Thursday night my Sweetie Janis and I went and saw one of the Beatles in concert, yes Paul McCartney finally made his way up north to Edmonton for two sold out shows (15,000 fans) at Rexall Place. This was the first time for both of us seeing Sir Paul McCartney, this was the second Beatle I have seen in concert, having seen Ringo Starr in concert in 1989.
Janis was super excited about this show, with the Beatles being one of her all time favorite bands. As for me, I am a fan, and grew up hearing them from my parents playing Beatles records, and with that I have listened to them over the years. Hell, he is Sir Paul, when given the chance to see a classic like him, you really should go, so we did. Tickets were a bitch to get, but with lots of perseverance, I scored tickets three weeks before the show. Our tickets were for the second show.
After getting to our seats 20 minutes before show time, we ended having to wait another half hour later then what the tickets said. Sitting there watching the place fill up, I was looking at what kind of audience he was bringing in. It was a wide variety to say the least. Old timers in their 70's to parents with kids in the single digits. In our section, I was starting to think I was in the kiddies section or something, damn there were quite a few kids. But hey, better to expereince someone like Paul McCartney then some lug head like Justin Bieber, so kudos to the parents that brought their kids to a show like this. I was starting to get restless, nothing worse then waiting on someone, even if its Mr. McCartney, but by 8:30 he finally hit the stage to great applause. No opening act, just an evening with Paul McCartney.
First song of the night was the Beatles song "Hello, Goodbye", a great opener and very fitting. Which was a different opener from the night before, nice to see Paul switched up the setlist a bit from the previous night. I always like when a band mixes up there sets from night to night. Paul's back-up band was excellent too, with four others backing him up. Paul mixed it up with Beatles songs and Wings songs, I found the Wings songs to be a little heavier then I recalled listening to them on their album releases, so that was cool. And what can you say about the Beatles songs, well they always got the biggest responses, not that the Wings stuff didn't go over well too. I don't think Paul could do any wrong on this night. he had the audience in the palm of his hands for the whole three hours that they played. Paul gave shout outs to his fallen comrades George Harrison and John Lennon and even too Jimi Hendrix with Paul playing a bit of "Foxey Lady" at the end of the Wings song "Let Me Roll" it.
Paul McCartney also brought out the Edmonton Police Service Pipe Band to perform the Wings song "Mull Of Kintyre". The biggest sing-alongs of the night were for the Beatles song "Ob-La-Di,Ob-La-Da" and "Give Peace A Chance" and "Hey Jude", it was super cool to hear the whole audience sing-along with them two classics. Highlights for me were the songs "Drive My Car", "Let Me Roll It", "Blackbird", "Band On The Run", "A Day In The Life" and "Lady Madonna". One of the funniest moments for me in the show was the huge explosions of the flash pods during "Live And Let Die", I was expecting it having read about it in the review from the Wednesday night show, but for those who had no idea, them explosions had more then a few people jump out of their seats,including Janis and the big lady sitting on the other side of me, I thought the lady next to me was gonna jump on to my lap, which wouldn't have been a good thing,lol. Paul has got a lot of stamina for a man that is seventy years old, he played for three straight hours with no intermissions, no solos from the other band members in which paul could sneak off for a break, it was just one song after another. Paul seemed to really be enjoying himself through out the show, which is always nice to see. He was in great humour and very humble, he didn't come off as some big rock star, yet the man is probably one of the biggest stars in the world. After thirty-eight songs in his three hour set, I felt like I could have stayed and listened for another three hours, the night just flew by. After the show I was sitting at home thinking about the show and the songs I wish I could have heard, there is no doubt he could have played another three hours and you still wouldn't have heard everything you wanted. All and all an amzing night of music. Good times!!!
Setlist for Paul McCartney Nov.29th in Edmonton.
Hello, Goodbye
Junior's Farm
All My Loving
Jet
Drive My Car
Sing the Changes
The Night Before
Let Me Roll It/Foxey Lady
Paperback Writer
The Long and Winding Road
Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five
My Valentine
Maybe I'm Amazed
Things We Said Today
And I Love Her
Blackbird
Here Today
Dance Tonight
Mrs. Vandebilt
Eleanor Rigby
Something
Band on the Run
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
Back in the U.S.S.R.
I've Got a Feeling
A Day in the Life/Give Peace A Chance
Let It Be
Live and Let Die
Hey Jude
Encore:
Lady Madonna
Wonderful Christmastime
Day Tripper
Get Back
Encore 2:
Yesterday
Mull of Kintyre
Golden Slumbers
Carry That Weight
The End
Here is a video that I shot at the show.
Pictures from the show.
T-shirt from show front.
Back of t-shirt.
November was one hell of a month for concerts by some of the most important musicians still alive. Having seen Neil Young with Crazy Horse, Leonard Cohen and Paul McCartney all in the last month.
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