KT Tunstall Previews New Tunes at Intimate New York Gig
KT Tunstall may be ready to embrace her inner Lady Gaga. Last night, during what she called her “first real, proper gig” in anticipation of her third LP, Tiger Suit (out September 28th), at New York’s Hiro Ballroom, the Scottish singer-songwriter floated possible new looks for her album campaign and corresponding tour. “Maybe I should put roadkill on my face,” she said.
Even if she doesn’t embrace lobster hats and cigarette sunglasses, Tunstall is moving in a more electro musical direction. The singer, who performed without a band, typically uses looping pedals to recreate her album tracks live. She added a new gadget last night — the Kaossilator Pro pad — which allowed her to play six new beat-heavy tracks from Tiger Suit, but the set was plagued with technical difficulties. Still, fans got a first listen to dancey tracks like “Uummannaq Song,” “Fade Like a Shadow” and the sultry, rollicking “Glamour Puss.” “I tried to do something that turned me on,” Tunstall said of her upcoming disc, describing the sound as “Eddie Cochran mixed with Leftfield.”
Distracting the crowd from her failing equipment with a dose of good humor, Tunstall announced, “Snoop Dogg taught me that!” in reference to her tongue-clicking vocal percussion before launching into “Other Side of the World” from her debut album, 2004’s Eye to the Telescope. She even managed to work in a mention of YouTube sensation “the double rainbow guy.”
Though the evening began with brand-new songs, Tunstall opted to revisit some of her favorite tracks by other artists at the end of the night. The encore kicked off with a version of “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree” that had an unexpected twist: Tunstall pulled out a large black-and-yellow kazoo three-quarters of the way into the song, hummed the riff from “Seven Nation Army” into it and looped it back through her pedals, segueing right into the White Stripes hit. After that, she introduced her final song simply as a track by “James” and launched into a beautiful acoustic cover of LCD Soundsystem’s “New York, I Love You, But You’re Bringing Me Down.”
Set list:
“Glamour Puss”
“Madame Trudeaux”
“Uummannaq Song”
“Funnyman”
“Other Side of the World”
“Hold On”
“(Still A) Weirdo”
“Push That Knot Away”
“Suddenly I See”
“Fade Like a Shadow”
Encore:
“Black Horse and the Cherry Tree”
“New York, I Love You, But You’re Bringing Me Down”