Paul McCartney Live

[Flack]

Back in 2017, my wife managed to see Paul McCartney perform live at Madison Square Garden. She came home very excited from the concert and has been getting grief from my (now) 13YO ever since, who thinks Paul is "dreamy" (my words, not hers). I think all teenage girls go through either a horse phase or a Beatles phase, and concert tickets are cheaper than building a barn.

On Monday, I, my wife, and the 13YO drove from Oklahoma to LeClaire, Iowa. We stayed in a VRBO located on top of a wine shop (the room came with a free bottle). According to the town's website, the top two tourist spots in LeClaire are the Buffalo Bill Museum (he was born there) and "Antique Archeology" (the store from the TV show American Pickers). There were several other antique shops located on Main Street, which killed a few hours.

The show took place just across the Mississippi River in Moline, IL. The TaxSlayer Center seats 12,000, so it was a fairly small venue all things considered. It took over an hour to get inside and get to our seats, and the last thing I said was, "I bet it's going to be a bitch getting out of here tonight." (Spoiler: it was.)

Paul McCartney does not have an opening act and played for ~3 hours straight. Probably the most surprising thing was that he played bass on well less than half the songs. Along with bass, he played (at various times) acoustic guitar, electric guitar, mandolin, ukulele, and two different pianos. Turns out, those Beatles were pretty talented! The second biggest surprise of the night was how many songs he played I didn't know. I knew all the Beatles songs, most of the Wings songs, and none of his solo stuff.

Seats were good, laser/light show was good, listening to 12,000 people singing "Hey Jude" together was good. Then we left, went to the parking lot, got into our car and sat there for over an hour while dipshit traffic cops in Moline, IL tried to figure out how to solve gridlock with flashing red lights and pedestrians everywhere. Ridic, people.

This is probably the only time I will ever see a member of the Beatles perform live, so I do not regret going.

Setlist:

A Hard Day's Night (The Beatles song)
Save Us
All My Loving (The Beatles song)
Letting Go (Wings song)
Who Cares
Got to Get You Into My Life (The Beatles song)
Come On to Me
Let Me Roll It (Wings song)
I've Got a Feeling (The Beatles song)
Let 'Em In (Wings song)
My Valentine
Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five (Wings song)
Maybe I'm Amazed
I've Just Seen a Face (The Beatles song)
In Spite of All the Danger (The Quarrymen song)
From Me to You (The Beatles song)
Dance Tonight
Love Me Do (The Beatles song)
Blackbird (The Beatles song)
Here Today
Queenie Eye
Lady Madonna (The Beatles song)
Eleanor Rigby (The Beatles song)
Fuh You
Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! (The Beatles song)
Something (The Beatles song)
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (The Beatles song)
Band on the Run (Wings song)
Back in the U.S.S.R. (The Beatles song)
Let It Be (The Beatles song)
Live and Let Die (Wings song)
Hey Jude (The Beatles song)

Encore:

Birthday (The Beatles song)
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) (The Beatles song)
Helter Skelter (The Beatles song)
Golden Slumbers (The Beatles song)
Carry That Weight (The Beatles song)
The End (The Beatles song)

By the end of the show, Paul's voice was shot (he's 76 years old), but it was still pretty cool. Here's two YouTube clips from the show (not mine).

[Tdarcos]

Haven't you heard? Paul is dead and that's a ringer or a clone.

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