YEARS ago a dear friend of mine bathed in fish guts in exchange for the chance to meet Paolo Nutini.
Tonight at TRNSMT, as Paisley’s charming son plays a blinding closing set on the Main Stage, this seems a fair exchange.
The air on this opening night changes as Nutini appears and picks up his guitar.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder and hearts, already full of fondness for Paolo Nutini, are brimming with that and anticipation as we wait for him to start.
After an eight year absence, new album Last Night in the Bittersweet was released at the beginning of the month.
The opening number of that new record is the opening number tonight – Nutini begins with the primal howl of Afterneath over the sample of Patricia Arquette’s spoken word piece.
It’s an arresting start and lets the crowd know that this is one of those performances they’ll talk about in future years.
Without pause Nutini hurls himself straight into Lose It against an arresting psychedelic backdrop.
Some artists would stick with crowd pleasers for a headline festival set but Nutini gambles with track after track from the new album.
There was no need for pause, however, as the crowd know just about every word.
Taking us back a bit, he plays a perfect Scream with its pleasantly meaty baritone.
He’s a man of few words on stage, but he does give the audience a: “Glasgow you’re looking good. You’re looking very good. In fact, you’re looking great.”
Right back at you, pal.
Acid Eyes is one of the more serviceable songs on what is an otherwise ambitious, genre-sweeping album, but tonight it’s a crowd-pleaser, prompting a mass singalong.
On Stranded Words (Interlude) there’s a baseline that sounds like it’s coming from another flat in a tenement block, from a party you haven’t been invited to.
It pulses through the crowd before Nutini whips straight into Radio.
While there’s little chat from him, a regular serene half smile lets you know he’s ok and the crowd responds each time with delight.
In another lurch backwards we’re given “a wee song from my first album” - Jenny Don’t Be Hasty with a taste of Teenage Kicks and straight into a little flick of New Shoes.
These Streets is dedicated to a friend, Craig, who Nutini says has recently passed away, and it’s suitably reflective.
The sweet, sad ballad Through The Echos has the second biggest sing along of the set while a perky Petrified in Love falls slightly flat, the only point in the night to do so.
Nutini plays a perked up, stripped back version of Pencil Full of Lead that would slide right in to Last Night In The Afterneath with its trombone punctuation.
Candy proves the sweetest crowd-pleasing hit of the night and a cover of Caledonia has everyone in patriotic rapture.
As the dusk falls and darkness settles across Glasgow Green, Everywhere and Iron Sky take us towards the end of a set finished with a sweeping, intense Shine A Light.
It's a powerful return for Nutini and an impressive end to the first night of TRNSMT.
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