 Theresa Andersson charmed the Big Apple when she cooked up her one-woman show.
Loaded with instruments and equipment, but still very much on her own up on stage at New York’s Bowery Ballroom (QRO venue review) on September 26th, Andersson won over an upbeat, but not exactly ideal, crowd with her unique and remarkable performance.
The first thing that strikes you, seeing Theresa Andersson live, is that she is truly alone on stage – but certainly doesn’t sound like it. She utilizes loops and pedals (similar to – and really better than – New Zealand’s Liam Finn – QRO photos), as well as her own skill at different instruments and voices, to create a whole chorus behind her. It’s still not as grand as on her record, Hummingbird Go! (QRO review), but far more than anyone has a right to expect.
This best came out in “Introducing The Kitchenettes”:
I recorded my record in my kitchen. I’d like to introduce you to my back-up singers – which is really just me, times four. I call them ‘The Kitchenettes’. After spending about ten hours a day, on my own, I kind of got a little strange in the head, and started making up personalities for everybody.
After Andersson would introduce a member of the foursome, she would sing that girl’s part – in character. It would be recorded and looped into the next girl she sang, and so on, creating a back-up chorus perfectly on time and on note:
So the first girl in The Kitchenettes, I ended up naming her ‘Emma’. Emma is this very large, gorgeous, honey-skinned, confident, sassy woman. Girls number two and number three, Nikki and Sarah, they’re best friends. They’re kind of too good-looking to be hanging out at a silly local rehearsal. So they hang back by the doorpost, chewing gum, and texting each other the whole time. Girl number 4, her name is Petra. Petra, she’s kind of anal. But somebody’s got to do the job. She holds everything together, makes sure everyone has their music, rehearsals are happening on time, all that stuff.
All of this came together behind Andersson’s relaxed, Hawaiian waves finisher, “Hi-Low”. Her set was naturally dominated by her more stripped, less grand numbers – even this kitchen couldn’t do everything – like “Hi-Low”, “Birds Fly Away”, and “Innan Du Går”, where she could show off her Swedish heritage (and why there are two s’s in ‘Andersson’). But she also stuck to her current New Orleans roots in her cover of the Big Easy’s famed Allen Toussaint, with “On Your Way Down”, where Andersson got to bring out her soul-diva side (and make you wonder how so much sound could come out of so small – and so white – a package).
Andersson was playful, even sexy as she moved on stage (unsurprising, really, when you combine Swedish looks + New Orleans soul…), but didn’t overdo it or let it overshadow her music. The crowd might have been a little too apt for getting excited, as well: opening for the straight-up jam-band Assembly of Dust (QRO photos), it was a decidedly older audience than you’d usually see at Bowery – and they were there to party (a few one-hitters came out during Dust’s set, and one big fella was even wearing a ‘beer mugs as glasses’ pair of joke spectacles…). But Theresa Andersson can stand on her own, whether in the kitchen, or up on stage.
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