During a recent concert at the Shoreline Amphitheatre, pop singer Ke$ha performed her song “Blah Blah Blah” with six backup dancers dressed in The Residents’ iconic imagery of tuxedo-wearing eyeball heads sporting top hats

Although The Residents haven’t used that look onstage for some time, it’s practically their logo… What gives?

The NBC Bay Area website canvassed reaction on The Residents’ Facebook page:

Some fans think it’s an outrage, including Sara Creamcheese Brandau. “I’m not a naturally litigious person but if you can sue her you really should. Unless you guys are, honored by this tribute? Alright, I gotta throw up,” Brandau posted.

Others, like John H. Felix, don’t see a problem. “Fans of a band who have been maniacally appropriating pop culture for their own needs complain about musician appropriating band for her own needs, film at 11,” Felix posted.

Rick Gawel said, “She’s using the eyeballs and tuxes, so what? If it were Primus, who are huge Residents fans and have played with them, people would probably be OK with it.”

Chris Mathew, who shot the video, said he think Ke$sha is a Residents’ fan herself. “If I had to guess, Ke$ha’s secretly a fan of their [The Residents] stuff… the way she introduced everything, it sounded like she was trying to shoehorn eyeballs into the equation.  And then, viola!  Residents dancers,” Mathew said.

“They were so accurate that, for a second, I thought it was really The Residents onstage and this was just their latest stunt.  But then they started moving wayyyy too young-like for that to be the case.”

Loving homage or rip-off, the idea of Ke$ha being a big Residents fan seems likely since she was also seen wearing a Duck Stab! tee-shirt on her MTV reality show.

One fan, Neal Burgess, wondered if “Maybe Kesha bought 5 of those Ultimate Boxed Sets?”
 

 
H/T WFMU on Twitter