Noise Clinic, Friday Factory and Projekt2 rock Cannery Row’s Blue Fin.

Tait Reed vividly recalls the advent of the Noise Clinic’s current incarnation because it followed his face getting kicked in by a group of homeless kids over cigarettes outside of The Catalyst in Santa Cruz.

It was with a “pancake of blood” on his face the next day that he met his future cohort/bandmate Sayaka Yabuki at the Santa Cruz Looping Festival in 2009 where he was making a solo performance.

Yabuki, a violin-shredding wizard of various instruments including synthesizers and the theremin – and who Reed calls a “world-touring musical badass” – was also performing at the festival where musicians take a section of music and recreate it using various instruments.

Reed describes it as “walking into a musical playground.”

Noise Clinic’s new lineup includes Yabuki on violin, theremin and synth, Joe Gabent on bass, and Tony DeAngeles on drums. Fresh material will be released as an EP this summer. It packs angular guitar distortion and tuning, backing vocals by Yabuki that are reminiscent of The Pixies’ Kim Deal, and some percussion moments that sound like jazz drumming.

The new track “Headache” deserves a revisit to the Pixies comparison for Reed’s Frank Black-esque manic, yelping vocals. Yabuki’s piercing violin is a unique ingredient to already sharp, unpredictable arrangements, with the right amount of feedback and perfect imperfect tuning that fans of late ’80s/early ’90s art alternative rock might think is a knockout brew.

Noise Clinic opens for Projekt2, a contemporary hard rock/rap band from Watsonville that delivers plenty of shredding with powerful, growling vocals. Also opening is reunited hip hop act Friday Factory.

NOISE CLINIC, FRIDAY FACTORY and PROJEKT2 9pm Saturday, March 12. Blue Fin Café and Billiards, 685 Cannery Row, Monterey. $5. 717-4280, www.bluefinbilliards.com