Don't ask me to pick 18-year-old blues-rock wunderkind Jake Bugg out of a line-up.
Although he's barely old enough to play King Tut's, a major label record deal and being hailed by Billy Bragg as some sort of state school voice of a generation have generated enough buzz to pack the venerable venue to capacity long before Bugg's set begins.
Taking to the stage to a blast of Robert Johnson, the youngster's retro stylings are clear from the outset. The first part of his set takes its cues from the same rock and roll and psychedelic influences that gave birth to the best of Oasis, with pretty much every track sounding, in some indistinguishable way, as if it could be the big single.
When Bugg greets the crowd it's in the indecipherable mumble of the shy teenager, but he sings with a perfectly pitched sneer. The world-weariness of a line like "I've seen it all, nothing shocks me anymore" sits a little unconvincingly on one so young, but if you close your eyes – or, indeed, are standing behind several very tall men in haircuts straight out of 1996 – his languid vocals suit the style.
There is no denying that Bugg is a talented performer, particularly when he strips away the Britpop bombast and performs songs like Someone Told Me on acoustic guitar. Their similar lyrical themes and council estate backgrounds have drawn comparisons between Bugg and the Arctic Monkeys, but songs like Smile are more reminiscent of Alex Turner's soundtrack to Submarine.
The cheeky stomp and proper old-school rock riffs of singles Two Fingers and Taste It round the night off, inspiring grown men to put their arms round each other and dance.
HHH
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article