Going to see Sir Paul McCartney tonight...

[Ritchie200]

Well, my wife bought some tickets to the Paul McCartney concert here in St. Louis tonight.  It sold out is a matter of minutes but since SHE belongs to the Paul McCartney Fan Club (yeah, and we've been married 26 years....), she got advanced sale.  I think I've made it pretty well known around here how I feel about the Beatles.  Plus, there is not much...make that, nothing at all, that I like from Wings.

However, I did see the Beatles when they came here in '66 and who knows, this may be the last tour for Paul at 70 (!!!! Holy crap I'm getting old!).  As much as I dismiss the supposed influence of the Beatles, I would be a fool not to recognize the history and breadth of his work.  So, I will go....  If I don't fall asleep (or Paul...), I will report back tonight or tomorrow.

Jim

[Willabe]

Paul was always my favorit Beatle.

Have fun Jim.


            Brad     

[tubenit]

Jim,

Irony is sweet!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You deserved to be musically tortured by one of the great Beatles.  Hopefully, everyone will be playing a Tele.   

Yours truly, Tubenit

[EL34]

LOL, no way
You are going to see a Beatle? 

[Ritchie200]

HaHaha!  Yes, it's true!  I knew you guys would celebrate my agony!

HOWEVER.... (drum roll please.....)

It has to rank up there in the top ten of shows that I have seen live.  There you go!  I've admitted it in front of the world now!

It was a rocky start however.  Early on he played a song I had not heard called Sing the Changes.  I really liked it.  Then they put a video up on the screen.  I almost walked out.  It turned a 9.9 night into a solid 8...

Anyway.  This was their first big show on this leg of the North America portion of the tour. They started about 25 minutes late and the crew were all over the stage up until then - maybe some glitches? (Still much better than Madonna, who was 2.5 hours late here a few weeks ago - for NO reason)  I wish I had the song list as he played for about 3.5 hours!  He played about half solo and Wings stuff and the other half and maybe more was all Beatles.  His band was spot on and the vocals and harmonies were absolutely stunning.  What was really incredible was Paul's voice.  A few very rare times he seemed to run out of range, but being the experienced vocalist that he is, he was able to smooth it over.  A few times he got a little warbley - but WOW, he really has lost nothing.  Two encores before he begged off after doing The End.

Highlights included: A two or three minute Foxy Lady jam at the end of a Wings song that he dedicated to, "the late, great, Jimi Hendrix".  Then tributes to John and George that had half the audience in tears.  He told a lot of stories.  He said he went over to George's house back in the 70's for a visit and he talked about what an amazing uke player George was.  Paul asked him to play one of his songs on the uke and he played Here Comes the Sun, "on this uke that he gave me".  He started the song solo on the uke and then the band came in for the full blown version - AWESOME!  Then he held up an old Gretch that obviously had some miles on it.  He said, "I used this guitar in the studio when we recorded this song" - and they went into Paperback Writer - they KILLED this song - AWESOME.  A highlight for me was Day Tripper, a song I did in anger years ago because we were "required" to do two Beatles songs to get a big gig.  They played it EXACTLY how I played it - kind of a Jimi meets George version, too cool!  He talked about meeting the Soviet defense minister back in the 80's who demanded he play Looov me duu! Then upon excusing himself said, "hello goodbye".  Blackbird - wow...  Another incredible highlight was Live and Let Die.  I HATE this song.  However, they played a version that would have the pathetic Guns and Roses cowering and shaking in a corner. UN-FRICKEN-BELIEVABLE!  Lots of pyro during this song had Paul holding his ears - and actually did not seem to happy about it!  Interesting that they were all using the old stage speaker monitors, only the drummer had an in-ear monitor.  Funny moment when his guitarist flubbed the lead in a song and Paul made him play it again - at least it LOOKED to be all in good fun! 

