Everybody must get HIGH ZERO (Sept. 23-26 2010)

One of the grandest institutions in Baltimore is the High Zero festival, which brings normal life to a halt every year in September and cancels out rational thought in favor of a maelstrom of freaking out (aka “improvised music”). The festival is curated by the Red Room collective, of which Matmos’ M. C. Schmidt is now a very talkative member, and both M. C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel will be taking part in the shows this year, along with a galaxy of more talented people we can’t list here. The festival concerts begin on September 23 (John Coltrane’s birthday), and they end, finally, on September 26th (Olivia Newton-John’s birthday). This makes the High Zero Festival a Libra, suggesting that its fiery, feisty, extroverted nature is an index of powerful sidereal forces, though its position on the cusp of Virgo indexes the balance of air sign and earth sign energies, suggesting the diplomatic mixture of Baltimorean and visiting musicians kidnapped from across the globe that makes High Zero so folksy-yet-sophisto. The concerts take place at The Theatre Project at 45 W. Preston Street. Drew will play on Friday night in a four piece with Dan Deacon, Tuna Pase and Juanjosé Rivas, and on Sunday night in a four piece with Shayna Dunkelman, Keith Fullerton Whitman, and Wobbly. M. C. Schmidt plays on Sunday Night in a duo with Tomoko Sauvage. But if you want to blow all the bad shit out of your mind you should just go to all of this festival. Go to Highzero.org for details and information about tickets. PS a little bird told us that the t-shirts designed for the fest this year are really trippy so come and get one.

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