Two Generations of Beatles Fan Girls

So for those of you who heard me yap about it all summer, or alternately read my dramatic interpretation of how I came to have tickets, l did finally get to the Paul McCartney concert. Of course it was right before vacation, so I haven't had time to write about it until now.



First off, let me start by saying it was A-MAZ-ING. There really is no way to describe what an experience it was to see Sir Paul rocking out on stage. I can't imagine what it would have been like to see him as a Beatle back in the day because I acted like a total fangirl for the 68-year-old version. Speaking of which, Sir Paul is still quite dashing.





Alright, we couldn't see him quite that clearly except on the giant monitors, but here we are at our seats in section 106, directly across the Wachovia Center or Wells-Fargo or Core or whatever the hell they're calling it these days.







So as far as the show goes, I cannot believe how hard Sir Paul still rocks it. The man is the definition of a rock star. To start, he never took a break. He played a 30 song set with NO BREAK. He chatted up the audience. He did a few slow numbers to pace himself. But he never once stopped. And on top of the 30 song set, he did two encores. Three songs in the first one and four in the second.



Here's the rundown of what they played:

1. Venus And Mars/Rock Show
2. Jet
3. All My Loving
4. Letting Go
5. Drive My Car
6. Highway (The Fireman cover)
7. Let Me Roll It / Foxy Lady (Jimi Hendrix cover)
8. The Long and Winding Road
9. Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five
10. Let 'Em In
11. My Love
12. I've Just Seen a Face
13. And I Love Her
14. Blackbird
15. Here Today
16. Dance Tonight
17. Mrs Vandebilt
18. Eleanor Rigby
19. Ram On
20. Something
21. Sing the Changes (The Fireman cover)
22. Band on the Run
23. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
24. Back in the U.S.S.R.
25. I've Got a Feeling
26. Paperback Writer
27. A Day in the Life / Give Peace A Chance
28. Let It Be
29. Live and Let Die
30. Hey Jude


Encore:
31. Day Tripper
32. Lady Madonna
33. Get Back


Encore 2:
34. Yesterday
35. Helter Skelter
36. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
37. The End Play Video

All of it was fantastic, but as a rule I like the Beatles tunes more than the Wings and solo stuff. It's impossible to say which was my favorite, but there were a variety of emotional moments. "All My Loving" threw me back to my 13th birthday with Katie Kerr and my family dancing on stage at Three Little Bakers to 1964 The Tribute. "I've Just Seen a Face" makes me think of my first anniversary with Alex because we watched Across the Universe for the first time, and he sang it for weeks on end after that. The ridiculously cool ukulele version of "Something" was really beautiful and moving. We got to hear Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da in concert, which Paul mentioned they haven't played in years. My Mom and I danced to that one. And of course "Hey Jude" will forever be a tearjerker because one of my last memories of my Dad is sitting with him, my mom, and Alex at the Rain show at the DuPont Theatre singing along.



Besides Sir Paul himself, the band was fantastic. The drummer was especially charismatic, and showed off his dance moves (including the sprinkler) during the show. It was really fun to watch everyone interact on stage. You could really tell that they were into it. In addition to chemistry onstage, it seemed like they were really into the crowd as well. Paul even read some of the signs in the crowd. We watched this girl get to go up on stage and get her back signed — after which she promptly when and got it permanently tattooed on. The best part is, this story made the papers around the world. This particular website is for a British paper that I read pretty frequently when I was over there.








In addition to signing random fans and bantering with the audience, Paul also let us know that it had been exactly 45 years to the day since The Beatles had played at Shea Stadium for the very first time. And interestingly enough both our concert and the Shea Stadium appearance fell on a Sunday.



The next day at work was a little rough, but I wore my brand new fan gear and somehow managed to make it through. Being a little tired was more than worth it to get to take my Mom to see one of our mutual musical idols and get to be complete Beatles nerds together. How many people can say that they have the same favorite band as their Mom? I think we both just have good taste.