Back when Ancient Future co-founder and guitarist Matthew Montfort attended high school in Boulder, Colo., his locker partner was Eric Reed Boucher, who would go on to change his name to Jello Biafra and form the Dead Kennedys. The two didn’t exactly see eye-to-eye back then, but neither can deny that they’ve both followed their muse, whether into fiery punk or — in the case of Montfort’s Ancient Future, founded the same year as Biafra’s band — intricately arranged large ensemble world music.
The version of Ancient Future that stops by Yoga Soup this week has been stripped down to just Montfort and Mariah Parker. This makes things different than their last Santa Barbara visit in 1997, when the band was a quartet with a dancer. But that’s the Ancient Future way, a series of fluctuating lineups.