When Hunter Brown was in the eighth grade, he saw "Soul Kiss" — a 1989 film that followed the ups and downs of Jane's Addiction and showed Perry Farrell at perhaps his wildest. Fifteen years later, Brown (guitarist for the band Sound Tribe Sector 9) found himself face-to-face with the man he had idolized so many years ago.

"We met him through a mutual friend of ours in Colorado," Brown says. Farrell "was going to be in the same area and inquired about spinning some records. We said, 'You're more than welcome to share a stage with us.' We've been Jane's Addiction fans forever."

So just like that Sound Tribe Sector 9 — David Phipps (keyboards), Jeffrey Lerner (percussion), David Murphy (bass), Zach Velmer (drums) and Brown — found Farrell (who appeared under the alias DJ Peretz) opening up for them for two nights in Colorado in January.

"It was the most star-struck I've ever been," Brown says. "I never thought I would be in the same room with him. He is so down to earth and really cool. It was amazing. On the second night he sat in and sang."

What started out as an off-the-cuff pairing has turned into more or less a friendship — Farrell just asked the band to play at Lollapalooza this summer. Along with Lollapalooza, Sound Tribe Sector 9 will be appearing at the High Sierra Music Festival.

"I like the essence of festivals, being outside, camping, letting loose and watching music," Brown says. "You're taking a step back from normal reality. It's somewhat of a lost habit."

Deriving their name from the Mayan calendar, Sound Tribe Sector 9 is perhaps more spiritually conscious than a lot of bands tend to be.

The Mayan calendar "is something we're inspired by," Brown says. "We're trying to make ourselves more aware of the natural cycle of the planet, just following the moon day by day."

And in an effort to help tackle hunger in the United States, Sound Tribe Sector 9 is collaborating with Conscience Alliance — a non-profit organization that uses the music community as one source for feeding those in need. Everyone who brings at least 10 cans of non-perishable food items to one of the band's shows will receive a poster designed by their friends Tribe 13 in Seattle.

"All of the food will go to local food shelters and impoverished Indian reservations," Brown says. "We've really been able to see the direct impact our fans are having."

Prior to embarking on their current tour, which began earlier in the week, Sound Tribe Sector 9 has been laying down their experimental, instrumental sound in the studio.

"We've recorded and engineered most of the album," Brown says. "We did it ourselves in a house between Santa Cruz and San Francisco. It's been a real learning process for us. It's the best thing we've ever done. We put a full effort into it.

"We do a lot of improvisation, but we've been writing more compositions. We're all instrumental but we do use vocal samples. It's real dance-oriented, it's real emotional, real personal to us. We're just coming into a new musical spurt, there's a lot of new growth."

And for Brown, the spring tour is a nice break from all of the studio time.

"We're just excited to be out on the road, out of the headphones and having fun."

Sound Tribe Sector 9 will perform at 8 p.m. tonight at The Rave, 2401 W. Wisconsin Ave. Tickets are $12.