Paul McCartney Live in Concert

Apr 29 01:26 UTC 2002

(I entered this in agora, thought I'd re-print here)

IHB I saw Paul McCartney in concert last night at Madison Square Garden.
Wonderful concert.  Paul was in good form, and was clearly enjoying
himself on stage, and had a terrific young band backing him, and they
jammed on extended versions of songs like "Band on the Run".  And of
course he did old classics like 'fool on the hill', 'let it be', 'hey
jude', 'Yesterday', "getting better all the time", and a
number of others.    Even did "I saw her standing there" while clips of
the young beatles being trampled and chased by screaming female fans,
circa 1964, played on the jumbotron.   Almost surreal in a sense to 
watch those famous clips, and hear Paul's voice singing, and then see 
him standing there on stage playing the guitar just like on the 
screen.  Paul also did moving tributes to john lennon, george harrison 
and late wife Linda.  In tribute to Linda, he sang 'Maybe I'm Amazed' 
and 'My Love", which were written for her.  In tribute to John Lennon, 
he sang an emotional "Here Today", a song he talked of having written 
for and about Lennon shortly after Lennon was killed.  And in tribute 
to George Harrison, he brought out an antique ukelele which he said had 
been a gift from Harrison to him years back (apparently Harrison really 
liked ukeleles), and played a really tender, moving version of
Harrison's "Something"  

McCartney has only toured maybe four or five times since the sixties, 
and I saw a show on his last tour which was like ten years ago.  I 
thought this show was even better.   I'm glad I got the chance to go.

(additional note:  as might be expected for a McCartney concert, there 
was a strong aroma of marijuana in my section.  There were some big 
joints being passed around.  Which led to a funny moment, where Paul 
talked about meeting some police honchos backstage, and how he was that 
night made an honorary member of the NYPD because of the money raised 
due to his 9/11 benefit concert.  So Paul says, "I'm a cop now, so hey 
if anybody out there is smoking right now...." and he pumps his fist 
menacingly and then winks)

response 2 of 2:

May 16 03:36 UTC 2002

Saw the show. Was pretty cool. Even brought out his next wife for a few
minute chat. Paul was resting his voice for a show the next night, but
coming back from a commercial, he and the band were singing "Let it Be".