Back in the U.S.S.R.
First of all, a big hello to my new Star Trek friends! It's great to have you here, and I'm looking forward to getting to know you all better. I'll have a proper information post up later today, but first let me tell you about the Paul McCartney concert on Saturday.
OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!! PAUL MCCARTNEY IS SO FAN-FRICKEN-TASTIC!!!!!!!!!! I CANNOT BELIEVE HOW INCREDIBLE HE IS!!!!!!! *flail*
In all seriousness, it was the best concert experience I have ever had. It beats dancing on stage with Chuck Berry at Virgin Mobile Fest '08 and third from the stage at Metallica doesn't even come close.
We took the Metro in, which was the best decision as traffic turned out to be horrendous. One of my dad's friends left their house at 6 and didn't get into the concert until 9:30. Of course, the concert, which was supposed to start at 7:30, didn't start until 9:15 because Paul McCartney himself was stuck in the mess. Ah, DC traffic: not even celebrities are safe from its clutches.
Anyways, here's the view from our seats:
Which when you consider that the seats were free, that's pretty good. I think if I'd been any closer, I would not have been able to handle the epic-ness that is Sir Paul.
Right before he came on, there was this slide show of all sorts of Beatles memorabilia. It was a gorgeous way to show all of the history involved in his career.
Just as a special note: my camera's zoom isn't that good; I took those pictures and most of the following ones through my brother's binoculars, which took a while to figure out.
And now, the moment we've all been waiting for: PAUL MCCARTNEY!!!!!!!
*He's the little guy in the middle. This one's better:
They opened with "Drive My Car", and everyone went nuts. Honestly, it was incredible the effect he has on people. Of course, my mother, who's been waiting for this moment ever since she saw A Hard Day's Night when it first came out, was screaming like a school girl. I was acting in a similar fashion, and I have no excuse. In about half of the videos I took, you can tell that I'm flailing and squeeing. I'd be embarrassed, but I have no shame.
Because of the delay, there was no intermission, so he kept playing for about 2 hours straight. What's even more impressive is that he didn't appear to be taking any water breaks; compare this to the 2 bottles of water that I drank. Also, he was on key the entire time. This just shows how much more awesome he is than other artists. And it's not just the modern artists who have the benefit of AutoTone; if you've seen Bob Dylan recently, he sounds completely different from his records.
He had a really good rapport with the crowd; for most of the songs, he had a little something to say about it, whether it be about how it felt to perform it in DC at that first performance or people it reminded him of. It was like "Story Time with Sir Paul McCartney", which sounds like it would be the most epic children's show ever.
For instance, after they finished "Let Me Foll It", he went straight into "Foxey Lady" by Jimi Hendrix on what I dubbed "his sparkle guitar."
After he finished rocking out, he told us about a tribute Jimi Hendrix had done for the Beatles. Evidently, they had released Sgt. Pepper on a Friday, and by the following Sunday, Jimi had learned it and opened his show with it. I hadn't known this before, so it was beyond cool to learn this from Sir Paul himself.
Before "Blackbird", he talked about how he was inspired to write it after hearing of all the civil rights struggles in the United States, and that he was glad that this was no longer the case.
He also introduced "Michelle" by saying that they didn't usually have this in the set list, but since they were in Washington, they might as well do it. It was really cute, and since it's one of my mom's favorites, she really lucked out.
Of course, you can't play Beatles' songs without tributes to John and George, and they were absolutely beautiful. When Paul introduced "Here Today" as "a conversation between me and John...if he were still here," I got a little misty. There wasn't a big production made of it, and I think that added to the elegance. After a moment of silence at the end, he just said, "And now I'm going to try to lift the mood from near-suicidal," which prompted a laugh, and launched right into "Dance Tonight", reminding me why the Beatles were so important. They represent this infectious spirit of fun, and it's the perfect music to help you forget your troubles. For George, he came onstage with a ukulele:
which he proceeded to tell us was a gift from George, who had a similar one. One day when he was visiting George and they were playing their ukuleles, George started playing this song for him. Paul starts playing "Something" on the ukulele with the rest of the band joining in halfway through, and they had this slide show with pictures of George with his kids and the rest of the Beatles. It was the best version of "Something" I have ever heard; I almost started crying, it was that beautiful.
This show was just so intense, not only because it was Sir Paul McCartney, but it had these epic moments where there's too much awesome for one to handle. Case in point: I can't use the video I took of "Back in the U.S.S.R." because there are moments where I forgot I was holding a camera and just started flailing around. I didn't even bother for "Live and Let Die" because there were fireworks. My mind was quite literally blown!
You haven't really heard "Hey Jude" until you've heard it sung in a stadium. I have no words to describe what I was feeling; to have all those people singing along and having grown up knowing these words by heart...it's indescribable. If the concert had ended then, I would have been more than satisfied, but he kept going. There were two more encores filled with eight more Beatles songs; they closed with the "Sgt. Pepper" reprise and "The End", which reduced me to a flailing mess.
Sir Paul McCartney just had this captivating stage presence, and even people who weren't dedicated fans were swept up in the moment. I think the greatest testament to this is that my sister brought a couple of her friends, and despite not being Beatles fans, they still had a great time.
I think now I'll just end this with a couple of pictures that really capture the concert.
