Perennial festival performer Xavier Rudd will step inside Friday night (likely barefooted) when he makes his St. Louis debut at the Pageant.

His new album, Dark Shades of Blue (Anti), is being lauded by fans and critics outside of his usual world music/jam band comfort zone for its haunting, industrial themes and aggressive, complex guitars and percussion. In keeping with the title, the album is a step away from his sunshiny surfer dude persona.

The Aussie Rudd’s eccentricities are countless, but here’s the short list: Accomplished surfer (raised on the south coast), player of the world’s most exotic instruments, including the the Yirdaki (didgeridoo), environmental and Aboriginal rights activist, adopted member of an Aboriginal clan and possessor of the spirit of an old woman.

Of course some of these items are a little too complex to be explored in a blog, but I was able to have a brief chat with him the other day.

RC: How did you become interested in Aboriginal culture?

XR: My great grandmother was an aboriginal woman, and her spirit is in me. My family didn’t grow up practicing the culture, though.

RC: When did you learn the Yirdaki (didgeridoo) and what exactly is it?

XR: I’ve been playing the Yirdaki since I was 10-years-old. It’s a piece of wood hollowed out by termites, with each instrument in a different key. It’s the oldest instrument in the world. To play it you use a circular breath to hold a continual note.

RC: Is it true that you’ve never technically written any of your songs down on paper?

XR: Yes, I keep them all in my head. I’m just too disorganized (to file papers) more than anything. But I do have a knack for retaining stuff. I lose things, but I don’t mind. Things that are meant to come through, come through.

RC: What are the most pressing Aboriginal needs right now?

XR: Their culture has been severely oppressed over the last few hundred years. They need the chance to rebuild – to focus on education no matter what blood line they have. The whole world can learn from their culture.

Xavier Rudd with Griffin House

8 p.m. Friday at the Pageant

6161 Delmar Blvd., 314-726-6161

$17.50 - $20

www.myspace.com/xavierrudd

(Photo by Sarah Robinson)