Critic's Choice

For all the differences that seem to exist between their audiences, jam bands and dance artists have more than a few things in common: Both create roving, spacey sounds that give virtue to aimlessness and repetition, and both draw audiences who use the music to channel a certain feeling -- call it a vibe or a groove, depending on which camp you’re in. SoundTribe Sector 9, Thursday, October 26, at the Bluebird Theater, is among a new group of sound artists who have brilliantly combined the hi-tech world of electronic dance music with earthy, free-range jamming. Since early this year, the Atlanta-born five-piece has been touring in support of Offered Schematics Suggesting Peace, sometimes paired with kindred spirits the Disco Biscuits. Yet the Tribe’s combination of improvised keyboards and worldly percussion with bass, drum and guitar has more in common with jazz and Jerry than the Biscuits’ funk. It’s still beat-driven, though, which simply means that the hippies will have to make some room for the dance-floor kids. Maybe we can all get along.