A Night at the High Zero Festival

I went to a concert last night that was part of the High Zero Festival. It's basically a gathering of free improv musicians from Baltimore and the rest of the world to play together.
The concert started with Dutch musician/vocalist Jaap Blonk performing solo. His voice is an amazing instrument; one piece using his "cheek synthesizer" was in stereo- each cheek creating different sounds simultaneously. I was moved by his performance of a Dadaist poem where he shouted the German word "brüllen", meaning "to cry" about a hundred times.
The second piece involved several artists who had there own custom made instruments. They were accompanied by a vocalist and a dancer as well.
The third set included contrabass and 2 theremins, one of which, by Italian musician Massimo Simonini, was prepared so that it produced presampled sounds from piano to what sounded like an Italian disco song.
The fourth set featured former Wolf Eyes menber Aaron Dilloway on tape loops accompanied by a cellist, a violinist, and electronics.
Due to a computer now working, we were lucky to be treated with Jaap Blonk again, this time in a set featuring beat boxer Shodekeh and amazing local percussionist Dan Breen. I think this was the best set of the night.

Peter Brotzmann, Marino Pliakas, & Michael Wertmuller at the Red Room

Last night, I went to see German free music saxophonist, Peter Brotzmann play at the Red Room inside Normal's Books. Accompanying him was Marino Pliakas on electric bass and Michael Wertmuller on drums.
Brotzmann was amazing- despite losing his reeds in his luggage, he sounded great on the saxophone- loud and quiet, noisy and melodic all together. I also loved hearing him humming as he played his instrument.
Wertmuller looked like Michael Madsen, and he was fantastic to hear in the drums, sometimes hitting so hard it sounded like a machine gun (one of my fav Brotzmann albums by the way). Pliakas looked like Richard E. Grant, and with no effects pedals, he was making all these crazy noises on his bass.