Last night, Kaki King performed at the Stuyvesant Town Oval. Free shows attract crowds, and last night’s drew spectators ranging from bald newborns to silver haired grandfathers. “What a generational treat it is to look out at everyone,” said King between songs acknowledging the unusual audience. The 29 year old King would be an anomaly in any age group; her virtuosic fingerpicking guitar style earned her Rolling Stone's title “Guitar God,” and she's the first female ever to be so honored. Being christened a guitar god puts King in lofty company; as one of Rolling Stones' “New Guitar Gods” she stands on equal footing with artists like Tom Morello who have inspired countless pantomimed solos. Last night, King displayed her skills as she played a mostly instrumental set and sang a few songs with the crowd watching attentively but quietly.

The diminutive King wore cutoff denim shorts and a black sequined sleeveless blouse and took the stage with a plugged in acoustic guitar, accompanied by her long haired drummer, Matt Hankle and her EVI player, Daniel Brantigan. King began her performance with an instrumental that featured her aggressively plucking the strings on her fret board to produce a slap bass quality. This was one of many exotic guitar techniques King used as she fingerpicked, hit and played her guitar in a variety of rarely heard alternate tunings. Although she has the technical wizardry of a guitar god; at times King’ playing was more spectacular than soulful, an impressive display of skill that evoked little emotion.

As the group played together, Brantigan’s EVI playing with its intricate melodies and textures often overshadowed King’s guitar. The instrument's eye catching appearance alone--it looks like an electrified, thickened clarinet or aboriginal flute- drew attention. It was the first time I (and I suspect the vast majority of the audience) had ever seen an EVI, an electronic wind instrument invented by Nyle Steiner. Until recently, the instrument has been used mainly by Japanese musicians, but it may be catching on here. “It’s a special bong,” explained King drawing laughs from the crowd before telling them what it really was.

Part of being a great musician is being a great performer, and although King is a brilliant instrumentalist and certainly charming, her show lacks dramatic flair. When playing with her band, the most theatrical elements on stage were Matt Hankle's bombastic drum rolls and Dan Brantigan's crazy EVI riffs. King’s abilities shone most brightly when she gave her band a break and played solo on an acoustic guitar, choosing a tuning that allowed her to use a ton of open notes and adding her own percussion by banging on the guitar body. King’s greatest asset is her inventiveness, and alone on stage, her unconventional techniques and the visual element of her contorted, rapidly moving arms and fingers were far more evident than when she played with her hard charging band. King is also a gifted songwriter and singer and gave the audience a brief taste of her lovely, ethereal voice on “Life Being What it is.” King finished the performance with passion and intensity, jamming hard to end the set then returning for an encore on the ukulele. King has tried various instruments, styles and genres in her musical career (she received a Golden Globe nomination for the music she played on the film adaptation of Into the Wild) and it will be interesting to see where she goes next. Although not yet the most influential of the Guitar Gods, King has the originality and skill to deserve the title.

Kaki King was not one of the concerts I was truly looking forward to seeing. I'd heard some of her work -- mostly the collaborations she'd done with the Mountain Goats -- and I liked it but hadn't been wildly impressed, so I went into last night's concert hoping that she could change my mind about both her and her music. Thankfully, she did.

When the very petite King stepped on stage, I had no idea what kind of insane guitar skill she would display through her hour-and-a-half long set at Music On The Oval. For their last show of the series, the crowd again didn't disappoint, bringing all kinds of people from the surrounding neighborhood and the rest of the city: young and old, hipster and prep, everyone.

King started out the night big, instantly starting in on an instrumental piece that showcased her amazing technical skill at finger-picking and using her instrument as percussion, as well, slapping the fret board throughout the entire performance. After that, her band joined her on stage -- Matt Hankle and Daniel Brantigan -- for the set to really begin. King often switched out her instruments during the night, rotating from acoustic guitar to electric to a ukulele that she used for the encore, but her skill never lessened over the shift. In between songs, she often paused to re-tune the guitar to several different and rarely used tunings, giving even further nod to just how talented a musician she is.

She also easily bantered with the crowd. Someone, at one point, yelled up to the stage to ask what instrument Brantigan was playing. "What am I playing? Oh, what is he playing? That's a special bong," she answered, joking around before telling us that it was an electric instrument you could blow your breath into to make it work and create the sounds coming out of it. She talked about turning 30, and when a member of the audience yelled that it wasn't so bad, she immediately argued back.

It's a good thing that she felt so comfortable on stage that she could talk to the audience, because while her stage show is technically brilliant, it is -- as Nick as has said -- a little emotionally lacking. Often times, her skill overshadows the feeling of a song. That's not to say that she doesn't feel it or look as though she's really getting into the music, but it sometimes doesn't translate to the audience as well as it maybe should.

King closed out the night by mentioning an auction she's doing: a performance of one of her songs, "Pink Noise," played on an electric blue guitar while her hands are covered in pink paint. After the song is over, she will auction off the paint-covered guitar for VH1's Save The Music charity organization. Directly after that announcement, she pulled out a ukulele, spilled water all over her pedal board, had to switch around some wires, and then she rocked out.