Bankruptcy

McCartney Concert

By mcbride

I had the privilege to attend the Paul McCartney concert at the new “Cowboys” stadium last night.  I had no expectations as I knew from having heard other ?aging rockers? what can happen to the singing voice over the years.  But I am here to report that it was a wonderful experience; McCartney?s voice was fully intact with a nice range and he did not need the cover of other singers, nor was there any obvious re-writing of the notes to avoid the hard ones.  After a warm up band that was good but made me worry about stadium acoustics, Sir Paul just walked onto stage with no affect or pretense.  Overall, he played a lot of songs, blending nicely his new songs off of a new CD with many full renditions of old hits.  No introductory medley of oldies for him!  Having been invited to sit in the 8^th row in the center section, I cannot say how it sounded in the far reaches of the new stadium.  Up close, it was simply breathtaking.  There was plenty of real eye contact between those on stage, McCartney and two guitarists, a piano man and drummer, and the audience.  Having been at political rallies where the fake ?point, look startled and wave?  has become ubiquitous, this was real eye contact and there was a real sense of  true relationship between the band and the audience.  The special effects (which were not overdone) were great, but always secondary to the music, which was flawless ? there were the riffs you expected and plenty of new ones.  Favorites: Back in the USSR and (of all things) Helter Skelter.  Two final thoughts: one, I don?t know why, but I did not think about how many memories this music would  bring to the surface and how interesting it was to feel that in light of the passage of years.  Second, I was startled at how unaffected the man was: he simply loved the playing the music.  Sir Paul did tell a few stories about the old days, but mainly he was there smiling throughout, just playing music and having a blast.  Me too. 

 Michael

Full post as published by Texas Lawyer Blog on August 20, 2009 (boomark / email).