The Female Half was surfing the internet yesterday morning when she responded to a MySpace bulletin offering free pairs of tickets to the Paolo Nutini concert across the river at the TLA, which the new owner, LiveNation, now calls the Fillmore at the TLA. Apparently, LiveNation does this sort of giveaway thing with some frequency, sending out bulletins to other MySpacers to create excitement and liquor sales for impending concerts.

We were only passingly familiar with Nutini, the 20-year-old singer/sonwriter from Scotland whose hit song and video, “New Shoes,” swept the world late last year. When we were staying at the Hilton in Atlanta last month, the in-house channel repeatedly played a series of interviews with creative folks, in which they talked about concepts like home, travel, creativity, etc. They then had them sing a tune– some sort of obtuse marketing campaign that marries creativity, travel, hotels and Hilton(?)– and Nutini was among the artists they grilled. During his segment, he does a rather compelling version of “New Shoes” accompanied only by his mate on an acoustic guitar. We ended up watching the damn thing about a dozen times or more, so catchy and so mesmerizing was his quirky performance.

So, when we had a chance to see the young man live, we couldn’t pass it up.

The TLA was formerly a repertory cinema on Philadelphia’s famous South Street, but hasn’t been for quite some time. (The Male Half actually performed there once, when it was still a movie house– opening for the movie “Airplane!”)

They husked it out, fitted it with a bar and it plays host to several acts a month, from Squeeze to Twiztid to Toots & The Maytalls. Next month, The Comedians of Comedy Tour comes in on the 28th. It holds about 1,000 bodies, all general admission, all standing room only.

Nutini took the stage promptly at 10. (The openers, The Virgins, did a pleasant, if somewhat perfunctory half-hour set, starting at 9.)

It’s hard to believe he’s 20. He’s got the voice (and the stage presence) of someone three times his age. You gotta give him credit for doing The Big Hit only two songs into the show. It wouldn’t surprise us if 90 per cent of the audience owned the debut album, as many of them (mainly the girls) sang along to many of the numbers.

His onstage manner is quirky, but it works. He reminded us somewhat of Mitch Hedberg, had Hedberg been a rocker instead of a comedian. The simple three-piece band is as good as any we’ve seen and he does some unexpected covers– Harry Nilsson’s “Everybody’s Talking At Me” and “I Wanna Be Like You” from Disney’s Jungle Book to name just two. (It was the latter choice that made us realize his voice is a bizarre cross between Al Green and Louis Prima?!?) He did an hour, then came out and did a ten-minute encore. Thoroughly enjoyable. From here he’s headed to Austin. He’s taping Austin City Limits, which should make him an even bigger star here in the states.