I saw this group one night on Carson Daly. Carson Daly and Last Call with Carson Daly show are one of those things where if you put a gun to my head and asked “why do you like this guy?”, you’d have to shoot me because I couldn’t tell you. I never watched Total Request Live, don’t think he’s all that cute and wonder what grade of crack that he smokes before booking his musical guests but… I watch.
So one night I’m watching (September 19, 2007) because Jeff Goldblum is on, and like every night Carson announces his musical guest and I sit down to watch how bad this nights act is going to be. This group comes on, the crowd starts screaming like Carson has shared the crack with them. The band starts playing and my eyebrows start doing that thing that people say my eyebrows do when I’m like WTF???!!! I could not describe the sound the group was making. I couldn’t even figure out what language they were singing in. Then I caught myself, looking at myself, asking myself, um… are you enjoying this? to which I answered, I don’t know.
It was really weird. I don’t do crack and don’t believe I possess the ability to enjoy any group that Carson Daly would describe as great, but next thing I know I’m trying to find a pen to jot down the few words that I could understand so that I could find the name of the group and/or the song they’re playing. I found the note weeks later and went on a search for the group. I thought I could look on the Carson Daly website but I couldn’t remember what night the show was on so I went to yahoo and typed in the few words that I could make out and this song called Jenny Don’t be Hasty by Paolo Nutini came up. I press a link to a YouTube video of them live at Glastonbury in 2007.
I can’t tell if it’s the same group because I don’t remember being able to see the face of the guy on Carson Daly then the song starts slow with that no, no, no chant and then I realize it’s them and again I’m enjoying. Disappointed with myself,  I immediately head over to iTunes and click the sample first because I’m still not ready to admit I like this song or this group. I press the link and I’m not getting that same feeling, then I notice that there are different versions of the song, namely a live version, so I press that link and there it is again, that sound that I can’t describe except to say that I feel the same way when I drink rootbeer.
I buy both versions (just in case I’m wrong). I am. The studio version is doing nothing for me so I play the live version. It’s the live version that’s most like the performance on Carson Daly and everytime I play it I like it more and more and finally I realize why… It’s a HOT MESS! like the Rolling Stones but not quite as sloppy. Sorta rocky, sorta rolly, sorta reggae, kinda souly. Just a beautiful trainwreck with a nice beat. Imagine being a straight boy and seeing a porno with Craig Ferguson having sex with Gerard Butler and being completely disgusted but you look down and realize you have a hard on. That’s Paolo Nutini.
Enjoy?