Music
Paolo Nutini
Bellahouston Park, Glasgow
Marianne Gunn
Five stars
Paisley's finest was in sheer flirt mode on Saturday evening, for the hottest ticket of the Glasgow Summer Sessions. With support from The View and Grace Jones, this now annual event is bringing a "mini festival" feel to the city even if the summertime description was a bit of a stretch as the heavens opened - fiercely - before the main attraction came on promptly at 8.45pm. A slightly slurred "good evening" from young Nutini was followed by him blowing kisses to the capacity crowd; for most people, that was them utterly hooked as two hours of impressive music-making followed.
The cracking set mainly comprised of tracks from Caustic Love (my Scottish album of last year) although with his talented band the Vipers, new arrangements were showcased with some really interesting funked-up or rocked-out new endings (such as in a haunting rendition of One Day and his enticing encore performance of Numpty). Performing a gig of this scale so close to his hometown, he proclaimed: "This is the best day of my life... And it's all thanks to you."
More classic tunes (Coming Up Easy, Jenny Don't Be Hasty, New Shoes, Pencil Full of Lead and Candy) featured but, it was the more mature songwriting of Funk My Life Up, Better Man, Diana and Cherry Blossom had the edge. As a stunning full moon bathed the glade, the show-stopping Iron Sky was dedicated to the audience as a red-hot pyrotechnic flare display turned the moonlit sky a burning shade of red, and Charlie Chaplin's political speech from The Great Dictator was as atmospherically rousing a moment as I've witnessed at a concert.
A cover version of Ben E. King's Stand By Me was a highlight of the encores, and images of Paolo Nutini marching, pouting, and writhing will be etched on many a collective conscience for days, weeks, and years to come. A "were you there?" kind of show.
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