Last Night: Sir Paul McCartney at Minute Maid Park

By Craig Hlavaty Thu., Nov. 15 2012 at 9:00 AM

You could facetiously accuse him of being a name-dropper, but how many people can tell anecdotes about being nose-to-nose with John Lennon and George Harrison, or watching Jimi Hendrix beg Eric Clapton to tune his guitar from a club stage after he covered one of their own songs. Or the time when Frank Sinatra complimented you for a song Harrison wrote.

McCartney paid tribute to Hendrix with a quick nod to "Foxy Lady" early on, and he reworked Harrison's Sinatra-fave "Something" with a ukelele open and a metallic close. In tribute to Lennon he pulled out "Here Today" off 1982's Tug of War for a spin.

It was the quietest, most somber part of the evening.

God help if I didn't enjoy "Ob la di ob la da" and "Back In The USSR" more than I ever had in my whole life, and I have even gone on record previously saying how much I hated those songs. Damn you, McCartney.

The best part of the night for me was the bombastic version of "Live and Let Die" complete with Slayer-style pyro and fireworks, which led directly into the decidedly less aggressive "Hey Jude". I could only laugh out loud at the mood shift, and also you know, fire is cool.

Rewind:

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At his advanced age, McCartney hasn't lost a bit of his performing acumen. Seventy is the new 50, or so I hope for my sake. Sure, things aren't as loud as they used to be, but he's still active onstage. And he can still belt it out when he needs to, and you still learn a lot about rock bass by watching him play the simplest early Beatles cuts.

Some legacy acts touring these days, even a decade younger than McCartney, could never keep up. Hint: The lead singer used to be an American Idol judge.

The night was stretched out by two "encores," the second out-Whataburgering the first one. I mean how can you beat "Yesterday" into "Helter Skelter" and then closing with "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End"?

Certainly not with "Lady Madonna."

This was a show for my personal bucket list, my rock-writer bucket list, and for my own mental housing chamber. And you know, I now have something brutal that I can hold over my children's and grandchildren's heads in a few decades.

Hearing "All My Loving" live pretty much sealed the year for me, to be honest. Now bring on the secessions, the solar flares, the economic collapses, and the zombies.

Location Info

Venue

Map

Minute Maid Park

501 Crawford, Houston, TX

Category: General

8 user reviews	Write A Review
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Tags:

concert reviews, Minute Maid Park, Paul McCartney, the Beatles, Wings

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donnas7

Sir Paul Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. A concert not to be forgotten. Life really is good.

cbrishton1

1 Like

This was such a great show! Great review - nailed it good, Craig. Yep, he's been on my bucket list since 1964 - hope I can play musical instruments and sing at least as well as I do now when I'm 70. I sat near the top with my brother (both of us nursing 50 + year old sore knees), but still worth all the climb and crowds.

Fred

1 Like

Good show, good review. Any word on why the staffing levels were so inadequate at the venue? The line to get in on Crawford Street went literally half way around the stadium. We got to the door and there were only 4 people scanning tickets. The lines inside were not much better. It's my understand that the crowds was smaller than a sold out baseball game (I know old days) seems like Jim Crane was making a buck.

As for the concert, my only complaint was that there was not a good flow, would it have killed them to play two songs back to back without pausing to thank the crowd, and wave his guitar etc..

thankyoupaul

1 Like

Great review. His band was fun too very playful. I had no idea Blackbird was dedicated to the civil rights movement. Can we do this again tonight?

Veronica Polanco

I wanted Monkberry Moon Delight, that's my only complaint.

johnya

1 Like

Loved the show last night and loved the review.

Jesse Sendejas

what an excellent, excellent review. aside from extolling the wonder of it all, baby, i enjoyed the shout out to fire for being cool and the unanticipated butmuch appreciated crushing of one of rrock's most insufferable frontmen, the former American Idol judge. kudos

Jake Rawls

I was there as well and agree with just about everything you wrote. My only lament is paying extra for floor seats, when it looked like some people in the stands had a better view than I did.