"There's always silence when
we first enter the stage, while they're trying to digest the visuals," says Patti Plinko. "I think they feel we're going to be something quite horrific but we're not that scary.
"At first they're a little bit unsure
but they seem to take to it quite quickly, surprisingly."
The duo's mixture of surreal,
theatrical presentation, Plinko's
haunting, darkly comic vocals and
The Boy's lithe guitar playing is sure
to appeal to fans of Nick Cave and
Tom Waits. Described by Amanda Palmer of American dark cabaret
legends Dresden Dolls as "a mad
Doris Day meets PJ Harvey", Plinko has
christened their style "Dada Noir".
"I love Edith Piaf, Jacques Brel and Billy Holiday. And then Kate Bush
is a big influence as well," she explains. "It's a real mish-mash of music."
Only a year into their career, the band's greatest exposure to date came as a support act on a tour by 1940s revivalists The Puppini Sisters, although the headliners' genteel
audience wasn't always receptive
to Plinko's more leftfield approach.
"The crowd was expecting the
Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy and we came out with this darker, more Berlin, underground, performance art side
of things," says Plinko. "It was
a mixed audience but I think they
were always a bit shocked and didn't quite know what was going on."
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The pair have received as much acclaim for their visual style as for Plinko's rasping croon and 1930s
European matinee idol looks.
"The Boy is gasmasked. He's kind
of a dark figure. I see him as echoing
the darker melodies in the show. So he's usually quite a sinister character around me," Plinko explains.
"But it's hard to say because the show changes every time we do it. We try to stay quite spontaneous. I try to express the darker side of human nature so we do that with various
visuals, and sometimes I'm blindfolded, because it's quite a different experience if you can't see what's going on."
You would think she met The Boy
in some absinthe-soaked encounter
in a Soho club but the truth, alas,
is a little more prosaic.
"I needed a guitarist because I knew
I couldn't do it alone. I had these
musical ideas and as I'm quite new
to writing music, I thought I needed
a guitarist to come and I wanted that darker melody," she says. "There was no great romantic story, I'm afraid. I met him on London community website Gum Tree. I should just make up a fantasy story, really."
Patti Plinko also appears at the Udderbelly's Pasture on Tuesday,
May 6 and 13. Visit wwww.myspace.com/pattiplinkoand
herboy for full details.
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