Post by henryj on Oct 23, 2014 2:41:35 GMT
My wife and I flew to Dallas to see the McCartney concert. We had originally planned to see him in New Orleans in June, but he got sick and had the reschedule to a date when we had already committed to being out of town. So we bit the bullet and got plane tickets to and hotel accommodations in Dallas. Travelocity loves us!
Our hotel was just a few blocks from the American Airlines Center, where McCartney played, so we walked. I have two younger brothers, and the youngest and his wife met us at our hotel.
Let me say at the outset that Paul is quite the crowd-pleaser. He was awesome! I doubt there was a dissatisfied customer in the whole arena. It was good. It was great.
Paul McCartney, Bass, guitars, keys, and lead vocals; Abe Laboriel, drums; Paul Wickens, keyboards (call him “Wix” because they already have a Paul); Rusty Anderson, guitar; and Brian Ray, guitar and bass: THIS is the all-time greatest Beatle tribute band.
Paul started out playing the bass, then he lumbered the Ray with the bass for a long stretch of the concert, then Paul played the bass again “The End,” when he played guitar. Paul played several instruments in addition to his trademark lefty Hofner viol bass, with the pickguard removed. He played a couple of Les Pauls, one red, the other red with strange markings He also played a small acoustic 12-string guitar, an acoustic, a nylon-string guitar played finger style. Paul also played two pianos, a grand piano up on a riser shared with Abe Laboriel Jr., his drummer, and an electric piano rolled out the front of the stage where he could face the crowd.
McCartney said he doesn’t usually discuss sports at concerts, because of rivalries that may be in the audience, “…but, how about those Cowboys?”
Concert started with Beatle song that, curiously, was one that John Lennon had done the lead vocal on, “Eight Days a Week.”
Two songs later was another Beatle song, “All My Loving.” They did a good job on this one. Engaging performance.
The Wings song :”Listen to What the Man Said” actually sounded better live than it did on the radio. Or maybe it was getting to see Paul live. Ditto with “Let Me Roll It.” Now this is a good song, but the title sounds too controversial to be played on some radio stations. Actually, most of the Wings songs sounded pretty good at this concert, e.g. “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five.” Didn’t realize I liked Wings songs as much as I did.
“The Long and Winding Road” benefitted from the electronic keyboards. However, it was strictly not Spectorized. (I suppose McCartney considers Spector’s nineteen-to-life sentence punishment for what he did to this song.) Nice big ending minus the “Yeah, yeah, yeah.”
Wix played an accordion on “We Can Work It Out,” which is interesting, since that was not an accordion on the Beatle record but rather a harmonium, an organ which has its sounds produced by air, pumped by the feet, passing over reeds. My grandma had one and one sits in my brother’s music room.
My brother observed that there were no “popcorn” songs, that is, songs that you get up and go get popcorn because it’s not a particularly good song. OTOH, when Paul played “Another Day” I couldn’t help but think of John Lennon and how my opinion of that song is somewhat like John’s. But hey, this was PAUL down there on the stage. You don’t get up and leave a Paul concert.
I didn’t even get up to go to the bathroom, although some in the crowd probably “went to the bathroom” during “Live and Let Die.” There were loud, startling explosions coming forth from the front of the stage. My wife asked me if that was real fire. I told her it was. Several hogsheads of real fire, to make reference to a song performed six numbers earlier. And it was another John Beatle song, “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite.”
I think everybody his seen Paul’s uke performance of the George Harrison Beatle song, “Something.” He did not fail to please the Dallas audience.
Everyone sang along per Paul’s request on “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” even the “bra” part. Never understand why anyone would make a nonsense lyric out of a woman’s undergarment, but…
The last song of the main part of the concert was “Hey Jude.” Everybody song along, again per Paul's requested. Walking back to the hotel, I noticed my voice was hoarse. Not a really good key for an audience singalong—the women have to sing the same notes as the men, so it’s low for the women and high for the men. No matter, everyone enjoyed singing along. Who's to complain?
At one point in the concert, many of us turned on our smartphone flashlights and waved them back and forth, the way people used to do with cigarette lighters back in the ‘70s.
I didn’t notice any funny smoke at this concert. Except for the Bond-theme explosions that filled the arena with smoke.
After “Hey Jude,” Paul and the band came back for a 3-song encore beginning with “Day Tripper” and its widely recognized riff. This was followed by “Hi, Hi, Hi” and a very rousing rendition of “Get Back.” And then he left the stage again.
But these three numbers indicated that the 72-year-old was not even tired yet. They did a second encore with “Yesterday,” an ear-splitting “Helter Skelter,” and the Abbey Road closing medley, “Golden Slumbers,” “Carry That Weight,” and the three-guitar jam (Paul and the two other guitarists) on “The End,” bass part played by the keyboard player.
Guaranteed or not, a splendid time was had by all.
On the way back to the hotel, there was a police woman directing traffic and allowing us pedestrians to cross the street. Several of us had the same idea and addressed her as “Rita.”
The past Saturday I was at a free bluegrass concert, wearing my McCartney tee-shirt I got at the concert. A person I had never met came up to me and asked "Did you see that concert? That was great, wasn't it," and proceeded to talk about how it cost some money but was worth it. He appeared to be close to my age, a teenager when the Beatles first hit.
Sorry this was so long, but hey, it was a nearly three-hour concert. We got our money's worth.