He kept calling us St. Louie, until he asked the crowd the correct way to say it - too funny.  Then after coming back for the first encore he came out waving a huge Missouri flag.  He kept making fun of two guys who were holding up a sign that said "Sign our wives!".  Scary moment at the end of the show when Paul was running down the steps from his piano to join in a (extended 10 minute) jam during The End.  He missed the last step and face planted on the stage!  Not a little stumble, this was face first and then the rest of his body on a full run.  He just laid there for a few seconds and I was thinking about the headlines.....  The crew were running to him and then he jumped up like he was popping up on a surf board, knees bent and arms out - acting like he was surfing!  At the end of the show he joked about his "intentional fall".  I HOPE I have that kind of resilience when I'm 70!  Holy crap!  It looked like he was having a great time.

Again, other than the early bump in the road, a very, very, cool evening!

Let the abuse begin
Jim

[Ritchie200]

oops, sorry, the George tribute on the uke was Something.

Found the set list - wow!

SETLIST:  Paul McCartney @ Scottrade Center  11/11/12
Magical Mystery Tour(The Beatles song)
Junior's Farm (Wings song)
All My Loving (The Beatles song)
Jet (Wings song)
Drive My Car (The Beatles song)
Sing the Changes (The Fireman song)
The Night Before (The Beatles song)
Let Me Roll It (Wings song) (with Foxy Lady snippet)
Paperback Writer (The Beatles song)
The Long and Winding Road (The Beatles song)
Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five (Wings song)
Maybe I'm Amazed
I've Just Seen a Face (The Beatles song)
And I Love Her (The Beatles song)
My Valentine
Blackbird (The Beatles song)
Here Today
Dance Tonight
Mrs. Vandebilt (Wings song)
Eleanor Rigby (The Beatles song)
Something (The Beatles song)
Band on the Run (Wings song)
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (The Beatles song)
Back In The USSR (The Beatles song)
I've Got a Feeling (The Beatles song)
A Day in the Life (The Beatles song) (with Give Peace A Chance snippet)
Let It Be (The Beatles song)
Live and Let Die (Wings song)
Hey Jude (The Beatles song)

Encore:
Lady Madonna (The Beatles song)
Birthday (The Beatles song)
Day Tripper (The Beatles song)
Get Back (The Beatles song)

Encore 2:
Yesterday (The Beatles song)
Helter Skelter (The Beatles song)
Golden Slumbers (The Beatles song)/Carry That Weight (The Beatles song)/The End (The Beatles song)

Here is a side view of the Live and Let Die performance.  I did not take this video so sorry for the dude yelling "YEAH!" through the whole thing...

Paul McCartney in St. Louis 11/11/12 Live and Let Die

[Willabe]

Like I said Paul was always my favorite Beatle. He's got a great voice IMO, very down to earth feel to it, but he can rock with it too.

I didn't really get into George until I was, hummm in my 30's? I really like him a lot now. (Except for the transcendental meditation stuff.) IMO he's was a great song writer. Like his take on slide too. Good voice.

Glad you had a great time Jim. (And it wasn't raining this time, like at the Boston show.)


             Brad      
 

[Ritchie200]

Actually it was POURING!  Fortunately it was indoors this time!  And it went from 65 at 7:00 when we got there to 38 when we came out at 11:30!  Then we spent 30 minutes trying to get out of the parking lot.  Late night run to Denny's and I slept like a baby last night!

Jim

[John]

Glad you had such a good time. Like a lot of guys, I'm not really "into" the Beatles, but you can't deny their talent. 40 years later and their songs are still widely liked.

[Platefire]

I never was a Beatle fan but I recall borrowing a friends records in the 60's and trying to figure out their songs. It didn't take long to determine the structure and cord vocabulary they were putting together was way beyond the simple blues based songs I was familiar with. Getting my hands on some sheet music with cords on it helped a bunch because some of it I couldn't make out by just listening to the records. They brought in a whole new and different cord application, cord progressions that I was always impressed with. They were very inventive creative song crafters that changed music as we know it---I'll give them that. Platefire

[Cups]

I think I can understand hating the "idea" of the Beatles or not appreciating their popularity or something. But it's actually impossible to hate their music. Anybody who hates the Beatles music is just not listening. They're letting their prejudices take over.

MacCartney is just one big ball of melody. He just lives and breathes music.

Can you tell I'm super envious??