With a career spanning over three decades, the eclectic Kronos Quartet has covered a lot of ground. But even with their reputation as a true rock n’ roll “classical” ensemble, watching violinist David Harrington growl in German was a sight to behold at GW’s Lisner Auditorium on Sunday.

The audience suppressed giggles as the string quartet launched into an arrangement of the 1983 song “Armenia” by the influential industrial band Einsturzende Neubauten, with each member banging on various metal objects and cellist Jeffrey Zeigler playing with a circular saw. It was a bit over the top, but it was a perfect example of the quartet’s willingness to venture into all different kinds of musical genres — no matter how unusual it might sound.

The piece, of course, was only a portion of the two-hour performance, which also explored music from the Inuit, Bollywood and Iraq. The quartet began the night with perhaps one of the strongest arrangements, Derek Charke‘s “Cercle du Nord III.” Commissioned by Canadian public radio, the piece utilized sound recordings taken from a 2005 trip to Canada’s Northwest Territories, where Charke attempted to record nature but discovered that the presence of mankind kept interfering — whether through the sound of snowmobiles, trucks or even an Inuit power plant. The arrangement, which played out in three distinct sections, combined the sound recordings with Harrington, violinist John Sherba and violist Hank Dutt playfully trading off parts. The piece also showed off Larry Neff’s excellent lighting design, which effectively followed the mood throughout.