Last summer, Dangerous Minds introduced you to “Mrs. Smith,” an outrageous, hilarious, posh New-Englandy matron who plays breakneck-speed heavy metal guitar solos. Since then, her profile has grown tremendously, and she’s accordingly been very, very busy, playing a residency gig at NYC’s Cutting Room, releasing a video for her cover of Adele’s “Hello,” (yes, really, see below), and making a lauded appearance at the musical instrument industry’s annual NAMM conference. And last weekend, Mrs. Smith did something seriously wonderful—a presentation for L.A.’s Voyager Institute arts & pop culture lecture series called “The State of Shred.”
The Voyager Institute is the latest cultural offering from Bret Berg, who’s previously curated cinema for Alamo Drafthouse and Cinefamily, and was the brains behind the wonderful but now defunct MP3 sharity blog/video series Post-Punk Junk, and the much broader Egg City Radio. Berg produced “The State of Shred” with underground music promoter Sean Carnage, and in addition to Mrs. Smith’s history lesson, the event included a panel talk that saw Berg and Carnage picking the brains of Smith, musician David Rothbaum, probably best known for his work on the Room 237 soundtrack, or for playing with Berg in a Goblin tribute band called Nilbog, and Alice Cooper guitarist Nita Strauss, who recently became the first female player to be honored with an Ibanez signature guitar.
Mrs. Smith is great fun to gab with, so we were gladdened that she took the time to share this with DM:
I had the occasion to be in Los Angeles for the 2018 NAMM show where I appeared as a demonstrator for Mezzabarba, an Italian amplifier company. I was looking for additional engagements while in LA and Sean Carnage pitched the idea of me presenting at The Voyager Institute, a kind of bohemian salon of talks by artists on intriguing topics. As Sean and I discussed what I could present, “The state of shred” popped out of my mouth and inspired the idea for a short presentation. I had to leave so much out, I look forward to filling in ever more details in this concept.
A great deal of the information for my lecture was acquired at the last minute on Google. I apologize if I got a Guitar God’s name wrong! It would seem many of these people know me but I don’t know them which is a very surreal experience indeed. I don’t know them! I mean no offense by it. If you look at it logically you’ll recognize there’s truly only one of me and so very many of them—it’s natural to confuse. I’m so sorry if I’ve offended!
Here’s that Adele cover. Necessary context for the references to “Carlyle”: That’s Mrs. Smith’s long-lost cat. She will find him and don’t you dare tell her she won’t.
Photos by Josh Lalley, graciously provided by Sean Carnage and Mrs. Smith
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Meet Mrs. Smith, the world’s greatest heavy metal drag busker
Toto’s ‘Africa’ sucks, we all know that, but you should still hear this guy explain WHY it sucks
Black Metal pioneer Fenriz of Darkthrone was elected to his local town council—against his will