Dooes KT Tunstall know how to rock? Yes. Does she rock even better with her new backing singers? Yes again.
I saw her at the Roundhouse last week, and those singers add a depth and finesse to every song. Far more than an embellishment, they’re inherent to the sound, and they make the band sound more like a band than ever before. Previously there was a tendency for Tunstall’s gigs to be her and a motley collection of gadgets, echo pedals and kazoos. The kazoo’s are still there, as is the drummer playing dustbin lids with maracas. But the band function as a tight unit now, emphasised by the mid-set acoustic bit where they all gather front of stage, and the encore of Stopping The Love, with an excellent free-jazz cello solo, amongst other things.
The set is long, over two hours, borne out of the necessity of squeezing in songs from 3 albums, and keeping both old and new fans happy. If anything, she panders to newer fans a bit too much, asking them if they want to hear new songs or the hits, but set is swelled full of great stuff anyway so it’s not really a problem. Her infamous between-song banter is still there, too.
Apparently KT and her singers recently flew out to Japan to do a girls-only gig, which sounds cool. Maybe she should try this here sometime.