PAUL ON THE RUN: Concert review: Hearts go boom for Paul McCartney at the Bell Centre

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montrealgazette.com
Concert review: Hearts go boom for Paul McCartney at the Bell Centre
McCartney crammed an amazing 39 songs into a highly energetic, beautifully staged display of positive energy.
BERNARD PERUSSE
SPECIAL TO MONTREAL GAZETTE
Updated: September 21, 2018

Paul McCartney and his band in their Freshen Up Tour at the Bell Centre in Montreal on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2018.

Paul McCartney and his band in their Freshen Up Tour at the Bell Centre in Montreal on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2018. ALLEN MCINNIS / MONTREAL GAZETTE

No one could have been surprised that, to paraphrase one of Paul McCartney’s earliest lyrics, hearts went boom — again.

From the moment Sir Paul took the stage Thursday night to face a sold-out Bell Centre and launched into A Hard Day’s Night — as perfect a musical representation of Beatlemania as he and John Lennon ever wrote — the belief in yesterday was evangelical in its fervour.

And yet one surprising thing about a McCartney show is that the glorious past is approached faithfully, but not reverently — at least in terms of sequencing. Immortals like Lady Madonna and Eleanor Rigby are placed side by side in the set list with more debatable efforts like the recent Fuh You and his 2015 collaboration with Rihanna and Kanye West, FourFive Seconds. If the critically inclined raised an eyebrow, virtually no one else seemed to care.

As usual, the songs — admittedly given a charge by one of the great live backing bands of all time — spoke for themselves and did most of the talking. Undervalued Wings gems like the bluesy Let It Go — with a three-man horn section doing its riffs halfway down the arena on the floor — and the robust rocker Hi Hi Hi made welcome appearances alongside the inevitable avalanche of Fab Four evergreens, solo beauties and a few selections from his latest disc, the mostly wonderful Egypt Station.

Not leaving the stage during the by-now-expected three hours (with no intermission), McCartney crammed an amazing 39 songs into a highly energetic, beautifully staged display of positive energy.

Beatles history was everywhere, not least in the tributes to John Lennon (a raw and vulnerable Here Today) and George Harrison (Something, with some sweet family-album photos of its composer and McCartney in the Beatle years).

Former Beatle Paul McCartney Doesnât Disappoint Bell Centre in Montreal by Pierre Chicoine 092118

Former Beatle Paul McCartney Doesnât Disappoint Bell Centre in Montreal by Pierre Chicoine 092118

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Reaching even farther back than the group’s first single — Love Me Do, recorded in 1962 and dusted off in a note-perfect performance Thursday night — McCartney exhumed In Spite Of All the Danger, to the delight of Fabs archivists in the crowd. The only song he ever wrote with George Harrison, it existed only as a scratchy old acetate, recorded a full 60 years ago by the pre-Beatles Quarrymen and finally released in 1995 as part of the Anthology project. To hear the primitive, but charming country number so satisfyingly arranged and fleshed out was a delight.

Both revisits were played during a stripped-down, mostly acoustic mini-set, which was arguably the highlight of a night filled with peaks. From Me to You and Michelle were also among the unplugged segment’s exquisite melodies.

The audience ate it up. Many came dressed for the occasion. Apart from Beatles and McCartney T-shirts as far as the eye could see, a few Sgt. Pepper’s outfits and a nifty jacket evoking their 1965 Shea Stadium concert were among the more creative pieces of attire spotted in the crowd.

Some audience members, in accordance with McCartney tradition, were brought up onstage to show off their posters. One woman carrying a sign that said “I really want to hold your hand” was given a hug by her idol. When he asked her name, which turned out to be Yoko, McCartney’s reaction was priceless. “Very good name. Love that name,” he said. “Yoko’s back,” he said to the audience after she was led offstage.

The band — drummer Abe Laboriel Jr., guitarists Brian Ray and Rusty Anderson and keyboard player Paul “Wix” Wickens — have been with McCartney as a unit for 16 years, and will soon have been with him as long as the combined existence of the Beatles and Wings.

It shows in their relaxed, but always engaged, approach to the sacred catalogue. And not insignificantly, they rock hard enough to smooth over any roughness one might notice in the vocal department.

There’s no denying that McCartney, one of rock’s greatest singers, is now working with a voice that has lost some of the strength and range of its heyday. The passage of time is mostly noticeable when he tries to tackle the high, screamy bridges in the likes of Maybe I’m Amazed and I’ve Got a Feeling or the Little Richard-inspired “Whoo!” in I Saw Her Standing There.

But his ambition never flagged: near the end of his marathon set, after an exhausting, fireworks-augmented Live and Let Die and a fully bellowed singalong rendition of Hey Jude, did he rest his pipes with the soothing, mid range ballad Yesterday and let it go at that? Of course not: he went for the throat-shredding Helter Skelter. And as if that was not enough, he used everything he had left to deliver the part of the Abbey Road suite made up of Golden Slumbers, Carry That Weight and The End.

Few thunderous ovations — or post-show cups of tea and honey — have ever been so well-deserved.

Paul McCartney in his Freshen Up Tour at the Bell Centre in Montreal on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2018.

Paul McCartney in his Freshen Up Tour at the Bell Centre in Montreal on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2018. ALLEN MCINNIS / MONTREAL GAZETTE

Set list:

A Hard Day’s Night
Hi Hi Hi
Can’t Buy Me Love
Letting Go
Who Cares
Come On To Me
Let Me Roll It, with Foxey Lady coda
I’ve Got a Feeling
Let ‘Em In
My Valentine
Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five
Maybe I’m Amazed
I’ve Just Seen a Face
In Spite of All the Danger
From Me To You
Michelle
Love Me Do
Blackbird
Here Today
Queenie Eye
Lady Madonna
FourFive Seconds
Eleanor Rigby
Fuh You
Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite
Something
Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da
Band On the Run
Back In the U.S.S.R.
Let It Be
Live and Let Die
Hey Jude

Encores

Yesterday
I Saw Her Standing There
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
Helter Skelter
Golden Slumbers
Carry That Weight
The End

GALLERY:
PHOTOS: PAUL MCCARTNEY AT THE BELL CENTRE

Paul McCartney and his band in their Freshen Up Tour at the Bell Centre in Montreal on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2018. ALLEN MCINNIS/MONTREAL GAZETTE