Fire!

Fire! is the Swedish power trio of Mats Gustafsson, Johan Berthling, and Andreas Werliin, formed in 2009 and drawing from free jazz, drone, and psychedelia and featuring members of The Thing, Tape, and Wildbirds & Peacedrums to meld ferocious improvisatory skronk with the slow-burning grooves of doom laden ‘70s rock. The group soon joined forces with Jim O’Rourke and Oren Ambarchi, touring and recording albums with each in 2011 and 2012, respectively, before assembling a 28-person ensemble from the spectrum of the Scandinavian avant-garde. The resulting Fire! Orchestra’s colossal jazz ranks among classics by experimental big band forebears like Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra or the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet, the latter of which Gustafsson is a veteran.

Fire!’s latest, 2018’s “The Hands”, returns the group to its original formation, with Gustafsson’s anguished sax slithering away atop a rhythm section possessed with the menace of Fun House-era Stooges. By turns delirious and elegant, after 10 years it is clear that Fire! have moved beyond their supergroup status to blaze a voice of their own. This will be their first-ever performance in Philadelphia.