If you haven’t heard of Scottish born KT Tunstall, you will! She is not new to the music scene, but she did take a few years off to deal with the pain of the death of her father, and her divorce. However, you might know of her 2004 break through song Black Horse and the Cherry Tree off her multi-platinum debut album Eye to the Telescope.
It’s been three years since she played the Danforth Music Hall and her fans were glad to see her back!
KT took to the stage at 9 pm and from the moment she came out, the crowd was hers. She has an incredible charm for telling stories and she shared many of them. They were NOT stories that you would say to yourself, “oh great here is another one”. They were genuinely funny. You had to listen carefully as I am not sure if it was delay or reverb or the way the system was set but she was a little hard to understand.
At one point, three loud people decided their conversation was more important than KT’s story. Everyone in earshot was turning to glare at these patrons. KT made light of the situation, asking, “Oh, I am sorry, are you talking to me?”. KT handled this with grace and class. Most of us around wanted to say, “SHUT UP!”
KT gave a nice shout out for the opener Colin Youngblood. She said, “I you think my stuff is complicated, his stuff is like the Star Ship Enterprise.”
This little spitfire rocked the place. She bounced around the stage and jumped to the front to do the occasional high five with her fans. She makes for a great front person. All night long she engaged with her audience.
KT asked that everyone who had cell phones to turn on the flashlight mode and wave them around, them as she started her song. It was a very nice touch! I guess this is to replace the 70’s showing of lighters (for those young enough to remember this!!).
She played a number of songs off her new album (sixth full length) KIN, released Sept 2016 (now in the top 10 in the UK). She announced that Toronto was hearing some of these songs for the first time live as they had not been played for anyone else. Two of those songs played were It Took Me So Long To Get Here, But Here I Am and Maybe It’s a Good Thing. This album is her coming of age as a performer, song writer and a person.
Of course the crowd went into a frenzy when she played Black Horse and the Cherry Tree.
This was one of the highlights during the evening. She showed her fans how one person on stage with her live-looping machine can sound like an entire band. The transition from solo to being joining by her four piece band was brilliant. While performing this song she jumped into The White Stripes song Seven Nation Army on the kazoo.
During the evening she told a story of how she started experimenting with beat boxing. She then showed the audience her “second rate beat box ability” and afterward jumped into The Bangles song Walk Like an Egyptian.
It was an evening of entertainment and music. My only criticism would be that she had so many great stories but I could not understand the top end of her voice in the PA. She would finish talking and go into a song and I was still thinking, what was that she said. I wanted to know!
Congrats KT on the second chapter of your life and music career. Thank you for a great evening! When she comes around again take an evening and go see her. SHE ROCKS!
Review By Trent Richer.
All photos by Lee-Ann Richer.
©2016. Please DO NOT copy or use without permission.
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