Tiger Lillies Russia Concert

If you’re in Russia and looking for an unusual night out, you might want to check out British band the Tiger Lillies (here’s the Russian Tiger Lillies site), who are playing at the Cisterna Hall, Moscow on 3rd April and at the Glav Club, St Petersburg on 4 April.

This is one of my favourite Tiger Lillies songs – you can probably guess why.

The Tiger Lillies are a very… unusual… band. I can’t think of an adequate description, so I’m going to shamelessly steal from their Wikipedia profile:

Their surreal style has been described as dark, darkly humorous, strangely humorous, Brechtian, and gypsy cabaret. They are also notorious for singing controversial songs involving bestiality, prostitution and blasphemy.

If you’re a fan of Leningrad (who I’ve written about before), I think you’ll like the Tiger Lillies. They both share the same, slightly deranged sense of humour, and both bands’ frontmen have very off the wall singing voices.

(The Tiger Lillies and Leningrad collaborated on an album once, by the way, a collection of Tiger Lillies songs translated into Russian and performed mostly by Leningrad. The album is called Huinya, which if you speak Russian probably tells you everything else you need to know).

I’ve seen the Tiger Lillies a few times now, and I really can’t recommend them highly enough. I think I’m pretty much safe in guaranteeing that you’ll probably have never seen anything like the Tiger Lillies before, and you’ll probably never see anything like the Tiger Lillies again.

For your listening and viewing pleasure, I’ve picked out a few more videos, including some from their previous Moscow gigs (not great quality video, I know). If you’re listening in public, be warned – some of the lyrics could be considered offensive.

Tiger Lillies – Bully Boys

Tiger Lillies – Banging in the Nails (Moscow)

(PS – this is the last couple of minutes of Banging in the Nails. If you’re easily offended don’t go seeking out the full version. And definitely don’t seek it out if you like Jesus.)

Tiger Lillies – Crack of Doom (Moscow)

Tiger Lillies – Angry (Moscow)