Phoebe Bridgers confirms pointy guitars aren’t just for metal with surprise BC Rich Warlock performance
Indie star wrings crystalline open-tuned cleans from none-more-metal guitar at Visible’s Red Rocks Unpaused show
It’s been a while since we’ve been able to navigate our way to the front of a show and ogle the onstage gear, but thankfully we’ve still been able to clock a few surprise guitar choices during online performances – and indie fave Phoebe Bridgers has certainly set our six-string surprise senses a-tingling with her latest squeeze, BC Rich’s none-more-metal Warlock.
As part of Visible’s Red Rocks Unpaused series of live-streamed concerts on September 1, Bridgers pulled out the 24-fret Bronze by BC Rich model for Kyoto and ICU, two open-tuned tracks from new album, Punisher.
The performance – which has now been uploaded to YouTube by one enterprising user – is a welcome reminder that electric guitars are often a lot more versatile than their looks might suggest, as the Warlock provides some surprisingly dreamy cleans when paired with Bridgers’ shimmering chord voicings.
“I try to trick myself to write a song in an open tuning and not even worry about what the chords look like and focus on the melody instead,” Bridgers told us earlier this year. “I’ve learned so much about my favorite gear that way, as well as my favorite chords and tones.”
During the performance, Bridgers also plays her trademark Metal Flake-finished Danelectro ’56 Baritone, as well as a “totally murdered-out” Waterloo acoustic, which she received from Conor Oberst.
Co-guitarist Harrison Whitford, meanwhile, leans on a heavily modified Seafoam Green Telecaster for much of the set, and lays down a killer solo for Punisher’s epic closing track, I Know the End.
The unlikely Bridgers/BC Rich pairing brings to mind that time John Mayer dug deep into his collection to pull out a Bubblegum Pink Jackson Dinky for an Ellen performance of Still Feel Like Your Man.
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Mike is Editor-in-Chief of GuitarWorld.com, in addition to being an offset fiend and recovering pedal addict. He has a master's degree in journalism from Cardiff University, and over a decade's experience writing and editing for guitar publications including MusicRadar, Total Guitar and Guitarist, as well as 20 years of recording and live experience in original and function bands. During his career, he has interviewed the likes of John Frusciante, Chris Cornell, Tom Morello, Matt Bellamy, Kirk Hammett, Jerry Cantrell, Joe Satriani, Tom DeLonge, Ed O'Brien, Polyphia, Tosin Abasi, Yvette Young and many more. In his free time, you'll find him making progressive instrumental rock under the nom de plume Maebe.
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