I recently had the amazing opportunity to see Paul McCartney in concert during his “Out There” tour! Let me begin by pointing out Mary and were quite literally “out there.” We were 4 rows from the top of Petco Park in a sold out crowd, so Paul was pretty tiny in the distance. Even with the distance, this concert was hands-down one of the top musical experiences of my life. Petco Park was absolutely packed, and even the infield was almost completely filled with people. The stage was epic and had some huge screens to help us get a better view of the legendary musician.
I’m going to just put the entire setlist here so you can soak in the epicness:
Eight Days a Week
Save Us
All My Loving
Listen to What the Man Said
Let Me Roll It (with “Foxy Lady” by Jimi Hendrix snippet)
Paperback Writer
My Valentine
Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five
The Long and Winding Road
Maybe I’m Amazed
I’ve Just Seen a Face
We Can Work It Out
Another Day
And I Love Her
Blackbird
Here Today
New
Queenie Eye
Lady Madonna
All Together Now
Lovely Rita
Everybody Out There
Eleanor Rigby
Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
Something
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
Band on the Run
Back in the U.S.S.R.
Let It Be
Live and Let Die
Hey Jude
Encore:
Day Tripper
Hi, Hi, Hi
Get Back
Encore 2:
Yesterday
Helter Skelter
Golden Slumbers
Carry That Weight
The End
Now that we got that over with, I’m gonna try to recall all my favorite parts of the show. As you can see, he played A LOT of Beatles songs, which was awesome because I’m not all that familiar with his solo and Wings catalogs. He came running right out on stage with his signature Hofner bass and played the Beatles classic “Eight Days a Week”. He moved with all the youthfulness of a 20-something year old musician experiencing the energy of a concert for the first time. “All My Loving” is one of my favorite Beatles tracks, so I was pretty excited to hear it live. I remember a period of my life where I listened to the live version on Anthology almost every day, and never imagining I’d get the opportunity to hear the real version live! He played “Paperback Writer” on the guitar he originally recorded the track with, which was pretty neat. “Maybe I’m Amazed” is such a powerful song, and Paul sang it with all the emotion of the original recording, as if he hadn’t aged at all. He was playing a shiny black grand piano raised up near the back of stage right, which made the camera shot very cool because we were seeing double Paul on each huge screen. He went solo acoustic for “Blackbird”, and a very raw and emotionally charged rendition of “Here Today,” about John Lennon.
After a psychedelic upright piano was rolled out onto center stage, Paul played some tracks off his latest album, “New” and “Queenie Eye.” I think the critics had mixed reviews for New, but it really grew on me after a few listens and I was impressed by the inventiveness of the songs, coming from someone who’s been at it for so long. Both those songs are pretty great and I think you should listen to New if you’re a Paul McCartney fan.
One of the songs that surprised me the most during the concert was “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite.” It seemed like a song that was never intended to be played live, but it went quite well. He then told us about he George Harrison had given him a ukulele, and he immediately learned how to play “Something” and played it with George, with George jamming through some lead guitar. He then played the uke version of “Something,” which transitioned to the full band version halfway through.
As far as Wing’s tracks go, “Band on the Run” is definitely one of the my favorites. They performed the song true to form, with all the changes, from the distinctive opening guitar riff and swooning synths, to the rocking chorus, to the acoustic strumming that brings us to the bridge and the rest of the song. We sang along with “Let It Be” and “Hey Jude,” with Paul handing the full singing duties over to the crowd for the “na na na”s. In between those two classics, Paul played “Live and Let Die.” I have to say that this was never one of my favorite tracks. I like parts of it, but as a full song it seems kind of pieced together, with the orchestral part sounding out of place to me. With that aside, The live version blew my mind! It started like we all expected, the classic McCartney piano chords and “when you were young…” Then right when the first horns would come in, the stage exploded in a show of fireworks, with guitars playing the horn parts. I nearly jumped out of my seat when that happened! Everything was so crazy during the would-be orchestral part, I don’t know how they kept it together on stage. After the song ended, Paul was walking around unsteadily, waving his arms and pointing to his ears, like he couldn’t hear, and I was genuinely concerned. Turns out he’s just a really good actor too.
For the first encore, he played both “Day Tripper” and “Get Back,” which were both really fun songs to sing along to, and at this point I was amazed that he was still going along so tirelessly. The concert had already been going for 2 hours! He came back out for a second encore, and kicked it off with solo acoustic “Yesterday.” He ended with “Carry That Weight” and “The End.” Ever since I learned about “The End” in a history of Rock class at took in college, I always wanted to see it played live. The album version features and awesome solo from each member of the band. It starts off with a drum solo from Ringo, then goes into an extended guitar solo, starting with Paul’s crisp, slightly distorted soloing, moving to George’s distinctly soaring and melodic soloing, and then going to John’s overly distorted, grungy solo. Seeing it played live (albeit without Ringo, George, and John) was such a cool experience, and something I’ll never forget.