Ok, something nice instead of a rant.... I went to see Paul McCartney at Hershey on July 19th
Over the years, I’ve seen MANY amazing concerts and MANY
amazing artists. I feel privileged to have
seen some of my favorite music performed live over the years. The shows I never
got to see will always be a major hole in my life, but you can only do what you
can. I never got to see Queen, or Frank
Zappa, or Led Zeppelin, although I was able to see Robert Plant once, and he
was doing a few Led Zeppelin songs during his tour. Another band I never got to see was (and I’m
sure a lot of other people as well, since they didn’t seem to really perform
live like bands do these days) was The Beatles.
When I heard that Paul McCartney was coming to Hershey (although I tried
to get tickets when we was in State College, PA last year, and couldn’t even
get a rafter seat) I was on that like crazy!
So when I got the ticket, I was thrilled.
Hershey was excited as well since they had a HUGE poster of
Paul on the side of the stadium, and put a big “PAUL” up on the hill in front
of the old Milton Hershey School where it says “Welcome to Hershey” and
purportedly renamed some of the rides in Hersheypark to Paul “themes” and the
main drag in Hershey to Sir Paul Way (or something like that) I was happy to finally get to see a Beatle,
and hear a bunch of songs that I grew up listening to, that I never thought I’d
ever get to hear live by the person that sang them!
Being the usual impatient person, I had to check and see
what the setlist was, and WOW a lot of stuff!
He did 38 songs, and a nice mix of Beatles, Wings, and his solo stuff
(and even an old pre-Beatles Quarrymen tune)
The highlights for me were a few tunes that I just loved over the years;
Fool on the Hill, Let It Be, and Yesterday, just songs that always meant a lot
to me. He started with Hard Day’s Night,
and Can’t Buy me Love. Did Love Me Do, Blackbird, Eleanor Rigby, Hey Jude, etc…..
He also did an amazing version of Live and Let Die that just blew more
fireworks and pyro than anything I’ve ever seen at a concert! That will be a favorite moment of mine for a
LONG time, and will have a tough time being topped at any show!
One thing that just totally impressed me, seeing aging
artists over the years, you can see that they are slowing up, and need a lot of
support onstage, extra singers to carry their parts, extra musicians to play
their parts, etc. Paul did his share and
then some! He played every song, when
he played bass, he was the bass player, when he played acoustic, it was him,
piano, etc. He did a spot where it was
just him and a guitar on the stage, and it was all him. AND no intermission! He did the banter in between songs, talked to
the audience, and the man is 74! Good
for him, he is impressive!
Overall, it was probably in one of my top 10 concert
experiences, and I’ve seen over 100 shows!
(this is up there with Roger Water’s Wall show, Pink Floyd in 1987,
Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, and Howe, and a few Rush shows) If you get a chance to see this tour, DO
IT! You won’t regret it!
Here's the complete setlist:
Here's the complete setlist:
- A Hard Day's Night
- Save Us
- Can't Buy Me Love
- Letting Go
- Temporary Secretary
- Let Me Roll It
- Foxey Lady (Jimi Hendrix cover)
- I've Got a Feeling
- My Valentine
- Nine Hundred and Eighty Five
- Here, There and Everywhere
- Maybe I'm Amazed
- We Can Work it Out
- In Spite of All the Danger
- You Won't See Me
- Love Me Do
- And I Love Her
- Blackbird
- Here Today
- New
- Spinning On an Axis
- Lady Madonna
- Four Five Seconds
- Eleanor Rigby
- Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite
- Something
- Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
- Band on the Run
- Back in the USSR
- Let It Be
- Live and Let Die
- Hey Jude
- Yesterday
- Hi Hi Hi
- Birthday
- Golden Slumber
- Carry That Weight
- The End
No comments:
Post a Comment