Paolo Nutini
Motorpoint Arena, Sheffield
25th October 2014
Having spent years on the club and academy live scene, producing some incredible albums and regular placing in chart listings, it was only a matter of time before Paolo Nutini, the Scottish guy with the spectacular soulful voice made the leap to filling arenas. Now clearly is that time and years spent building up to his biggest tour ever has clearly paid off, not only managing to pack out the arena but being able to successfully put on a wonderful and well-staged show that was all about the music.
Bounding onto the stage with ‘Scream (Funk My Life Up)’, the first single from his latest album, set a brilliant atmosphere from the off with sing along’s and dancing a plenty from the crowd. Before taking the tone and tempo down slightly for the absolutely beautiful ‘Let Me Down Easy’ with its sultry rhythms and huge vocals. While the saxophone found on tracks such as ‘Diana’ reminds you of 1950’s spy thriller films.
Most of the older songs on the setlist were given a sexy makeover by slowing them down with drawn out notes, deep sensual sounds and a dirty old school rock and roll edge to the bigger moments. This makeover made them match the current albums retro sound and when it came to tracks like ‘Jenny Don’t Be Hasty’ it was a big beefed up rock and roll version of it with that sexy edge before leading into a snippet of the ever popular ‘New Shoes’. While ‘Pencil Full of Lead’ was a wonderful moment where every single person in the arena was on their feet dancing along to the delectable melodies.
The finale featured ‘Candy’ with its upbeat hooks and catchy chorus giving everyone a last chance to dance and a great last hurrah for the band. But it wasn’t over year as ‘Last Request’ ended proceedings on a stunning acoustic note with a sing along from the crowd that filled and rang around the arena.
It was moments like this where it was just Paolo, his voice and his acoustic guitar that stopped the audience in their tracks, showcasing just how brilliant he is and letting the music speak for itself. The stage set up was simple, the lighting was basic but effective and there was none of the usual arena show gimmicks. There really was no need for anything else when you have a whole night jam packed full of beautiful moments, spectacular vocal melodies from Paolo and the amazing backing singer and elegant, rich melodies created by the band.
Here is a playlist of the setlist from the show:
Mixtape Couture 