Their mélange of Vaudevillian antics and satirical songs owe as much to Romani (Gypsy) and carnival music as they do Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill and Klaus Nomi, or even Jim Morrison, and Nico and the Velvet Underground.

They may have been called “one of the weirdest and most disconcerting bands of all time” by London’s Telegraph newspaper but The Tiger Lilies have toured the world and built an enormous cult following.

From the feint-hearted there are often gasps of scorn, but for the rest of the audience, their performances are comedic genius, tour manager Tim Whitehead told the University of Los Angeles California magazine, The Daily Bruin.

In appearances, lyrics centre around the dark side of life with all its fears, anxieties, incongruities and perversions, vividly depicting characters dwelling in the seedy underbelly of society, “the gruesome, the macabre and the visceral”.

Founder Martyn Jacques leads the troupe in garish, mainly white and black make-up, exaggerated early 20th century costume and with a voice that ranges from operatic falsetto to a Tom Waits baritone growl, all the while switching between the accordion, piano and ukulele.

Meanwhile, Adrian Stout mainly plays the upright bass, a musical saw and the theremin, an instrument first used on the score of the film “The Lost Weekend” to portray the sadness of alcoholism and made famous by fifties sci-fi movies, such as “The Day the Earth Stood Still”, and in The Beach Boys’ song “Good Vibrations”.

Percussionist Adrian Huge often uses a lavatory as his seat behind a children’s toy drum kit, with additional sounds delivered on kitchen utensils, kazoo, and mouth, with a range of flatulent and other noises, depending on the songs. The band also runs a number of comic physical routines involving Huge whereby he drops his drumsticks to the disdain of his cohorts.

So from what cave does all this darkness made humorous emanate?

Before founding the band, Jacques spent seven years living in solitude above a brothel in London’s Soho district while training himself as an opera singer in the castrati style, all the while writing songs and spying on the lower end of life.

After a few years performing, an early review in 1994 in the London Evening Standard said his “songs of street life are short, savage and passionate, with an unfashionably moral tone that comes in a startling mix of opera, gypsy song and boulevard ballads”.

Despite the seemingly morbid tone, the trio’s performances also range to the hilarious, upbeat and mysterious and include some cover versions of hits such as “My Funny Valentine” and “Send in the Clowns”.

Album names including “Spit Bucket”, “The Brothel to the Cemetery”, and just one of hundreds of songs stretching the limits of vulgarity called, “Kick a Baby”, provide further shock and awe.

Their current tour has taken in dates in St. Petersburg, London, Helsinki, Zurich, Berlin, Bremen and Frankfurt, and on June 8 in Macau audiences will have the opportunity for much more than a live performance, but “a wild ride to the dark side of mankind”.

The Tiger Lillies – Live concert is organised by the Macau Cultural Centre. Tickets are available at a range of prices and discounts from the centre’s box office and Kong Seng outlets. For further enquiries please visit www.ccm.gov.mo or call (853) 2870 0699.