Sat. June 19 

  “It makes my career a constant education instead of a boring hamster wheel,” says Amanda Palmer.
     “It” is Evelyn Evelyn, the latest project from Boston-based cabaret-punk singer, formerly of the Dresden Dolls. Palmer put together Evelyn Evelyn with longtime pal, singer-multi-instrumentalist Jason Webley.
      The two play the parts of conjoined-at-the-hip twins, who just happen to have a tragi-comic story to tell in song. The duo just released their debut CD as Evelyn Evelyn, - that’s the name of the disc, too - and kicked off an international tour at Club Oberon in April and returns to House of Blues Saturday June 19. Webley and Palmer will play solo sets, as will their friend, musician-storyteller Sxip Shirey, who also plays the evil narrator in the Evelyn Evelyn show. 

     “It’s a theatrical undertaking with a lot of surprises,” Palmer says, on the phone, before the tour started. “It does feature Evelyn Evelyn in full costume.”  Before the album came out, Palmer floated the notion that Evelyn Evelyn were real conjoined twins “discovered” by her and Webley. People suspected, of course, that it was Palmer and Webley all along. This subterfuge – and the purported subject matter itself - created a mini-storm online. Some bloggers – including ardent Amanda fans - derided the project as insensitive and exploitative.
    “It got misunderstood by a few people who were very vocal about it,” Palmer says. “But I think you can get into serious hot water when you start drawing hard lines around what you can and can’t use to make art. I always am excited to watch certain speed bumps in my art and my career, because they always teach me about myself and about human nature.”
    Neil Gaiman, the famous English graphic novelist who is also Palmer’s fiancé, called Evelyn Evelyn, an “amusing, odd and goofy project, essentially of the American vaudeville tradition. The record is a tragic, strange story, a concept album that reminds me of The Who’s ‘Tommy.’”
    The CD, with Palmer and Webley swapping vocals and acoustic instruments, has songs that are both whimsical and poignant, sometimes a mixture.
    First, they recorded and released three songs on a whim, “Have You Seen My Sister Evelyn?,” “Elephant Elephant”cq and a cover of Joy Division’s classic song of melancholy and broken bonds,  “Love Will Tear Us Apart.” This was in 2007.
     “That was going to be that,” says Palmer. “But Jason and I were enjoying ourselves way too much to stop. We just kept going with it. We would throw out different ideas and styles and bit by bit the story grew. And as it grew the actual back story came - the tragic events that sometimes would inspire another song or a character.”
     “We’re experimenting,” Palmer says. “We’re going to be testing material we may or may not take on the road, parts of the stage shows, alternate endings.”
    And when you see Evelyn Evelyn dressed for the show, they’ll be joined together. You’ll see Webley playing instruments – piano, ukulele, guitar, accordion and drums - with Evelyn Evelyn’s “left” hand and Palmer with her “right.”
   “It’s really hard,” Palmer said, “and that’s the reason we have to rehearse for ten days"  before the tour.

(This is an expanded version of a story that ran in the Boston Herald, www.bostonherald.com.)

Tickets: $35-$20. Doors at 7.

15 Lansdowne St., 617-693-2583 www.hob.com/boston