Hi Tiger at Le Petit Versailles

Formerly a New York-based theatrical art student, Derek Jackson is now a visual and performing artist based in Portland, Maine, where he leads the electro-art-punk ensemble Hi Tiger. Hi Tiger combines live vocals and choreography with electronic musical programming and lighting design. Hi Tiger more often performs in art spaces than in traditional music venues.

Visual AIDS, a New York-based not-for-profit group that utilizes art to fight AIDS by provoking dialogue and supporting HIV+ artists, sponsored a performance tonight by Hi Tiger at Le Petit Versailles, a vest pocket park that was birthed where a Lower East Side tenement was demolished. On a dirt-packed surface, Hi Tiger performed music and dance as theater. A bare-chested Jackson sang and twisted knobs on a console that modulated his vocals to flow with pre-recorded electronic washes of sound and beats produced by Jacob Pitcher, Chris Di Rocco and James Cooper. As he sang, dancers Nicole Antonette and Amandaconda performed interpretive and interactive movement. Given the bare lighting, staging and aesthetics, Hi Tiger succeeded in making a community garden that much more beautiful.

Visit Hi Tiger at www.artistecard.com/HiTiger.