Who says you can’t make music with gas cans, typewriters, and barbecue grills? If it’s you, then sister cabaret act Vermillion Lies would like to prove you wrong.

Combining these unusual noisemakers with guitar, piano, accordion, bells, and kazoos, real-life sisters Kim and Zoe Boekbinder have created a unique and delightful live show where the unexpected is par for the course and audience participation is a must. They keep their myriad of unusual instruments in a trunk onstage, removing them as needed and prompting the audience to shout, “What’s in the box?” – incidentally, the title of their new album.

The duo has toured the world, from their California home to as far as Portugal and Russia. But whether they’re playing Caesar’s Palace or Moscow’s Gogol Club, these multi-talented ladies are wowing their audiences with their energetic and unpredictable performances.

It seems hard to get a straight answer out of the sisters about their past – rumors abound of a childhood spent traveling the country, or in clown camp. They claim to have been born two days apart, and their name is alleged to have come as the result of Zoe winning an arm-wrestling contest with a sherpa. Both sisters claim to have graduated from the Conservatory of Random Objects
Their music ranges from lyrical folk ballads to chain gang blues, from tangos to old-time jazz. Their lyrical topics are as varied as their music: from a jazz-style murder ballad with kazoo solo to a waltz about global warning and a tango about the solar system, the sisters keep their audiences on their toes. Both sisters lend their vocals – sometimes sulty, sometimes whimsical and childlike, sometimes Lady Day-esque – intertwining vocal harmonies with their unusual instrumentation. Fans of The Dresden Dolls, Tom Waits, Jason Webley, Regina Spektor, Jim Henson, Tim Burton, circuses, carnivals, parades, cabarets, multi-instrumentalists, pots, pans, and sing-alongs will feel like they just met their soulmates.

Vermillion Lies are playing Gallery 5’s third anniversary party on April 4 with a variety of other performers, musical and otherwise. Check out http://www.gallery5arts.org for a complete listing of festivities.