This is The Tiger Lillies — “A Clockwork Orange” meets Jesus meets some kid whose thumbs were snipped off with pinking shears. You might walk out when the band members take up their instruments and commence their theatrics. Then again, if you’re an odd sort, you’ll be enthralled.

“It’s a big, strange mix, really,” said usually-falsetto lead singer Martyn Jacques. “It’s quite funny and quite beautiful and quite disturbing. It’s an emotional rollercoaster. Some people leave because it gets rather disturbing at times.”

Well, you don’t hear that sort of refreshing honesty from a singer very often.

But then again, this isn’t the local hair band. And for their fair number of critics, The Tiger Lillies also have an international following that makes them big enough to take a few knocks.

As Jacques tries to explain his shows with mates Adrian Stout and Adrian Huge, all sorts of things come out that are unfamiliar territory for Lancaster: “avant-garde cabaret,” “musical cabaret theater,” “vaudevillian,” “cult cabaret band.”

And indeed, when in America, this band typically plays New York City and West Coast venues rather than the relatively small space at 215 N. Queen St., the future home of Lancaster Museum of Art. But the band was called here to do a job — raise money for the museum’s new digs at an over-21 Halloween ball that includes a cash bar, silent auction, costume prizes, an opening show by New York City punk band Headfloss and The Tiger Lillies with their carnivalesque crew of lyrical characters — strippers, streetwalkers, junkies and, yes, maybe a little bit of Jesus.

In their makeup and warped attire, they may look like a train wreck, but this was no accident. Mitch Jureckson, who rallied the benefit show as both as a museum trustee and Lancaster business owner, came across the band’s name when he looked into the phenomenal success of Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, which transformed a sleepy town into a tourist mecca. Who helped? Believe it or not, it was The Tiger Lillies, whose fiendish shock value struck a nerve with the people and the pocketbooks that helped make Mass MoCA a raging success.

Still, Jureckson admits he thought twice about bringing the group’s antics to Lancaster. A few references to Jesus, bones standing in for drum sticks and an oddly reverent irreverence might be a rollercoaster for some but downright blasphemy for the less tolerant.

“I had some reservation, but I have more faith in Lancaster as I’ve seen it evolve over the last few years,” Jureckson said. “This is what museums are all about. It’s about expression and creativity. This band does a good job of representing those points of view.”

And we might be hungry for it. With little advance publicity, 200 tickets are already reserved and people have called from as far away as Texas for a chance to see a rare stateside performance by The Tiger Lillies, named by Jacques after a London prostitute who always wore tiger stripes.

Cabaret in its most traditional form is making a comeback. Molly’s Pub has long held almost impromptu cabaret shows by actors and singers appearing in local theater productions. The Fulton Opera House recently opened cabaret shows with performers imported from New York City cabarets.

“It’s become more fashionable over the past five or six years,” Jacques said. “We get a lot of people coming in. We’ve performed on the West End stage for 12 weeks to over 1,000 people and sold out.”

Careful, though. This show is not your average cabaret, if there is a thing. It references gypsy ballads, Bob Dylan, yodeling, flamenco, Left Bank Paris, Louis Armstrong, punk, the Smiths and every other genre you can name.

The Tiger Lillies might best be described by the company they keep. They were discovered by David Byrne of Talking Heads fame. In an interesting pairing, the band produced 2003’s “The Gorey End,” based on works by whimsically macabre author and illustrator Edward Gorey.

In 2005, out popped the DVD, “Mountains of Madness,” a stage show flavored with the rantings of horror writer H.P. Lovecraft.

With 18 albums and a DVD under their belts, these boys have endured on a fringe that has become the fabric — albeit a patchwork.

“We get all types at our shows. We get the theatergoing audience. We get young punks. We get people in drag and transvestites. It’s an amazing diversity of ages,” Jacques said. “We get people who dress up in outlandish costumes and people who look very normal. But we usually tend to get an intelligent bunch, really — people who are rather odd and perhaps don’t follow the mainstream kinds of interests. They follow the margins and the darker things.”


Halloween Ball, with The Tiger Lillies, plus cash bar, costume prizes, silent auction and refreshments, 21 and over only, benefits Lancaster Museum of Art, today, 7:30 p.m., at the new Lancaster Museum of Art facility, 215 N. Queen St., $25, 394-3497.