Paolo's bra-vura performance leaves the girls swooning
Paolo Nutini
The Academy, Dublin
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Paolo Nutini
PAOLO Nutini is trying to keep a straight face, but it's difficult to stay tight-lipped when you're constantly ducking to avoid airborne bras.
An unofficial head-count suggests the female-male ratio this evening is in the order of 20 to 1 and many in the audience are determined to show their devotion for the 22-year-old Scottish crooner in the traditional manner -- by showering him with frilly underwear. At moments, it's like a Tom Jones concert with shrieking 20-nothings in the place of manic housewives.
You can see why Nutini inspires such base devotion. He has the dusky looks of an Italian footballer who has given it all up for the life of a footloose gypsy; his husky voice suggests Rod Stewart with a hint of Stereophonics' Kelly Jones. During the encore he goes so far as to belt out a song while wearing a super-sized leprechaun hat -- a display of rock star poise that's hard to fault.
Nutini is at the end of a three-date residency at The Academy, where he's been road-testing material from his next album. On first listen, the new stuff feels a little jauntier and less overtly James Blunt-ish than his too- drippy-by-half 2006 debut 'These Streets'. He's also cultivated a curious -- and not entirely unpleasant -- appetite for ragtime: there's a knavish swagger to 'Shake It Here, Shake It There'; on 'Candy' Nutini and his backing musicians impersonate a Mexicana bar band, complete with fluttering brass and Mariachi drum rolls.
Oldies
But it's oldies 'These Streets' and 'Last Request', as well as a soulful take on Christy Moore's 'Ride On', that really grab people's attention.
As he plunges into Top 10 hit 'New Shoes', the blizzard of lingerie even diminishes briefly. Singing with his eyes closed, Nutini seems too lost to really notice.
When his looks have faded and teenagers are bombarding someone else with their undies, you sense he'll still be going strong.
- ED POWER
