Daiana Feuer on July 2nd, 2017

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At Highland Park Ebell Club on Thursday night, Quintron and Miss Pussycat presented a vision of adulthood where childhood never really ends. It sticks around as this lens that renders the rest of the world into cartoon. Quintron at his toy station, a one-man band with every limb doing something, played his instruments like he’s the organist at a circus in another dimension, by a swamp, in Louisiana. Miss Pussycat, with her puppets and inflatable castle, wearing a dress adorned with Barbie clothes, shook her maracas like she could do it until she died in one continuous never-ending song. If you, personally, have no idea how to grow up, this band truly resonated with you.

Quintron is an inventor, a man who can turn his madness into objects. His creations include a hand organ that requires spit as a conductor, and a drone synthesizer controlled by the weather, but the Drum Buddy is his most popular invention. Seeing it in person was a thrill in itself. It looked like a night light made from a tin can and the floor of a bowling alley. It’s a mechanically-rotating, five-oscillator, light-activated drum machine. The beats are created from light. In a word, magic.

Every one of Quintron’s appendages had a job. The Hammond organ at his finger tips, pedals and a hi-hat controlled by his feet, plus singing and occasional lap steel strumming with a drum stick — no wonder he was drenched in sweat from head to toe by the end of their performance. He literally peeled his shirt off his skin. Miss Pussycat, on the other hand, doesn’t appear to sweat, despite how hard she was working those maracas. Maybe she’s an angel, since angels don’t sweat. But angels do create adorable, esoteric puppet shows that make sense of the world with childlike wonder.

The duo played about an hour of glitchy swamp tech drawing from their 15-year career, culminating in the release of balloons into the audience. Department of Descriptive Services started off the night, showcasing Bebe Mcpherson as a cherry-red-headed dictator with hilarious, important information to impart. Feels followed, starting the set with “Close My Eyes,” a favorite from their 2016 self-titled album. They mixed in some new songs, testing out material for the next record.