Orianthi.
Who?
Right. Had things gone differently, you would know
exactly
who Michael Jackson’s guitar player was, because the singer heard the buzz around the Australian axwoman after her performance with Carrie Underwood, and he in effect said, “I’m in!” Then things, and life, took that sad turn.
Orianthi is Orianthi Panagaris, and she plays guitar like a demon.
Now, you’re going to look her up online and say “Yeah, but nobody would care about her if she weren’t pretty.” Possibly. I can recall hearing her hit “According to You” and thinking, “Who’s playing guitar for that woman? Whoa!” It was the woman. Which probably reveals a lot about male views of rock ‘n’ roll, but that’s another story.
This story is about The Rock. Guitar rock is often dull as dishwater, where the solo is not just king, but the only thing. The song sets up the solo. It’s very rare these days to hear killer solos in a popular song. It’s rarer still to hear the kind of string-bending, harmonic laden joyousness that spills from the fingers of Orianthi. And it’s like finding roc’s eggs to hear guitar work such as this in the service of an irresistible piece of pop-rock goodness.
We won’t make any cracks about her opening for Daughtry, and how it should be the other way around. Oops.
7:30 p.m. Sunday, Assembly Hall, University of Illinois, 1800 S. First St., Champaign. $30-$40; 800-745-3000,
ticketmaster.com
— Kevin Williams
