Some 15 years ago, Quintron crawled from the murky depths of the New Orleans bayou to bring “swamp-tech” to the world. Relying largely on self-made instruments, including his patented Drum Buddy, he has released 13 full-length albums that, as he says, “have the psychedelic soul of New Orleans garage R&B filtered through a tough, distorted Hammond B-3.”

Quintron

Replete with handmade puppets courtesy of his partner-in-performance, Miss Pussycat (who sings back-up vocals as though she were schooled by Kate Pierson herself), Quintron’s live show is a mess of shiny things, dripping sweat and slack jaws. With his unbuttoned shirt and proclivity for offbeat commentary onstage (“Does this shirt look gay? This song is dedicated to anyone who’s ever eaten chicken out of a handbag!”), Quintron can come off as aggressively weird. But maybe that’s not a bad thing. When his fingers start shimmying over those organ keys and Miss Pussycat’s maracas get shaking, a strange kind of voodoo fills the air. Sitting in Ike & Jane, watching Quintron videos on YouTube, it was all this writer could do not to start wiggling uncontrollably in her chair.

From The B-52s to of Montreal, Athens is a town with a grand tradition of incubating bizarre acts with shows that emphasize silliness and merrymaking, which are also linchpins of Quintron and Miss Pussycat’s aesthetic.

“I want the audience to have a really good time with me and party,” says Miss Pussycat. “When I do a show and it’s really fun, I forget that we’re having a show.” Miss P has just finished work on a new puppet theater, which she’ll be debuting this weekend, along with a new live puppet show. It seems a fitting choice. Though they may take beignets over biscuits, Quintron and Miss Pussycat’s loose, madcap music-making and performance make them honorary members of Athens’ society of the weird and wonderful. Saturday's 11 p.m. show is FREE!