Macca In Miami

Paul Mccartney coming-up to brilliance at sun life stadium

From http://www.pbpulse.com/music/2010/04/04/paul-mccartney-coming-up-to-brilliance-at-sun-life-stadium/



By Leslie Gray Streeter

Concert Reviews, Live Shows, Music, Music News, Pop, Pop Shop, Rock
April 04, 2010 Jose’s Page2Live.com: See photos from the show

The show: Paul McCartney’s “Up and Coming” tour, stopping at Miami’s Sun-Life Stadium

When: Saturday, April 3, for almost three very, very exciting, tune-filled, sentimental and musically fulfilling hours

Songs we heard: A well thought-out mixture of Beatles (”Ob La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” never done live in the States ’til this tour, “All My Loving,” “I’m Looking Through You”), Wings (”Jet,” “Band On The Run” and the wicked pyro-accented chorus of “Live and Let Die”) solo McCartney hits and rarities and a snippet of John Lennon’s “Give Peace A Chance.” Pretty much everything but, ironically, “Coming Up.”


The low-down: Here are just a few of the random thoughts I had during Paul McCartney’s mind-blowing show at Miami’s Sun-Life Stadium, on one of the gorgeous, temperate South Florida early April nights that would elate you just to be outside listening to live music. Even if the music wasn’t being provided by the MOST SUCCESSFUL SONGWRITER OF THE ROCK ERA. Of course, it was. So that was even better, wasn’t it?:

— This crowd was incredibly diverse, age-wise, from the Boomers bouncing around happily to the 20-something hipsters so happy to be there that they forgot to be ironic and are just gleeful.
— It’s amazing that at 67, McCartney needs no more than a several-second break, after which he bounded back onto the stage and announced “You knew we were coming back!”

— Without an album to promote, he gets to do whatever he wants, which includes a giant retrospective of his career, great stories about a lot of famous people, and this funny dance he does at the end of pretty much every song, where he lifts the guitar above his head and everybody cheers. Well, they’d cheer if he lifted a poodle over his head, because he’s Paul McCartney. He’s in charge.

— Is “Live and Let Die” the best Bond theme ever? I think it is! Discuss!

— After moving tributes to late fellow Beatles John Lennon and George Harrison, you couldn’t help but wonder, like the kid behind us did, if Ringo was gonna get one, too. (Sadly for both Ringo and the kid, the answer was “No.”)

— It’s rare for one show to be such a mixture of emotion and fun. I don’t think I’ve had such a musically complete time since…McCartney’s Miami show in 2005!

Because, as I said. the “Up and Coming” tour wasn’t tied to a new album, the famous former Beatle was freed from obligatory cuts to push the new product. Instead, he was free to spread his suspender-bearing shoulders out and touch the wide, wonderful expanse of his songbook, with a combustible energy that melded with a beautiful sense of ease. It seemed that, given the clearance from security, McCartney and his band could have stayed for another two hours. They certainly had more songs to chose from.

“There does come a time,” he said, late in the evening, around the 2 hour, 20-minute mark, “when we do have to go home.”

Whatever, man. Get back behind that piano and do something else!

It’s kind of hard to determine high points in a show that was ALL high point, but here were a couple – the quiet, poignant “Blackbird;” a sweet, sentimental “My Love,” which, McCartney noted, “I wrote for Linda” and was dedicated to all the lovers in the audience; “Here Today,” his sweet, yearning song for Lennon written after John’s death; a tribute to Harrison that started “Something” sweetly on ukelele and then expanded to that song’s awe-inspiring guitar solo and McCartney singing Harrison’s words of a love that fulfills you even if you can’t name it; huge bursts of fire on “Live and Let Die.”

As great as the songs were, some of the best moments weren’t musical – “Something” was introduced with a story about Harrison’s surperior ukelele playing, and there was a funny story about how Jimi Hendrix learned “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” pretty much the day it came out and started playing it, and how he once did his signature distorted guitar-shredding style, realized his instrument was out of tune, and then called into the crowd for Eric Clapton to come and tune it for him.

