Tiger Lillies

Serenade From The Sewer

5 March

Her Majesty’s Theatre

*****

Just so there’s no speculation as to what this reviewer thought of this performance, I’ll get it out the way at the outset, this was simply brilliant, thoroughly enjoyable show, loved every minute.

With that out the way, I will get to the review proper.

Founded in 1989 by leader Martyn Jacques, they mix genres aplenty, a bit of vaudeville with the macabre painted faces, satire, a generous dose of Brecht, a bit of early Tom Waits, even Edna Everage with the falsetto singing, chanson (even though they are English) and god knows what else. But original they definitely are.

This show centred on their latest and approximately 60th album, “Serenade From The Sewer”. Extremely loosely based on the observations of Jaques from the time he lived in Soho in its seedy days, the subject matter is grim, very, very grim, but delivered with a generous dose of satire. One just has to look at the faces of the other trio members to confirm this.

But the show isn’t just Jacques. He is backed by the versatile Adrian Stout on double bass, theremin, bowed saw, yes, you read right, a saw and jews harp with Budi Butenop on drums, percussion, and a number of other effects.

This is the first time I have ever seen Leon Theremin’s 1920 invention ever played live and hats off to Stout as he has certainly mastered what must be a very difficult instrument to play. The same must also be said on the bowed saw. Held by a handle added to the end, Stout used a violin bow to scratch out eerie sounds.

Of course, then there’s Jacques, whose accordion, tiny ukulele, piano and those falsetto vocals dominate the sound.

The subject matter of the songs, as noted above, is grim. In the “Gin Bar” everyone’s death is imminent due to deadly back yard gin, in “Bar Italia” the subject of the song died in the gutter, you get the idea! There was, however, one very notable exception. In the third encore it rapidly became clear that the pile of corpse was not the cue for another satire, but a song about Ukraine, his views on the war being crystal clear.

If ever theTiger Lillies are performing anywhere near, drop everything and book a ticket, unmissable.