Captain Bacardi
Well-Known Member
Last night I finally got to see Paul McCartney here in Austin at the Erwin Center, which usually has the worst acoustics for music. I mentioned before that I spent the big bucks for tickets ($275 each plus "fees"). McCartney and his band were in top form, playing everything from the Beatles to Wings to solo material. We were in the 30th row off to the left of stage.
The show was supposed to have started at 8 p.m. There was some guy on stage that most of us thought was a sound guy checking equipment, but this guy kept playing Beatles tracks as some sort of mash-up dance thing, and it really sucked. People started getting impatient with that.
McCartney finally took stage at 8:45 and started off with "Eight Days A Week". He played a wide variety of tunes, including two that he said he had never performed live - "Lovely Rita" and "For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite" (both from the Sgt. Pepper's album). It was a bit odd hearing those two tracks individually, since I'm used to hearing them in the flow of the album. Some other highlights included "All My Loving", and beautiful acoustic version of "And I Love Her". There was one pyrotechnics feature on "Live And Let Die", which scared the hell out of a lot of people with the cannon shots and fireworks.
McCartney did tributes to John Lennon and George Harrison as well, playing the ukulele on "Something" before the band broke into a more familiar rock version. He had the crowd singing along on most songs, especially on "Hey Jude" and "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da".
McCartney was very engaging with the audience, telling humorous stories about some songs. One cool story was about when Sgt. Pepper got released on a Friday and a couple of days later Jimi Hendrix was covering the song at one of his gigs that McCartney happened to be at with Eric Clapton. Hendrix was using the whammy bar on his guitar a lot, which tends to get a guitar out of tune when Hendrix stopped and asked if Clapton was around so he could retune the guitar. McCartney said that Clapton just tried to hide behind him in a joking manner.
It was interesting to see the crowd - most of whom were my age and much older - jamming to the songs, some with canes (I kid you not!). But it was also nice to see some parents with their young kids and teens to see what real music is about. The show finally ended at 11:30. There were so many other songs that he could've played but just didn't have time to do them, which shows you how much he's done over the years. All in all an excellent show!
The set list (courtesy of the Austin American Statesman):
Eight Days a Week
Junior's Farm
All My Loving
Listen to What the Man Said
Let Me Roll It
Paperback Writer
My Valentine
Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five
The Long and Winding Road
Maybe I'm Amazed
I've Just Seen a Face
We Can Work It Out
Another Day
And I Love Her
Blackbird
Here Today
Your Mother Should Know
Lady Madonna
All Together Now
Lovely Rita
Mrs. Vandebilt
Eleanor Rigby
Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
Something
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
Band on the Run
Back in the U.S.S.R.
Let It Be
Live and Let Die
Hey Jude
First Encore:
Day Tripper
Hi, Hi, Hi
Get Back
Second Encore:
Yesterday
Helter Skelter
Golden Slumbers
Carry That Weight
The End
Capt. Bacardi
The show was supposed to have started at 8 p.m. There was some guy on stage that most of us thought was a sound guy checking equipment, but this guy kept playing Beatles tracks as some sort of mash-up dance thing, and it really sucked. People started getting impatient with that.
McCartney finally took stage at 8:45 and started off with "Eight Days A Week". He played a wide variety of tunes, including two that he said he had never performed live - "Lovely Rita" and "For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite" (both from the Sgt. Pepper's album). It was a bit odd hearing those two tracks individually, since I'm used to hearing them in the flow of the album. Some other highlights included "All My Loving", and beautiful acoustic version of "And I Love Her". There was one pyrotechnics feature on "Live And Let Die", which scared the hell out of a lot of people with the cannon shots and fireworks.
McCartney did tributes to John Lennon and George Harrison as well, playing the ukulele on "Something" before the band broke into a more familiar rock version. He had the crowd singing along on most songs, especially on "Hey Jude" and "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da".
McCartney was very engaging with the audience, telling humorous stories about some songs. One cool story was about when Sgt. Pepper got released on a Friday and a couple of days later Jimi Hendrix was covering the song at one of his gigs that McCartney happened to be at with Eric Clapton. Hendrix was using the whammy bar on his guitar a lot, which tends to get a guitar out of tune when Hendrix stopped and asked if Clapton was around so he could retune the guitar. McCartney said that Clapton just tried to hide behind him in a joking manner.
It was interesting to see the crowd - most of whom were my age and much older - jamming to the songs, some with canes (I kid you not!). But it was also nice to see some parents with their young kids and teens to see what real music is about. The show finally ended at 11:30. There were so many other songs that he could've played but just didn't have time to do them, which shows you how much he's done over the years. All in all an excellent show!
The set list (courtesy of the Austin American Statesman):
Eight Days a Week
Junior's Farm
All My Loving
Listen to What the Man Said
Let Me Roll It
Paperback Writer
My Valentine
Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five
The Long and Winding Road
Maybe I'm Amazed
I've Just Seen a Face
We Can Work It Out
Another Day
And I Love Her
Blackbird
Here Today
Your Mother Should Know
Lady Madonna
All Together Now
Lovely Rita
Mrs. Vandebilt
Eleanor Rigby
Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
Something
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
Band on the Run
Back in the U.S.S.R.
Let It Be
Live and Let Die
Hey Jude
First Encore:
Day Tripper
Hi, Hi, Hi
Get Back
Second Encore:
Yesterday
Helter Skelter
Golden Slumbers
Carry That Weight
The End
Capt. Bacardi