Mid-gig string breaks are the stuff of nightmares for guitarists. Angine de Poitrine, though, recently turned tragedy into triumph by jamming their way out of trouble.
Unless you’ve been sleeping under a rock since February, the microtonal mavericks have been 2026’s breakout act, with a double-neck guitar – now crafted by Godin – at the heart of their act.
But when a string broke on the six-string half of the instrument, the band made the best of a bad situation. Instead of carting the guitar off-stage for a tech to restring in private while they played on with their second double-neck, they kept things front-facing.
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Godin actually made two custom models for guitarist Khn, so it was certainly possible. But that wouldn’t be as fun as jamming while the tech simultaneously restring the guitar in front of the crowd, would it?
The duo were playing at Le Poisson Rouge, New York, on September 9 when Khn’s high e string broke. Cue their tech, wearing a head torch and moving with a swift but calm efficiency, to enter the stage and attempt a restring while Khn played some pleasingly squelchy riffs atop Klek’s drum beats.
It was a fiddly job, one that could have put an end to the jam, but Khn and his tech pulled it off.
There’s a huge roar as the restring is complete, especially with how smoothly it’s done. At no point is the jam interrupted by the sound of a string slowly rising to pitch. Hats off, sir.
The band recently spoke to Guitar World, offering fascinating insight into their meteoric rise and self-described “freak show.” The story of Khn’s madcap guitar teacher is a big highlight and shows how the band’s alien music came to be.
They’ve come a long way since sawing frets onto an S-type knockoff, and then in turn Frankenstein-ing it with a bass guitar. Rush guitarist and prog rock titan Alex Lifeson is the latest to heap praise on a band that no one predicted would have made 2026 their year.
