Japanese-noise god Masami "Merzbow" Akita has been spewing forth hectic, harrowing soundscapes since before most of the leaders of the contemporary, No Fun Fest–affiliated noise scene were conceived. Tonight he shares a bill with a performer equally harrowing in a completely different way: Jamie Stewart, whose painfully intimate songs in Xiu Xiu offer the equivalent of a raw nerve touched with a velvet-covered scalpel.
