Tuesday August 13 * 7pm * $10-25 * TICKETS

“When I get to play music in front of people, I get to access something softer than on my most regular days. I get to move and squeeze and put intention where it would normally feel locked up. If I want to, I can move slower or not say much at all. I can yell with the people next to me. I hope that listeners also feel invited to access sides of them that they might feel are inappropriate in their daily lives. FRIGERATOR formed in Denton, Texas and is a ensemble that first helped me feel this way about music. In its current form, it consists of myself, Keith Butler Jr, Zach Dixon, Sarah Marie Hughes, Abe Mamet, Jamie Sandel, and Nelson Dougherty.” - Will Tober

Washington DC-based ¡FIASCO! was first assembled in 2016 building a unique repertoire of sounds and materials rooted in droning folk songs, jittery hip-hop grooves, grunge, and punk rock. ¡FIASCO! was signed to Unit Records in 2023 and released their Unit debut Anger Artist in January 2024. This follows two independent releases Arson (2020) and Post-Truth (2021), which received substantial regional acclaim and secured the band performances at the DC Jazz Festival, and with acts like Messthetics and Harriet Tubman. Throughout years of club gigs, experimentation with original and re-imagined repertoire, and growing sophistication with electronics and effects, combining a jazz form with rock aesthetics and attitude, ¡FIASCO! built a following and a sound uniquely their own. 

Cutting Ceremony is a new improvised music trio. The members are:

----- Pete Dennis (they/he), a musician, improviser, composer, visual artist, and teacher. Living in West Philadelphia, Dennis is inspired by their beautiful community and the future. Other ever present inspirations include William Parker, the works of Octavia E. Butler, their partner Abigail, and the knowledge that all vibrations carry the potential to transmit the truths of life and death. Dennis’s recorded creations are released using the project name Search for the Infinite Light and include but are not limited to: Killing a Dixie Hummingbird (2019), World’s End Welcoming Committee (2021), and pastē (2022). They believe that sound is the foundation of healing and would like to acknowledge all master improvisers of the past, present, and future;

----- Tracy Lisk (she/her), a percussionist who mainly performs on drum set, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Ms. Lisk’s history as a painter and background in Brazilian percussion inform the substance of her improvisations which contain references to rhythmic structures while maintaining a fluid, suspended continuity. She has collaborated with William Parker, saxophonist Gary Hassay, Andrea Pensado, dancer Ryuzo Fukuhara (JP, SI), and Mia Zabelka (AU), cellist Helena Espvall (PT), among others;

----- and Abe Mamet (he/him), a French horn player from Denver, Colorado and living in Mt. Rainier, MD. Abe's main artistic motive as a composer and instrumentalist is to use considered composition and rigorously practiced improvisation to more honestly ground himself, his fellow musicians, and his audiences within the spaces they occupy daily. Abe is further interested in expanding the use of the French horn in groove-oriented improvised music (aligned with and informed by jazz/creative music/BAM), and expanding the technical and theoretical limitations of that instrument.