Billy Strings and his drum-tight (but drumless) band brought two sets and 25 songs of pure bluegrass magic to the first of two back-to-back PPG Paints Arena shows on Friday night.

I’m already jealous of those who have tickets for Saturday night’s sold-out show.

The 33-year-old guitar virtuoso may not be a household name the way that many arena acts are, but he’s getting there, leaping from playing the Rex Theater as an opener almost a decade ago to playing two jam-packed nights at PPG Paints. He also earned his eighth Grammy Award nomination on Friday, his fourth for Best Bluegrass Album (he’s won that one twice before, including once this year).

At Friday’s show, he and the four other musicians who joined him onstage jammed out to two dozen songs over two and a half hours (two sets with a break in between). And after hearing the ferocity with which these guys played, I don’t know how their hands aren’t just big blisters. Especially considering that a few of those songs were expansive jam sessions that lasted longer than ten minutes apiece.

The first of those long plays was “Turmoil & Tinfoil,” the second song of the first set and the title track of Strings’ 2017 debut album. After coming out strong at the start of the show with tone-setting opener “I’m One of Those,” the about-15-minute-long slow burn that followed felt like a statement of purpose. It was tumultuous, lit under flashes of red and white lights with ample time for the guitar, Billy Failing’s banjo and Alex Hargreaves’ fiddle to flash through solos that felt like an airing of grievances.

At the song’s close, the air continued to reverberate with the residual thrum of Royal Masat’s upright bass.

The freshly Grammy-nominated 2024 album “Highway Prayers” made several appearances, firstly in “Happy Hollow,” a more traditional bluegrass ripper that featured some exceptional vocal harmonies. The second set kicked off with “In the Clear,” an uplifting post-break return for the band. “Stratosphere Blues/I Believe in You” was spacey, a little psychedelic and felt inspired by ’60s and ’90s rock with the caress of plaintive plucking. And “Don’t Be Calling Me (At 4AM)” got the crowd moving — it could be a dive bar jukebox staple, a little angry and a little playful with weary delivery from Strings’s resonant voice.

It’s clear that Strings figured out where he’s going by seeing where so many others have been. Ample covers filled out the setlist for Friday night’s show, from traditional folk songs to tunes penned by the greats. Early in the first set was “I Only Exist,” a waltz with a genuine vintage sound originally by the Stanley Brothers. He also brought extra twang to Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot’s “Whispers of the North,” which Strings sang with solemnity and Failing laced with threads of his banjo.

Before another Stanley Brothers standard, “Rank Stranger,” Strings announced that they wanted to play it because “this song probably saved my life.”

While Strings is an unbelievable guitarist, he also has some impressive songwriting prowess. “10,000 Miles From a Friend” was a slower country tune where even the slightly rougher edges of the singer’s voice were smoothed with tenderness as he sang about long-haul trucking. The lyrics of “While I’m Waiting Here” have some tragic twists and turns, and the band took their time working through several musical movements between the verses, ranging from the lonesome strum of Jarrod Walker’s mandolin to the chilling keen of Strings’s electric guitar.

That led into the centerpiece of the whole show, “Meet Me at the Creek.” The upbeat tune felt like a rebirth after “While I’m Waiting Here” ended in a near funeral dirge, and it led to the best showcase of these five musicians’ abilities. Whether it was the frantic chirps from Walker’s mandolin or the siren’s call of the guitar or Hargreaves working overtime on the fiddle as a rainbow wall of stage lights twirled and winked over the crowd, each second of sound was a novelty and the audience thundered up to the rafters at its end.

Pittsburgh’s clearly been on the brain for Strings. He told a story about accidentally screaming out the wrong city name — Pittsburgh, to be exact — at a show in Baltimore last week. “They booed,” he said. “And I mean booed.”

To close the second set, the five-piece band did maybe the most surprising thing of all and abandoned their instruments to crowd together under a spotlight and sing a tight a cappella rendition of “Richard Petty,” the closing song on “Highway Prayers.” Then they picked up in the pickin’ again to close with the traditional song “Come Down the Mountain Katie Daly,” each member kicking into a higher gear but still managing to keep perfect pace with each other.

“Thank you for coming out tonight, and for all the love and beautiful energy that’s filling up all the space to the ceiling up there,” Srings said.

Not to put the burden of high expectations on anyone, but Saturday night’s show is bound to be a fantastic time for those attending. And for those who aren’t, don’t miss Billy Strings the next time he swings through town.

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