No, we don’t relegate all of our noise music coverage to September. The folks at Sonic Circuits sponsor shows year-round, and Saturday’s Off the Grid showcase proved that experimental bills need not be an exercise in sifting through diamonds in the rough. All six acts on Saturday were gems.

The show also showed that experimental music need not be electronic. Carver Audain pulled out a computer to accompany his bells and whistles, and there was one solar powered generator, but nearly everything else remained completely unplugged. This wasn’t a stretch for saxophonist Mike Sebastian or punk-tinged no-jazz sextet Gestures (whose drums sounded utterly massive in the small art space.) Pilesar followed up a long percussion-based number with two bluegrass/gospel songs and duo No Serviceable Parts gave the audience sticks and drums for part of their performance. What initially seemed like a move only reserved for middle school music class was a whole lot of fun when turned over to a room full of happy musicians.

The biggest jaw-dropper of the night was Brooklyn’s Bradford Reed (pictured in the video at right, courtesy IntangibleArts). His performance on the pencilina, an instrument that looked like a lap steel crossed with an Autoharp resting on a bass drum, was a true experiment in what music could sound like, without reverting to white noise. The sounds that this bizarre stringed instrument emitted were strange, beautiful and extremely intricate. This is the sort of mind-blowing innovation that one can usually only hope to stumble upon.