What do you get when you combine the chaotic inventiveness of Giant Sand with the fragile virtuosity of Lisa Germano? A damn fine night in Whelans, that's what. Giant Sand hail from Tucson, Arizona, and features the twin talents of Howe Gelb and Joey Burns; at the last count, they had released 23 albums, making them prolific legends of alterno-country-rock.

Germano comes from Bloomington, Illinois, and used to play in John Mellencamp's band, but now releases her own albums on the 4AD label. This collaboration with Germano is one of many Giant Sand side projects - OP8 actually stands for "other project 8" - but the album, Slush, could turn out to be an inadvertent classic.

Onstage, OP8 improvise and experiment freely. Gelb handles acoustic guitar and weirdsounding keyboards, while Burns alternates between guitar and bass. Gelb's singing is colloquial, punctuated with picayune wordplay, while Germano's voice is like cracked porcelain in a desert storm; they combined perfectly on a duet of Sand.