The Residents might be there, but we would probably never know, and we didn’t have tickets to the actual show itself.

Fail.

Party with The Residents (or not).

We chose not.