KT Tunstall has been in our lives since 2004 but somehow I never managed to see her live! I am so glad that this changed yesterday. A very talented funny lovely scottish musician who puts up the best show for her fans. The last tour date of her tour brought KT Tunstall to Mascotte in Zurich and it really was a brill party to rock out to.
First up I want to say I have the best concert buddies ever! Yesterday morning I got invited to a meet n greet with KT Tunstall. I was over the moon but the best part of this was that we got to see the sound check. Not just 10 mins of it – no – the full sound check. It was sooo impressive seeing the band and KT being super professionall and trying to get the sound and the show just right for the fans. I love every minute of it.
Right after the sound check we were able to meet KT Tunstall and take photos. Two fans brought her a very cool fan shirt. I personally thought it was professional merch but it was actually hand made! Again I was so impressed as was KT.
Another cool gift from the fans was a “Rösti” and some “Bratwurst”. Obviously this is an insider. KT Tunstall started doing KT’s Kitchen. Before her gigs she would set up a little kitchen in the hallways of the venue’s and cook something. Because you know on tour you usually eat pretty bad food but with the little stove KT is actually able to cook a nice meal for her and the band. So while we were waiting for the support act to come on we were watching her IG live wearing the shirt and cooking her Swiss dinner 😀
Laurel
Laurel is a British musician and I don’t know why but I think I’ve heard her before. She must have been supporting someone before but I can’t quite make out who. Laurel has a beautiful voice and she proved it over the next few minutes with “San Fran”, “LoveSick” and “Violet” which I deffo heard before. I loved the song and so did the audience. Laurel was also impressed how quiet the crowd was and were actually listening. They really were. No-one was chatting and actually respected the artist on stage. So I really love the KT Tunstall Fans! 🙂 Laurel finished her set on the last tour date with “Same Mistakes”, “Sun King” and “Adored”.
KT Tunstall
With a new song “In This Body” from her recent album “Wax” – which is the 2nd album in a trilogy – KT Tunstall opened the show. It was clear she means business. The atmosphere was great from the start. She spoke with us a lot and explained songs and told stories. I love this! After the rock mood was set she treated us to an oldie “Other side of the World”. I remember this song so well. It’s amazing how you don’t forget a song you loved and over 10 years later you can still singalong to! What I also love if artists aren’t complaining about people having cell phones but actually using them to create a beautiful atmosphere. A sea of lights and we were only two songs in!
Another new song “Backlash & Vinegar” which I really liked and by then I realized I was fascinated by the crowd, the band and KT Tunstall of course. She mentioned that at every show she tells this story. She wants us to retweet as many cat, elephants dog videos as possible so when she scrolls through Twitter etc. there isn’t as much negativity going on. Living in the US and being British KT Tunstall has definitely her fair share of negative headlines at the moment. I usually don’t like when artists get into politics but the way she did it – in a funny way during her morning coffee – I thought it was amusing and we could all relate to that. The good vibes and the energy kept going strong with “Uummannag song” back from 2010.
Here’s another story KT Tunstall believes that we are all in some sorts connected and imagine if that would visibly be shown with a red thread. So from an airplane red threads would come down to the earth and then from there around the world. All of this she put in the next song called “Little red thread”. “Hard girls” and “The river was next before she launched into another story about people going through a tough time. There might be a sea of Scheisse in front of you. You can’t go around it or dive under it because it’s just too deep. So all you can do is:
You have to go across the sea of Scheisse.
And for that you need to have a good song to get you across the sea of scheisse. So she wrote “Feel it all”. And she did this beautiful song alone on stage with just her voice and her guitar.
After that the band came back and brought Laurel with them. Together they sang “Heal Over” and you could see how much they grew together over the past couple of months touring together. I know I’m kind of gushing now but again I loved how KT Tunstall introduced her amazing band. Every night she would ask them a question and they would have to answer it without any preparation. But because it’s the last night she had a proper tough question and gave them a bit of time. So let me introduce to you:
Clare Uchima aka The Medicine Woman – Healing people 
Mandy Clarke aka Anti-Dick – Calling out Dicks 
Cat Myers aka Catapult – Teleportation 
Hattie Moran aka Nosy Bastard – Invisibility
After getting to know them a bit more they performed “Ashes”. Poor Clare who had a little mouth piano got bunny glasses put on while she was playing. Just hilarious! It was time for them to leave the stage again because KT showed us her loop station skills and sang one of her smash hits “Black horse and a cherry tree”. You guys know how much I looove loop stations so I enjoyed this part of the show a lot. The band did too as they were jumping up and down on the sofa in the backstage room which is situated on the right side of the stage and usually covered with a curtain. In what felt like a second the girls ran down and were back on stage for the next song. A song which KT and Nick from Franz Ferdinand wrote after David Bowie died. A nice vanguard song dedicated to a legend: “The Night that Bowie died”.
“Dark side of me”, “The Mountain” and “Saving my face” were next. KT Tunstall tries to combine her cooking / Mind Body & Soul side with her rock’n’roll side. “The Healer” on paper sounds like the first side but you can pretty well just trash a hotel room with it too 😀 Her words not mine but she’s right! The time just flew by and it was time to do the Encore game.
With the crowd bouncing and the energy reaching another level KT Tunstall and her band performed “Push that Know away”. She then asked us: “Do you have any good cover bands?” And everyone was just like “Meh”. And I guess that was what she was looking for because she and band are actually the best cover band in the world! 🙂 They performed a classic Bon Jovi song “Livin on a Prayer” which they are using as KT’s Kitchen jingle and with that they smoothly turned it into Belinda Carlisle’s hit “Heaven is a place on Earth”. They got us singing and clapping again. This made me wonder if I really should buy a ticket to see Bon Jovi this summer??
KT Tunstall thanked each and everyone helping her put this tour together and of course us fans coming to see the show and spending our hard earned money on it. Live music can never be replaced by videos on phones. Never ever. And she is hoping that this is our happy place here with her.
Yes, KT my happy place is deffo live music and if it is as brilliant as yours it’s even a happier place 😉
With this she started the first chords of her Uber hit “Suddenly I see” and now literally everyone was singing along to. All I could see were smiling faces and happy people dancing along to “Girls just wanna have fun”. We do, especially with those girls!
KT Tunstall is still a super talented and funny musician who puts up a pretty incredible rock show. I’ll be back the next time!