TYLEAN + UNWOMAN Hyem, Newcastle Upon Tyne

It's always good to do something a little bit different, tonight is something a little bit different. Unwoman has flown in from San Francisco for this tour, she's very popular within the Steampunk scene and unsurprisingly some of the local Steampunk enthusiasts are out for this low key, but high impact performance. Armed primarily with a cello, Unwoman also carries a backing track to provide occasional accompaniment for some of the tracks.
Although she apologises due to having a sore throat, her voice is still in good form as she breezes through much of her best work in the set tonight.

The style is reminiscent of Emilie Autumn, but from a performance element more of the empahasis is on the music than any theatre. There's no burlesque circus, just tracks to take your breathe away.

Tonight's highlight is most certainly her track ‘Haunted'. It's a track in which she asks the audience to assist with by asking them to make "ooo" noises to the music, many of the crowd will still be ooo-ing along in many weeks time! The track has a fittingly eerie atmosphere and like the rest of her set, fills the crowd with awe.

Such is the strength of her performance  she's called upon for an unplanned encore. "Well, you know I'm classically trained," she jokes, "so here's some classical music" before she launches into a stunning cover of ‘Billie Jean'. The crowd is clearly very impressed.

This does put the pressure onto tonight's headliner, Tylean. She explains she's unhappy because she couldn't manage to bring her full keyboard to the show and isn't as comfortable with the smaller instrument she's brought in its place. It sounds fine and the crowd is forgiving, but there are points when you can see she's frustrated if she makes a mistake. Later in the set she builds confidence, particularly after a song she's unsure of is met with good response, and this radiates back out of the performance.

Musically, there's a lot reminiscent of the likes of Tori Amos, a lot of tracks are quite stripped down and focus on her strong, emotive voice and vigorous performance.
It's solemn and moody but carried well particularly as confidence grows.
All in all it serves for an enjoyable evening, it's not the type of thing you can see on a week to week basis but was a treat for something outside of normal comfort zones.

KEVIN MORRIS