Big Mess Orchestra puts the cat out for its 25th anniversary

Holidays have you a little strung out? Reclaim them with a collection of strings (and other instruments) you’re unlikely to hear anywhere else, when Philly’s Big Mess Orchestra celebrates its 25th anniversary at the Trocadero.

According to Big Mess, it boasts “entertainment for the puerile sophisticate in Philadelphia for a quarter of a century.” It’s “a community of performers” that’s been drawing from the best Philly stage professionals of all genres for years, “never clearly defined enough to be what the young people would call a collective, but retaining enough identity to remain highly specific.”

This year, the Big Mess Orchestra’s Big Mess Cabaret is coming back after seven years for Cabaret Wir Werden die Katze Auflassen (We’ll Put the Cat Out), at the Trocadero for two nights only, December 16 and 17. Special guests the Divine Hand Ensemble (featuring the otherworldly stylings of Mano Divina’s operatic theremin), and the Philadelphia Ukulele Orchestra will bring strings to spare. According to the Ukulele Orchestra, it’ll be an “R-rated evening of Vaudeville, burlesque, torch songs, drag queens, [and] theater folk shenanigans.”

You can catch the holiday mood, Big Mess-style, with a listen to their 2004 Have Yourself collection, available here. Unusual voices bring wry, irreverent dedication to Christmas standards like Good King Wenceslas and Adeste Fidelis. Weird auditory flourishes meet unexpected instruments (from tubas to electric guitars) with surprising rhythms and moments of irresistible dissonance, as if the music might go marching off on its own at any moment. It all adds up to a strangely fresh and alluring nostalgia.

The Big Mess Orchestra’s Big Mess Cabaret, Wir Werden die Katze Auflassen, is coming to the Trocadero Theater at 10th and Arch Streets on December 16 and 17 (doors at 8pm, show at 9pm). Ages 21 and over. Tickets ($20 advance general admission; $25 day of show) are available online for Friday and Saturday nights.