THURSDAY January 12th
8:30 doors, 9pm music
$5-20
TWO Philly percussion legends in DUO!
Toshi Makihara has been improvising since the early 1980s in the USA, Japan and innumerable places within and without. He was an avid supporter and player at the Red Room and High Zero since “day 1.” His playing is technical and precise, yet also wild and unpredictable. His 40+ years of dance collaborations and studies in Butoh have lent his performances a unique combo of gesture, humor, and physicality to complement his often noisy and frantic sounds.
Ben Bennett is an utterly unique musician and artist who’s YouTube livestreaming is as infamous and uncategorizable as it is confounding and opaque. His percussion work is nearly as strange! Often playing on the floor with just a frame drum and various cymbals and metal, he creates really alien and otherworldy sounds.
Seeing these two together in this new collaboration will be unmissable.
Also: The trio of James Young-bassoon, Nate Scheible-percussion and Tom Borax-synth.
Nate Scheible is a DC-based drummer/improviser who has performed and recorded in a variety of bands and ensembles spanning multiple genres over the past 25 years. Collaborators in recent years include Sarah Hughes, Nik Francis, Layne Garrett, and the bands Mock Identity and Zara. While his background is largely based in improvisation, his recent solo work has focused on the manipulation of magnetic audio tape, radio waves, and fancy electronics his friends are willing to lend him, featured prominently in releases by such labels as ACR, Never Anything, and Unifactor. His most recent album Fairfax received a vinyl reissue by Warm Winters Ltd in spring, 2022. Nate is also an active organizer and curator at the non-profit community arts space Rhizome DC.
Bassoonist James Young is a texpat making music in Baltimore. He is a composer and improviser, administrator, educator, and show runner. He has built, housed, or developed a number of musical projects and organizations. Of these, Mind on Fire, established early 2017, is the apotheosis of a decade’s worth of musical research and observation. It is a modular chamber orchestra featuring the works of contemporary composers and showcasing performers of all disciplines for people of all backgrounds. Mind on Fire “offers some of the most fascinating experimental productions in the area.” (Baltimore Sun)
Tom Borax is a musician and multimedia artist performing and improvising in Baltimore and outward for over 30 years. His music and art centers on unstable systems and technology and the instabilities inherent in our (his) relationship to them.