Tuning In to Experimental Music

With regular shows at Velvet Lounge, the Sonic Circuits Festival and the long-standing Electric Possible showcase series, it's now fair to call Washington's experimental music scene a bona fide scene.

If you haven't heard what the local avant-garde is doing with music, there are a couple of chances.

For more than five years, the monthly Electric Possible showcase, run by musician Jeff Bagato, operated out of a room on the George Washington University campus. But last month, the series moved to the D.C. Arts Center in Adams Morgan -- a theater space, not a club. "The difference here is that you don't have to have a CD, a MySpace page, a following to play the show," Bagato says. "When I started the series, I suspected there were a lot of musicians in the woodwork who needed a place to perform," including one guy with "a basement full of analog equipment he's been messing with since the '70s." The next installment of Electric Possible is Wednesday (performers include Nine Strings and Soft Pieces).

If you can't make that, check out Sonic Circuits' show next weekend at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, where organizers have been hosting shows since July. The day after Valentine's Day, they hold a show called "Music for Heartaches," with Spanish performer Mattin, Moon Pie from Washington and Jeff Carey from Baltimore.

But what if your impression of experimental music is "lots of theremin and guys with laptops"? "The first time you come to a show, you might not get it," Bagato says. "But after a few times, you get that it's the same type of energy as you get at a punk rock show."

Electric Possible is at 7 p.m. Wednesday. $5; $3 for DCAC members. 2438 18th St. NW. 202-462-7833 or http://www.electricpossible.org.

Sonic Circuits' show is Feb. 15. Doors at 6:30. $6. 8230 Georgia Ave. Silver Spring. Visit http://www.dc-soniccircuits.org.