Ferocious, funny Marnie Stern at Kung Fu Necktie

The funniest thing about Marnie Stern isn't how she attacks the fret board with the nimbleness of Eddie Van Halen, the complexity of a Frank Zappa, or the shredding capability of Slayer's Kerry King.

It's not that the Upper East Side-raised guitar goddess started her recording career in alt-punk metal after age 30, when she released In Advance of the Broken Arm in 2007. It's not even that the blond, tanned Stern carries her small pooch, a Morkie named Fig, with her while on tour.

The funniest thing Stern did when she and her trio - Jim Sykes on drums and Malia James on bass - played a sold-out show at Kung Fu Necktie on Tuesday was be funny. In between gnarling, noisy chords and precise finger-tapping solos, Stern - in a smallish voice - told poop jokes and made allusions to that classic of dirty comedy The Aristocrats.

But nothing blunted the massive, thundering discord of "Grapefruit" or the power jig that was "Vibrational Match." Nothing masked the deep emotion in Stern's most blistering glissandos. It just seemed happily silly that this tiny woman with an ax to grind wanted to make nasty jokes. Then again, as spiky and ferocious as some of her music was, her entire performance unfolded with a casual sense of inevitability.

From the second Stern hit the stage, she started playing her signature solos as if she were hanging out in her apartment. Even when her guitar-army roar was set to "stun," as in the militaristic rhythm of "Shea Stadium," out came the finger-taps. Exquisite to hear, they also add a visual sparkle to her solos, especially up close, and at Kung Fu Necktie you get to be really up close.

Then there was the singing.

Stern's vocals and those of bassist James had a cheerleader squeak to go with her optimistic lyrics. In their off-kilter harmonies on songs like "Put All Your Eggs in One Basket," the vocals were a charming girl-group counterbalance to the arena-rock density of the music, which is exactly what made Stern great. She made big metal with small, intricate elements for indie boys and girls.