London, The bedford, 24.03. & The Underworld 30.03.05

This woman does not take prisoners: Kristeen Young, Underworld

„And here she is: the amazing, the incredible, the incomparable - Kristeeeeen Yoooouung!!!“

The guests don’t let themselves be disturbed from their dinner by the vociferous announcement of the compere. After all: Bedford is known for its good kitchen. Grilled tuna and shrimps are quite big here. But: Everybody who attends the circular hall of Bedford to Diner knows that he also receives acoustic preposed next to culinary. This is how it works every week. And today there is - fanfare - the incomparable Kristeen Young on the menu. For the New York vocal miracle the current mini gig with just four songs is only a stopover. Together with her drummer Jeff White she plays different clubs in London all throughout March, sometimes as a Main-, sometimes as a Support-Act. In Bedford both long-term allies get cracking without circumlocutions with a new song. And outright the dark-haired musician shows her big strength: lost in thought, fervent singing, innate feeling for killer refrains and calculated aggressive-psychodrama.

All of the about 100 guests from whom the predominant part undoubtedly did not come because of Kristeen Young, look up from their plates and in direction of the stage – all of them. With the second track "Cold Steal" from Young’s current album "X" they seem to recognize that something unusual is happening up there. The manner the 30-year-old mistreats her Roland XP80-Synthie, White lies down the crashing rhythm. The way two persons up there shoot adrenalin as with water cannons with their next song "Commit Adultery" is abnormal. What’s up over there? Who are those two?

 „The name of the band is Kristeen Young“ explains the eponym six days later at another place, the Underworld, in the middle of the “scene district” Camden Town. This time the guests don’t have dinner, they only have drinks. But soon these drinks get unimportant, as the Young stalks on stage in with her white dress and transparent boots, takes the bubble gum out of her mouth and sticks it on her keyboard. On the keyboard that has a sticker with the inscription “I Hate You” prominently displayed at its back side, right next to the “Wonder Woman”-sticker and the one with the “Rude Girl” logo.

That gains respect and distance. In spite of the warning signs and in spite of the disastrously mixed sound the audience - who actually came to see ‘Concrete Blonde’ - gets attracted to the front of the stage. “No Other Got” is played, originally a duet with Brian Molko. The performance shows that it doesn’t need the singer of ‘Placebo’ for this song, although Kristeen has written it especially for his voice in 2003. But it just works better if the “Punk Piano Princess” sings it on her own. Something else is revealed from the very first minute: The US-American is not as sovereign as she was the week before, instead of this she seems agitated and nervous. But that eases through her half an hour set whose highlight is “Kill It”, one of the strongest cuts from her most recent album.

Beside two brand-new songs she offers only tracks from „X“, none of its fantastic predecessor “Breasticles”. That’s a shame, nevertheless quite understandable because of the short set. Her charisma makes this authentic Rock-artist an extraordinary Live-act, also on this very evening, and one thing is obvious: from the very moment Kristeen Young signs a powerful label, this intimate gigs are a thing of the past.