Music review: Hall & Oates/KT Tunstall, Hydro, Glasgow

PERENNIALLY smooth operators Daryl Hall & John Oates hit a few uncharacteristic sound bumps in the road at the start of this hit-stuffed set.

The Hall & Oates melodic roadshow delivered a hits-heavy set after the sound was ironed out

Hall & Oates/KT Tunstall, Hydro, Glasgow ****

Hall was knocked off his showman stride but the unflappable Oates embraced the chaos, reassuring his long-term musical partner that “you’re confused but you’re very charming” while the rest of their band, including characterful saxophonist Charlie DeChant, powered through until everything coalesced, and the Hall & Oates melodic roadshow delivered as it should, from the slick 80s AOR of Out Of Touch to the sophisticated late 70s Philly soul of It’s A Laugh.

For Hall, the smoochy soul croon She’s Gone is the song that defines the duo, and there wasn’t a better number in the set, though Sara Smile continued the smooth blue-eyed soul vibe. The rest of the show spooled out effortlessly with the electro funk odyssey Is It A Star dovetailing nicely into the fluttering flute embellishments of I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do), Kiss on My List morphing into Private Eyes and the final unleashing of the sonic tonic that is You Make My Dreams.

Ebullient special guest KT Tunstall rocked like The Runaways with her new girl gang, though she amply demonstrated that she could hold the Hydro on her own with her confirmed party piece Black Horse and the Cherry Tree. Like the headliners, her musical diversions, such as a righteous blues rocking Black Betty, spiced up the party but were never allowed to detract from the delivery of the crowd-pleasing hits such as the thoroughly infectious Suddenly I See.

FIONA SHEPHERD