For a 23-year-old guitar goddess who just happens to be named Wilde, who better to go on tour with than the wild man of rock'n'roll, the Motor City Madman himself, Ted Nugent. Laura Wilde is warming up crowds for Uncle Teddy all across the nation all summer long and her performance at Phoenix's Celebrity Theatre in mid-July raised the temperature a few notches in the already steamy city.

Wilde's album Sold My Soul features a dozen songs that demonstrate a fondness for garage rock, the Runaways and Pat Benatar but in consideration of opening for Nugent, Wilde chose to play harder-edged, melodic metal-leaning songs in her ½ -hour set.

Opening with new song "Show Me Love," Wilde sent guitar riffs ricocheting around the smallish venue in concise bursts, immediately dispelling any notion that the petite blond singer was plugged into her Flying V electric guitar just for show.

Wilde has an excellent stage presence; her pin-up good looks and occasional rowdy power chording may at first give off an aura that says untouchable but when she introduced album cut "For You" with a sweet dedication "for all of you" and blew kisses to the audience throughout the song, she ended up coming across more like the girl next door.

Having thoroughly won the ready-for-The Nuge crowd over by mid-set, Wilde told the audience that she and her three-piece back-up band hailed from Melbourne, Australia, and launched into an animated cover of countrymen AC/DC's "Jailbreak" where the crowd appropriately thrust their fists into the air, shouting "Oi!" right on cue.

Wilde finished the show on a strong note with a powerful rendition of "Sold My Soul" and a new song called "Tragedy." Shortly after the last song Wilde appeared at the merch table and graciously signed autographs and posed for photos with fans.

Wilde's tour continues through late August; tour dates are listed at www.laurawilde.com