Welcome back, Paul. It's been a long time.
Seventeen years, to be exact. The last time Paul McCartney played Kansas City was during the Clinton Administration, in front of a 40,000-plus crowd at Arrowhead on his "New World Tour" in 1993.
Judging by the packed-to-the-rafters Sprint Center Saturday night (not to mention the longest pre-show line I've ever seen outside of the venue beforehand), the KC populous was feeling, at least a little, like he owed them one.
"It's great to be back here in Kansas City!" Sir Paul shouted after opening with the Wings faves "Venus and Mars"/"Rock Show." If you listened closely, you clearly hear at least a few retorts of "Where the hell have you been?"
But the hard feelings didn't last long. To cannibalize a Daniel Tosh joke, it's physically impossible to frown at a Paul McCartney show. Even a handful of perfunctory shout-outs to Kansas (sans Missouri) and an odd reference to "cowboy country" (not to mention the fact that he didn't freaking play the song "Kansas City"!) couldn't taint this reunion.
Officially, McCartney's current tour is titled -- in typical Paul wit -- the "Up and Coming Tour," but a more fitting name would've been "Follow the Bouncing Paul." For nearly three hours, two encores and 33 songs, the 68-year-old proved that he still has the same boundless energy and gee-shucks charisma as he did as a young lad in Liverpool.
"I see you're gonna be a crazy crowd tonight," McCartney surmised after the screaming subsided following "All My Loving." He played to that energy well, packing his setlist with countless sing- and dance-along classics like "Drive My Car" and "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da," with a very well-thought-out mix of Beatles and solo material.
And just like on Ed Sullivan in '64, the audience -- particularly the ladies, young and old -- drank it up. When the droop-eyed Brit made a self-deprecating joke, everyone laughed. When he did that little signature duck-and-bob move (you know the one) on "Dance Tonight," everyone danced. And when he played the first recognizable notes of yet another Beatles mega-hit, everyone oohed.
How could they not? He's Paul McCartney. As my wife said in reference to the shrieking young girl two rows ahead of us, "You've gotta give props to any 60-something guy who can get an 18-year-old going like that." Well put.
But there was something else that happened at Saturday's show that I wasn't expecting, and it had very little to do with hearing some of the most famous songs in the world performed by the man who wrote them. I first noticed it about a dozen songs in.
"I wrote this song for Linda," Paul said, his voice wistful, before launching into the Wings ballad "My Love." "Tonight, we'd like to dedicate it to all the lovers in the audience." It was honest, and everyone felt it.
That same emotion bubbled to the surface at least two other times during the course of the evening -- once during an absolutely stunning ukulele version of the George Harrison-penned "Something," and again when he spoke about the conversation he'd have today with John Lennon if he could, before playing "Here Today," the song he wrote after Lennon's death. Candid images of his absent friends and his love floated across the giant video screen behind him like pages torn from a very personal photo album.
He never mentioned Ringo Starr or Heather Mills (my theory: because the former's still alive, and because he wishes the latter were not). But during those moments, McCartney -- one of the most superhuman people in the world -- was completely vulnerable.
At 68, he's playing "Give Peace a Chance" to former-hippies-turned-businessmen for $250 a ticket, while teens wave cell phones in the air instead of lighters. He's a bit like Peter Pan: the boy who never grew up and never got old, looking back on a life where everyone around him did.
Going to see Paul McCartney and expecting anything less than a stellar show is disingenuous. But this was 50 years of rock 'n' roll history -- the good times and the bad -- as seen through the eyes of the man who lived it.
Please come see us again soon, Paul.
Setlist
Venus and Mars/Rock Show
Jet
All My Loving
Letting Go
Drive My Car
Highway
Let Me Roll It/Foxy Lady
The Long and Winding Road
Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five
Let 'Em In
My Love
I've Just Seen a Face
And I love Her
Blackbird
Here Today
Dance Tonight
Mrs. Vanderbilt
Eleanor Rigby
Something
Sing the Changes
Band on the Run
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
Back in the USSR
I've Got a Feeling
Paperback Writer
A Day in the Life/Give Peace a Chance
Let it Be
Live and Let Die
Hey Jude
First Encore
Day Tripper
Lady Madonna
Get Back
Second Encore
Yesterday
Helter Skelter
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band/The End
Showing 1-5 of 5
I was at this show (second row) and I will never EVER forget it. I had waited for so long to get this close to Paul and it was worth everything to me. He is part of my youth and the songs he sang that night brought back so many wonderful, beautiful memories for me. He means even more to me now - if that is possible. He gives 100 percent at his shows. I just wish I could thank him personally and let him know how much he means to so many, but I have a feeling he knows what he means to so many of us. Thanks, Paul for the music and the memories...
Thank you for the nice review and the list of the songs he sang. I'm from out of town so I haven't seen you before, but are you the young guy I saw in all different parts of the stage with a big camera and glasses on? I noticed that whoever that person was, they were entirely enjoying themselves because between pictures being taken, they were swinging to the beat!!! Paul is unbelievable!!! At the age of 68 to be able to do a 3 hour concert without ANY breaks!!!There is no one else in the entire universe who can match Paul McCartney!!
like
dislike
