They did not have too long wait as McCartney and his four-piece band strode onto the stage and too their positions, charging right into a crowd pleasing rendition of the well-known Beatles favorite, "Hard Days Night," to get the arena jumping, the crowd singing and dancing and to get the evening off to a rousing start.
McCartney jumped next to a Wings favorite next, keeping things going with the familiar and fun "Junior's Farm," written by him and his wife Linda. And this is how things went for the initial set entry, with McCartney and his band engaging the fans' mood and memories with easy, familiar tunes to dance to. However, McCartney is a veteran showman and peppers his show with surprises and stories, laying out new tracks or deep cuts to the audience, to let them get a taste of something they may not know.
After another Wings cut, "Jet," he gave his fans the first dark horse of the night, a song of the album McCartney II, the odd electro-pop number "Temporary Secretary," that seemed to give more than a few audience members pause, and will likely spur some of them to listen and learn more about the song online after the show.
Coming off that one, McCartney began relating stories about points in his music career, starting off with an anecdote about Jimi Hendrix, who didn't find fame until he went to the United Kingdom and began performing in London clubs and bars. The up-and-coming musicians in the British music scene mingled with each other, and Hendrix, already a Beatles fan, was refining cuts off the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band to his style only two days after the album hit record stores.
According to McCartney, the legendary sounds Hendrix could get out of an electric guitar threw the guitars of the era out of tune quickly, and during one gig, Hendrix did just that and had no idea how to get it back in tune. He happened to know Eric Clapton was somewhere in the audience and went to his mic and asked, "Eric? Hey man, could you come up and help me tune this?"
Clapton, according to McCartney, said "No." The audience laughed, and with that, McCartney jumped into "Let Me Roll It" wrapping it in an extended Hendrix "Foxy Lady" jam.
McCartney and his band rolled through some more easy rocking jams, then took a more mellow turn with one song, "My Valentine" that saluted his wife, Nancy Shevell. Later he presented another musical love note, "Maybe I'm Amazed," to Linda, his deceased wife and musical partner for many years in the post-Beatles period.
After that, a set of old favorites kept things moving.
McCartney gave his band a break and took to an elevated platform and quieted things down with a couple of acoustic numbers, each with a story behind it. The first, "Blackbird," McCartney said was inspired by the troubles he saw on the "telly" with the civil rights issues America was dealing with in the 1960s. Then he moved his memories up to the early '80s.
Although the breakup of the Beatles was tough on McCartney's relationship with John Lennon, he always viewed him as a brother and loved him the same way. When Lennon was shot in 1980 by Mark David Chapman in New York City, McCartney was hit especially hard. As time went on, he realized there were things he wish he had told Lennon when he was alive and now would no longer have a chance to say to him. McCartney then shared a song he wrote for John in 1982 called "Here Today."
The band then got things going again with more classics, mostly Beatles, varying the tempo, most notably with a fun "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" sing-a-long. McCartney talked about being the first band from the Western world to perform in Red Square before ripping into "Back In The U.S.S.R." and then proceeded to blast the fans out of their seat with the classic McCartney James Bond theme, "Live and Let Die," complete with ear-splitting pyrotechnics.
This was followed up by what is a classic McCartney concert staple, "Hey Jude," and the requisite swaying sing-a-along.
There were seven songs left, including "Yesterday," "Hi, Hi, Hi," "I Saw Her Standing There," and the three-song suite that ended The Beatles' "Abbey Road" album and concludes most of his concerts in a blaze of glory.
It was an evening full of songs, stories, lights, lasers, banter, art videos, balloons, audience participation and now-manageable adoration and palpable appreciation. McCartney's come a long way since those "early days," that all began with "a cellar full of noise."
At 75-though no one is counting-McCartney put a dynamic show lasting more than three hours, without an opening act and without an intermission. It was obvious by his energy he loves what he does and appreciates those who love it, too.
His One on One Tour will continue to roll across America, providing ample opportunity for all manner of Beatles/Wings/McCartney fans to see a living legend, relive some memories, create some knew ones.
And, he says, he'll be back. Back in the BOSSIER.
