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KT Tunstall (Sunday, 2:30 p.m. AT&T Stage)
KT Tunstall came to the ACL Festival and brought her best friends with her. No, not her bandmates (although they are undoubtedly great amigos), but her array of switches and foot pedals that enable her to sample and loop vocals and sounds on the fly. Those sonic effects played a big part (too big, opined some listeners) in creating the glossy pop sheen of her debut album, “Eye to the Telescope,” so it was perhaps unavoidable that she attempted to replicate those effects onstage.
But you live by the sample and you die by the sample. Though the gimmickry was engaging to experience live, it had its drawbacks. It took Tunstall several false starts to get all of her electronic ducks in a row before she could kick off “Black Horse and Cherry Tree,” and the gimmicky beeps and boops she conjured up did nothing but distract from her performance of “Universe and U.”
On the other hand, she was having such a transparently good time playing with her gizmos that it was hard to begrudge her some fun. And the songs that featured on her debut are for the most part so strong that a little futzing around couldn’t do much more than chip the paint.
Except for a couple of new songs (“Ashes” and “Dirty Water”) from a forthcoming album, the balance of Tunstall’s set was familiar from months of AAA radio saturation (not to mention her inclusion in the soundtrack of “The Devil Wears Prada”). “Other Side of the World,” “Stoppin’ the Love” and “Miniature Disasters” all were well-received by the sizeable crowd, as was her set-closing hit “Suddenly I See.”
(photo by Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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