I know there exists, or existed, the question of whether McCartney’s earnest, emotion-led writing is as artistic and meaningful as Lennon’s (you remember Yoko’s dis about Lennon not having to rely on trite rhymings like ”spoon and June” ). But even Yoko apologized for that in 2005, and I think it’s time to let that go. McCartney’s songs – and his show – are a complete picture of a life and career fully realized, with moments of love, regret and even youthful cheese thrown in there (Hello, “Jet!”) But how nice it is to be able to stand here, at 67, and realize that you lived the life that inspired all those memories.



From The Miami Herald
Even at 67, Sir Paul rocks like Superman

Paul McCartney rocks South Florida


BY MICHAEL HAMERSLY

mikehamersly@gmail.com

Sometimes it's easy to forget that Sir Paul McCartney is Beatles royalty. He's so frequently in the public eye -- touring every few years, performing at 2006's Super Bowl halftime show and enduring tabloid harassment following his failed marriage to Heather Mills -- that it can't help but detract from his mystique, making him seem almost like Everyman.

In concert, however, McCartney, even at 67, is more like Superman. Watching him perform 40 vocally demanding songs over nearly three hours Saturday night at a near-capacity Sun Life Stadium, one could only wonder: How does he do it?
On the fourth date of his oddly named ``Up and Coming Tour,'' McCartney, displaying the energy and vocal ability of a man decades younger, gave fans of the Fab Four and his later hits with Wings a night to remember.

With a superb backing band, he performed just about every song anyone would want to hear, from the obvious (Hey Jude, Let It Be, Lady Madonna, The Long and Winding Road, Jet and Band on the Run) to the delightfully surprising (All My Loving, Got to Get You Into My Life, I'm Looking Through You, Two of Us, I've Got a Feeling and, performed for the first time live in the United States on this tour, a deliriously bouncy Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da).

CHILLING RENDITION

And those songs weren't even the night's true highlights. Halfway through the show, McCartney strapped on an acoustic guitar and performed a chills-inducing, solo version of Blackbird, followed by his loving 1982 tribute to slain Beatle John Lennon, Here Today, before which he said, ``I wrote this next song for my dear friend John. Let's hear it for John! Sometimes you don't say all you mean to say to people, and then when they pass away, it's too late.''

A few songs later, McCartney again appeared solo with his acoustic guitar to perform a tender rendition of Eleanor Rigby, flanked by the drummer and guitarist, who came up to sing backups on the chorus, Ahh, look at all the lonely people. Simply lovely.

REVERB-SOAKED

The tributes to his fallen loved ones weren't limited to Lennon. Before his ballad My Love, McCartney honored his wife Linda, who died of breast cancer in 1998: ``I wrote this next song for Linda, and tonight this is dedicated to all the lovers in the audience.'' And McCartney brought out a ukulele -- one of the many instruments he played on this night, including the usual bass and piano, plus electric and acoustic guitar and even mandolin -- for his jaunty version of the George Harrison-penned Beatles staple Something.
``George was a great ukulele player -- let's hear it for George!''
Before Paperback Writer, which featured five-part harmonies, McCartney pointed out for guitar lovers in the crowd that he was playing ``the original guitar I made the original record with in the '60s'' -- a gold-and-brown sunburst, hollow-bodied Epiphone, for those who care about such details.

Other highlights included A Day in the Life, on which McCartney's reverb-soaked vocals did John proud, leading into an audience singalong of Give Peace a Chance; Live and Let Die, during which explosive bursts of fire and other jarring pyrotechnics jolted the crowd; an amped-up version of Day Tripper; and, fittingly, The End, from the iconic album Abbey Road, which ended the second encore and the evening, with the classic line, And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.

From the awestruck looks on fans' faces as they headed home, it seems as if Sir Paul is way ahead of the game in that department.