song performed: “Hold On” from the album Drastic Fantastic
conan’s reaction: “hey! that was great. thanks *shakes KT hand* so much for coming back. that was great. kt tunstall everbody, we’ll take a break, we’ll be right back.”

a woo hoo little punk rocker
eh many of you will recognize KT Tunstall as the lady who laid down the opening track of the Devil Wears Prada (”Suddenly I See”) of which I admit having seen. Or maybe you know her from her no-bull approach to being a pop star against, well…pop rising to fame from having her unknown song covered on Amer Idol., a show she admittingly hates (avril lavigne called??). I however will give her the credit of breaking the rather odd “dating my daughter”-like-relationship between apple and john mayer. KT (aka katie, but not really cause it’s KT) was the musical guest at the end of this month’s Apple Keynote announcing possibly the coolest line-up of iPods ever. So good job K. T.

up on conan’s stage I am immediately hit wit this weird flashback visual of seeing tiny liz phair in black vest (over same t-shirt LOVELOVELOVE she wore at the keynote) yielding this gigantic white guitar. KT is scottish. she’s also adopted. she’s also part chinese and has a large LGBT following making her miles more interesting component-wise than say Jewel or even Madonna with her new guitar-yielding antics.

tonight there would be no looping, and her band was also interesting - stand up bass, modelly guitar man also with vest, elvis costello-like drummer (and boyfriend too methinks?) who played drums on a two-bass kick set swinging around maracas the whole time too (wtf?is he ape>?), darryl hall on keys and two american apparel back-up singers.

there is an amazing healthy tan to KT, which is interesting especially since she’s come fresh from cloudy UK. Maybe its the hue of someone who’s not messing around? Her sound is very soulful, a bit gravelly but with no sign of horseness. Plus on this song, she gets to have a fun little bounce to her playing. it’s cute. Let Leno have Mayer, conan’s got KT.

Side note: if any of your caught the keynote, there is an amusing moment when she starts her song that the looping maching does not pick up the tambourine correctly and she has to erase the track causing the song to stop. Her response was a classic “technology eh?”