KT Tunstall greets her Chicago audience with modest intentions

She may wield a guitar almost double her size on the cover of her new album, but in concert Saturday, KT Tunstall downplayed her inner rock goddess. In fact, she had barely a band.

At the Vic Theatre, the Scottish singer-songwriter greeted her audience what appeared to be modest intentions. Instead of a brawny rock band, it was just she and a drummer, who played half a drum kit while standing. The four-person band was not complimented by brawny musicians using sophisticated electronics, just two female backup singers shaking an occasional tambourine.

The laid-back approach is what makes Tunstall so appealing these days, not because the world lacks singer-songwriters who sound good from the speakers of a particular corporate coffeeshop, but because she is a performer who makes simple sound so immense. In such a bare bones setting, she was just wasn't able to make the songs from her two albums come to life just as they might in a full presentation, she was also particularly entertaining to boot.

Tunstall, 32, interchanged several guitars that looked almost as big as her physique. Her voice boomed but it didn't flatten any of the nuances of her songs. A solo acoustic segment failed to incorporate any of the clichȩs that usually show up in that setting. Instead, Tunstall filled out "Stoppin' the Love" by mimicking a trumpet solo (almost as good as the real thing) and revealing that she is also a sophisticated guitarist who doesn't just accompany her voice, she leads it through her playing.

Her songs are also intensely rhythmic, a challenge she and her players solved through simple means. Through a ragged guitar riff and a few tambourines, the intensely percussive "Funny Man" hit a dance groove. Unlike many singers, Tunstall didn't feign maturity in her singing, she possessed it outright.

In-between songs she displayed a knack for getting an audience to join her even without any notes played. She pressed the issue, reporting that Scots and Chicagoans sound the same pronouncing Chicago ("Chi-caw-go"). Before "Hold On," she tried to direct a "mass audience robotic move" to accompany her beat-boxing skills. Don't blame her if it didn't work, when the house lights went up to give them their cue, the audience looked confused.