Pamelia Kurstin loves roller-skating to disco. She'll cut your hair for a six-pack of beer. And she's one of the world's top virtuosos on the space age-sounding musical instrument called the theremin.

In 1994, after finishing a show at Lounge Ax in Chicago, I was taken by a friend to another club to check out Pere Ubu. As striking an experience as a Pere Ubu show can be, I was captivated by a guy ...