Tiger Lillies at the Moore Theatre Seattle WA Nov 6th 2009, a Review
On Friday Nov 6th the Seattle International Cabaret Festival kicked off with arguably the best band for the job: The Tiger Lillies.
The band has been applying their macabre vision of the world to cabaret/music hall/vaudeville since 1989 and have become masters and their mutant art-form. The night's performance was a bit of a "greatest hits" show with selections reaching all the way back to 1994's Births, Marriages and Deaths, a goodly number coming from their popular Shockheaded Peter recording.
Even though the Tiger Lillies were playing to a crowd of rabid fans the group knows how to keep the audience on their toes... and to keep *themselves* entertained. Clearly Martyn, Adrian and Adrian don't see their work as sacrosanct: established numbers are reworked to give them a different spark than you'll find on the recorded versions: an almost disco back beat is applied to one old favorite while another is amped up to ludicrous speed.
But the performance wasn't just about novelty: it's about three amazing performers who have built themselves one finely tuned stage machine.
-The Tiger Lillies are the Three Stooges of dark cabaret.-
Martyn Jacques is the suitably sinister and violent leader who's fractured personality leads the other two to their doom, Adrian Huge is the spot-light stealing human cartoon and Adrian Stout the innocent bystander... who just happens to have Perfect Timing and a fabulously dry sense of humor. The end result was as side splittingly funny as it was grotesque and disturbing.
But the secret key to the show's success may be that boys have learned how to invert the classic horror movie director maxim: instead of giving us the occasional joke so we don't laugh at the scary parts the Tiger Lillies know just when to hit the audience with a few songs that are serious/sincere. This tactic keep the listeners from getting comfortable by accepting the group as being simply "wacky". It also gives those slower, sadder songs more of an impact... they hit home harder.
The end result wasn't all just comedy and horror. The Tiger Lillies' grand guignol musings are also revelatory in a fun-house mirror way. By showing people at their worst they imply that there is more to the world, and to ourselves, than we are typically willing to admit. If old Billy Blake was correct and the Road of Excess *does* lead to the Palace of Wisdom then surely the Twisted Path of Depravity Leads to the Kingdom of Humanity. The Tiger Lillies' no-frills Alice Cooper-as-vaudevillian stage show just backs up the common man- as-disturbed-eye witness point of view taken by Martyn.
You ARE there... and it's not pretty. Yet you can't take your eyes off of it. What does that say about you, what does it say about us?
Oh yeah: and in the end they were fucking hysterical.
(As illustrated by the fact I went into paroxysms of giggles during "Kick a Baby")
PS: Sitting in the back few rows with the Bad Things is like getting stuck at the kid's table at a holiday party: raucous, humerus and *way* better than sitting politely next to the guest of honor.
It was a nice way to ease into the after party the Bad Things hosted at the Can Can.
Seattle International Cabaret Festival~
The Tiger Lillies~
The Bad Things~
The Can Can~
The Three Stooges~
William Blake~
Alice Cooper~