Marnie Stern

I think half an hour is about all the time I would want to spend watching Marnie Stern shred her guitar. But for half an hour, it's tough to beat. Stern is an oddball virtuoso, spastic and possessed while playing in her signature style. Rather than picking, Stern's right hand creeps up the fretboard; essentially, she hammers with up to four fingers at a time, transforming her guitar into a string percussion instrument and giving her music a jumpy, frenetic personality. And although it's the guitar that anchors this music, that instrument isn't the full picture. There's novelty in her playing, sure, but her voice and her songwriting underneath the hammered fugues are of significant substance as well.