At a Hissy Kits show, it’s all about the crowd’s — and cats’ — meows.
Dozens of people came to watch the cat duo perform on a wintery Friday night in November 2025.
The Hissy Kits are a unique pair of instrumentalists. Whiskey wears a tuxedo cat suit, and Scotch dons an orange cat suit. Both wear dark sunglasses, becoming one with their furry personas.
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“When we play, there will be times when you intuitively will know it’s a good time to meow,” one of the Kits told “Wisconsin Life” at the start of their show. “Which is basically whenever you want, because that’s what cats do.”
Social media and a viral story from the Milwaukee news outlet TMJ4 shot Scotch and Whisky — who say they are American shorthair cats — onto the centerstage. During their November show, the duo took the stage at Lion’s Tooth, a small comic bookstore in Milwaukee’s quirky and hipster Bayview neighborhood.
“We want to be a sanctuary for people who are overwhelmed with whatever it is that’s consuming their lives, whether it be family, relationship, the news, a job,” Whiskey said. “We’re just a couple of cats who play some music.”
The cat concert featured yodels, opera and accordion. There were also meows, piano played by Scotch and the analog theremin played by Whiskey. The theremin is an eerie sounding electronic instrument controlled by physical movement typically from a hand, or paw.
It’s heard during the Hissy Kits’ song, “Tails of Two Kitties.”
The beginning of the tune is dramatic and dark. You hear the ominous theremin which sounds like a siren you’d find in London. A plaintive cat meows, then the music shifts from a minor to a major key— becoming a cheerful waltz.
It fits the mystique surrounding the Hissy Kits’ presence. Their true identities are unknown. They say it’s because they aren’t humans — they’re cats.
That night in Bayview, the fans meowed along like a sort of cat chorus. Some had unexpectedly joined the concert crowd while browsing the store or catching glimpses from outside. Others had seen the duo on social media.
In the past, the pair happily avoided social media, hesitant about what some may think of their unconventionality. When Whiskey created their Instagram, Tiktok and Youtube, she realized there’s more fans than haters.
Scotch said the band is rooted in Milwaukee and Wisconsin. They call their genre “feline expressionism.” It’s a craft they created where “anything goes” when it comes to playing. They say they learned it while living at Ruby Rae’s Hideaway, a clandestine supper club “near the Milwaukee airport.”
At least that’s according to the Hissy Kits’ official back story detailed in their most recent album, “Just Add Meows.”
“We had an environment where we could learn to play the instruments, because at the supper club, when the other musicians would leave, the instruments were there,” Whiskey said.
“We couldn’t resist,” Scotch chimed.
The Hissy Kits stick to songs they wrote or ones made before the 1920s. They take their craft seriously. The band even ventured south to a recording studio in Texas and worked with other jazz musicians on their tunes.
Since the album’s release, they’ve performed at Lion’s Tooth, the Mitchell Park Domes and across the Midwest.
But a theremin performance is not always promised because of its “persnickety nature.” The band says it’s why they don’t perform their “wedding theremonies” anymore. Something as small as a bad phone signal or solar flare can impact the instrument. The Hissy Kits had a lawyer write it up in a contract.
“Should something happen on the day beyond our control, that the theremin does not want to work, you will get a performance,” Whiskey said. “It might not be the theremin performance, but you will get a performance.”
Whiskey and Scotch were the only cats at the concert that night. But with the abundance of meows, you’d think a new jazzy litter of cats pranced into town.
As for if dogs are allowed at the concerts, The Hissy Kits say it’s on a case-by-case basis.
“We get along generally pretty well with dogs, but we’re scared of some of them,” Scotch said.
“Wisconsin Life” is a co-production of Wisconsin Public Radio and PBS Wisconsin. The project celebrates what makes the state unique through the diverse stories of its people, places, history and culture.
