Vintage Guitar Magazine, http://www.vintageguitar.com/6250/viva/

"Viva DeConcini’s band plays cabarets in New York City and sounds like nothing else – and her guitar playing is as unique as her band, as evidenced by the nasty rock solo on the title cut. The song starts like a punk band with James Brown’s horn section and leads into DeConcini’s new-wave-ish vocal. The solo starts loud and raucous before becoming beautifully dissonant. 

 Most of the songs here have that sort of feel; Peter Apfelbaum’s arrangements and charts are wonderful doses of funk and pop, and while DeConcini’s vocals and guitar ref lect her obvious affinity for things that are a bit off-the-wall, the melodies are hummable and stick in your mind. Lyrically, she has written some of the best on a rock record in the past decade. Some are funny, some are ref lective, all are good; “$15 Buzz” is incredible, “Go-Go Boots” and “What’s Your Sign, Baby?” are funny and smart. 

 And, on the only guitar instrumental, she takes on the classic soul song “Natural Woman,” playing the melody with a wah pedal, and using stinging licks and an aggressive attack. The song delves into corners you’ve never heard, which makes it interesting 

 Viva DeConcini proves she’s a force to be reckoned with if rock and roll is to survive and grow."

Washington Post

"Viva DeConcini played a shimmering guitar solo that eventually soared with noise, like jets piercing the clouds" - The Washington Post

NYTimes
TAYLOR MAC, ‘A 24-DECADE HISTORY OF POPULAR MUSIC’ For two months, I’ve been thinking about his October all-day, all-night fantasia, still amazed that Mr. Mac did it, still miserable we had to go home after he did. It wasn’t just that he sustained his theatrical virtuosity that was so exhilarating. It was thahttps://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/12/07/arts/best-performances.htmlt he kept sharing the virtuosity of others: the Detroit power singers Steffanie Christi’an and Thornetta Davis well after midnight, the Brooklyn United Marching Band blasting through Curtis Mayfield’s “Move on Up” at the crack of dawn, the guitar shredding of Viva DeConcini for nearly the whole thing. Meanwhile, Mr. Mac practiced live criticism of and empathy for 240 years of mostly American popular music, changing clothes, wigs and makeup, while baring his chest, his butt and his soul. (Read the review)

Baltimore City Paper Album Review "Rhinestones & Rust"
For music writers listening to dozens of new releases every week, it’s pretty easy to get cynical and forget the constant-repeat joy that can come with a great new album. Viva’s Rhinestones and Rust (out Oct. 9) blows through all of that. It’s been our near-constant soundtrack since we got our prerelease. Viva has a beautiful voice, solid songwriting chops, and she fucking shreds the guitar. Her cover of “Cocaine Blues” is the best we’ve heard, this side of Johnny Cash. Not only for the slyly tweaked lyrics—“When I was arrested, I was dressed like Kill Bill,”—but also for the Jimi Hendrix quoting and purely original rough-and-tumble solo she throws in. If that’s not enough, she and her band are getting down and dirty with Sticky Buns Burlesque tonight. (Baynard Woods)