Paul McCartney offers a thrill ride at Greenville SC concert
Maybe I’m amazed that, a few weeks shy of his 77th birthday, Paul McCartney puts on a show for the ages, jam-packed with hits, but I probably shouldn’t be.
After all, McCartney has been entertaining audiences, and writing the soundtrack for their lives, for nearly six decades.
And Thursday night at Bon Secours Wellness Arena, he rocked nonstop for nearly three hours, playing hit after hit after hit, interspersed with wryly humorous recollections of famous friends and fellow musicians.
Opening the latest stop on his Freshen Up Tour with one of the Beatles’ early hits, “A Hard Day’s Night,” McCartney started off a bit sedately, standing still as he played his bass guitar. But he loosened up for the second song, the Wings hit “Junior’s Farm,” and was soon joking with the audience.
“I’m getting a feeling we’re gonna have a bit of a party here tonight,” McCartney said.
Fans were primed for a party, dancing, singing along, and holding up signs asking for an autograph or a song request.
The 38-song set list featured more than 20 Beatles tunes and about a half-dozen songs by Wings, including the 1973 hit “Live and Let Die,” a pyrotechnics-enhanced thrill ride of a song, which blasted the audience with fireworks and flash pots.
McCartney paid tribute to his late bandmates John Lennon and George Harrison, performing “Here Today,” which he described as “a conversation we didn’t get to have,” for Lennon, and adding a ukulele to Harrison’s masterpiece “Something.”
He promised fans a little bit from every stage of his career, and that included a tune from his pre-Beatles band the Quarrymen, “In Spite of All the Danger,” and several numbers from his 2018 album “Egypt Station,” including the anti-bullying song “Who Cares” and a rollicking “Come on to Me.”
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It’s hard to choose just a few highlights from such a stellar evening of music, but an orchestral-flavored “Maybe I’m Amazed”; the stirring “Blackbird,” sung from a platform about 10 feet above the stage; and the all-out rave-up “Helter Skelter” were particularly memorable.
And McCartney’s excellent band deserves a shoutout, especially guitarist Rusty Anderson and percussionist Abe Laboriel Jr.
McCartney’s voice was a bit diminished from his prime, but it was only noticeable a handful of times during the evening.
After decades of critical accolades and adoring fans, McCartney might be excused for seeming a little jaded, but he came across as humble and genuinely excited to play for his fans.
“This is just so cool,” he said early in the show. “I’m gonna take a minute for myself to just drink it all in.”
Greenville set list
1. “A Hard Day’s Night”
2. “Junior’s Farm”
3. “All My Loving”
4. “Letting Go”
5. “Who Cares”
6. “Got to Get You Into My Life”
7. “Come On to Me”
8. “Let Me Roll It”
9. “I’ve Got a Feeling”
10. “Let ‘Em In”
11. “My Valentine”
12. “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five”
13. “Maybe I’m Amazed”
14. “I’ve Just Seen a Face”
15. “In Spite of All the Danger”
16. “From Me to You”
17. “Dance Tonight”
18. “Love Me Do”
19. “Blackbird”
20. “Here Today”
21. “Queenie Eye”
22. “Lady Madonna”
23. “Eleanor Rigby”
24. “Fuh You”
25. “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!”
26. “Something”
27. “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da”
28. “Band on the Run”
29. “Back in the U.S.S.R.”
30. “Let it Be”
31. “Live and Let Die”
32. “Hey Jude”
Encore
33. “Birthday”
34. “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (reprise)”
35. “Helter Skelter”
36. “Golden Slumbers”
37. “Carry That Weight”
38. “The End”
Source: Paul McCartney offers a thrill ride at Greenville SC concert
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