On the stage, a woman stands with her mythical ruan, a traditional Chinese guitar. A narrative voice sets the scene for a story about a powerful deity or legendary hero. The drumbeats quicken as the voice intensifies, and Nini rips through the monologue with intense plucks from her ruan. The notes are low and mellow, yet explosive and driven, riding harshly along the track with the drums thundering behind the melody. In the middle of this storm stands the composer of the maelstrom, Nini, the guitar goddess ushering us through it all.
The mix of metal and Asian folk music has grown with great projects like The Hu and Japanese Folk Metal. Folk music is all about telling stories, so when combined with the powerful sound of metal riffs and strong vocals, it creates an impressive display of epic metal stories. Nini Music shows all of this, and I believe it adds an extra level of skill to her playing and sound that has become her trademark.
On her second stop on her first-ever American tour, Nini brought her talents to Greensboro, NC, at the Hangar 1819. A healthy crowd had just watched an awesome opener by The Seven Kingdoms, their power ballads prepping for what was to come. Drummer Jack Rinaldo takes the stage first, hyping the Greensboro crowd before laying down a driving drum rhythm. Nini bursts on stage and right on beat with the percussion, leaving the crowd no time to breathe between the moments. She'd quickly switch between the ruan and a sanxian, a narrow stringed instrument. At points in the show, I almost assumed she could dual-wield both: that's how good Nini is. Nini's technical prowess and familiarity with her instruments are showcased immediately, her fingers flying across the strings of her ruan. The instruments are at times frenzied, and at other times expertly controlled, timed perfectly to the course of the tracks. "Victorious" and Nini's newest track "Into the Fire" are prime examples of the band's sound. Speed is not the name of the game, however. Nini Music performed beautiful melodic renditions of rock classics, like the Cranberries' "Zombie" and a chillingly beautiful version of "The Sound of Silence" with a chill-inducing resemblance to the legendary cover by Disturbed.
As the show progressed, so did Nini's intensity. With every track, the momentum and fury were evident in Nini's performance, and I began to realize that Nini was playing for more than just the crowd tonight. Early in the show, Nini revealed that a fellow band member who was supposed to perform alongside her tonight was detained by ICE and being held at a detention camp, despite being a legal resident in the country for the past 10 years. From the beginning of the show, the energy was tentative at best, and that can't be held against Nini. To go from a trio to having the spotlight directly on you must be a difficult adjustment to make on the fly. But that's exactly what Nini did, and you could feel her confidence grow as the night progressed. The tracks dedicated to battles between good and evil suddenly felt more poignant and carried more weight. In the end, it felt as if Nini was performing for two that night, and the crowd was resonating with that energy by the end.
After a high-energy (and thirst-inducing) rendition of her drinking song "GAN BEI", Nini tore the house down with an encore performance that closed out the night with her signature ruan. No words can truly describe Nini's mastery of her craft, so I urge you not to miss the opportunity to see her live as she continues her tour across the country and witness the legend of the guitar goddess herself.
GALLERY
