Sunday, November 30, 2008

Marnie Stern @ Waterloo Records, 11.19.08



Marnie Stern's shedder technique of guitar is something that needs to be witnessed. For those not familiar with "shredding," think Eddie Van Halen's opening guitar in "Hot for Teacher."  Now imagine that sound for a whole song, and there you have Marnie Stern.  Its kind of hard to think that someone could actually play an entire song that way, and that's why it's pretty much a thing you need to see to believe. Thankfully I got the chance when Marnie Sten gave an in-store performance at Waterloo Records on November 19th.  

Marnie introduction to the indie world came last year on her 2007 debut In Advance of the Broken Arm from Kill Rock Stars. The response was overwhelming with The New York Times calling it "The year's most exciting rock 'n roll album," and Venus Zine going on to name Stern as one of the "Greatest Female Guitarist Of All Time." With the accolades raked up she didn't keep her fans waiting long for a follow-up by releasing the even more amazing  This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That in October of this year.


While Stern's kissing booth antics have been garnering some publicity during her current tour it doesn't overshadow those amazing guitar abilities I saw there at Waterloo.  She attacks her guitar with finger-tapping or by playing the neck, as opposed to the traditional way of using the body of the guitar. She performed a crop of songs from both albums and ended with my favorite track from In Advance "Every Single Line Means Something."

And for the hell of it, here is Marnie Stern looking as cute as can be doing a Rocky impression in her video for "Ruler" off the new album.


No comments:

Post a Comment