Recap Quintron And Miss Pussycat at High Noon Saloon

The New Orleans duo of Quintron And Miss Pussycat spun the High Noon Saloon into a funky, clumsy dance party on Thursday night in a brain-bending performance loaded with psychedelic puppetry, screeching oscillators, and scorching, organ-fueled dance-pop.

But first, locals Zola Jesus kicked things off with a set of meandering industrial-pop that not only seemed more polished than its previous shows, but also stripped away much of the noisy crust found on the group's recordings. Ohio band Psychedelic Horseshit hit the stage afterward, only to sloppily drag the audience down to the bowels of “lo-fi.” The drummer used a cardboard box pushed up against a cinder block in place of a bass drum, and the band's pawnshop guitars were constantly jangling out of tune. Vocalist Matt Whitehurst informed the audience that “you need to mix your weed with glass” and offered to trade merch for drugs if anyone was interested. After PH closed its set in a final burst of bratty slop with “Dreadlock Paranoia,” Quintron And Miss Pussycat erected a giant white puppet stage-box—which also converted into a monstrous puppet itself, complete with two eyes, two arms, and a mouth.

The lights dimmed and the duo led into their set with a bizarre puppet show, which was centered around two dogs saving three raindrops that had been kidnapped by an evil snake, all set to slow, droning electronic music with pre-recorded noises. With much of the crowd thoroughly amused and/or hypnotized by the puppet show's otherworldly weirdness, Quintron (dressed in a white leisure suit with both a sparkling collar and a cobra patch sewn to the back) hit the stage with Miss Pussycat (clad like a clownish flight attendant) and opened with a blistering organ-fueled shuffle.

Stylistically, Quintron And Miss Pussycat seem to take many nods from old soul music and booty rap, but Quintron's inventiveness is what really sets him apart. He spent most of the set hammering away at a homemade hybrid of an organ and a Rhodes piano, the front of which was made to look like a classic car front complete with real headlights and a license plate reading “QUINTRON.” Additionally, Quintron would use his Drum Buddy, a homemade light-activated synthesizer and drum machine, to create mutant soundscapes and rhythmic hooks.

The wild set pulled largely from 2008's Too Thirsty 4 Love and 2005's Swamp Tech/Electric Swamp, and it came to a close as Quintron jumped into the crowd for a riotous rendition of “Swamp Buggy Badass.” As the smoke from an onstage fog machine cleared, Quintron revealed that he had recorded his entire set onto a cassette. He called up Indra Dunis, co-owner of Madison's Good Style Shop (also a member of Madison experimentalist outfit Peaking Lights, and former member of Numbers), and gave her the tape to sell alongside other oddities.