A psychedelic jam band with enough beats to make a brain bubble, Santa Cruz quintet Sound Tribe Sector 9 has been a thundering force in the jam scene since its 1999 debut album “Interplanetary Escape Vehicle.” With sharp instrumentals and mesmerizing laser light shows, STS9 has a similar improvisational virtuosity as Phish.
Using guitars, pianos, drums, bass and, of course, digital manipulation, the five-man electronica ensemble creates sounds that, as Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell once commented, “speak in the future tense.” The band fluidly transitions from jazz to rock to funk without disrupting its rhythm or ambiance. STS9 enhances its performances with laser lights and projected graphics as it accelerates through a barrage of solos, rhythm changes and electronic energy. Combined with their astonishing instrumentation, the band’s digital skill could melt the face of Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters on cue.
While most members remain stationary by their laptops, guitarist Hunter Brown plays shredding riffs while drummer Zack Velmer holds an exhaustive but continuous beat.
The band performed last year for a sold-out Eugene crowd that, resembling a Zion orgy from “The Matrix” trilogy, squeezed inward with pelvic thrusts of delight and flailing arms of fanaticism.
The band has developed its digital techniques since its widespread popularity. Now producing under its own label, 1320 Records, STS9’s 2005 CD release, “Artifact,” reached No. 12 on Billboard’s Top Electronic Albums chart. The album unleashed a new perspective toward synthesized sounds.
Unlike most jam groups, STS9 tries to encourage sober stability to the drug-infested electronica scene, using musical ingenuity to send fans on harmonically enlightening “trips.”
Though some audience members do not believe in the band’s drug-free rationale, every attendee will be high on the stimulating atmosphere STS9 creates.