Concert review: Paul McCartney pulls off A Hard Day's Night in Edmonton

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edmontonjournal.com
Concert review: Paul McCartney pulls off A Hard Day's Night in Edmonton
FISH GRIWKOWSKY
Updated: October 1, 2018


Paul McCartney plays to a full house Sunday night at Rogers Place. GREG SOUTHAM / POSTMEDIA

Long before any of us spun the Road Apples record or even heard of the other lady Madonna, the Beatles helped redefine how we consumed music for a time: obsessively, album-by-album, and with a sure and confidently marketed alteration of the musicians’ images, complete with reliable press conferences and legendary stunts.

Few if any bands have ever been under such a sharp-focused microscope — only world war historians bother to go into such detail of who shot what bullet into what wall, which piece of obscure gear was taped together to win the day.

Looking back at it all now — Paul McCartney having now been musically active for 60-plus years (his career is practically a senior citizen) — this live flipping through 40 songs if you count the Foxy Lady cover can actually be a little bit jarring to watch, a playlist on shuffle when one Wings song might make you wish we were sticking around just there for a little longer.

Ah, but who in 2018 is going to complain about too much choice, for Sunday night’s Freshen Up Tour at the downtown rink was a thing of beauty, self-mythologizing and wonder, more than half Beatles songs. And George Harrison, John Lennon and Ringo Starr were reliably up on the central theatre screen, flanked by monolithic vertical displays of Sir Macca and his incredible band playing live.


Boom boom boom from the get-go, we heard A Hard Day’s Night, over to Wings with Hi, Hi, Hi, back to Can’t Buy Me Love, and again to Wings for Letting Go, which this sell-out crowd was unwilling to do just yet. Let Me Roll with It was another Wings winner, and it felt like those songs were going to outdo the canonical Fab Four standards for a bit, being just a little more sophisticated and menacing (Helter Skelter would smash this idea later on, but we’ll get to that).

Besides friendly “we love you” and “we’re going to have a party here tonight”-style gab, the 76-year-old singer was generous with his stories, including of Jimi Hendrix asking Eric Clapton to come up and tune his guitar for him during a Beatles opening slot.

“This is the only wardrobe change of the whole evening,” McCartney smiled before Let Me Roll It, which was the first time his famous voice hit its limits — again on his solo ukulele version of Harrison’s Something — but otherwise he was shrieking and crooning pretty much spot on through the three-hour show, playing guitar, his trademark Hofner bass and piano, depending on the need.


Paul McCartney, 76, bringing us his ongoing rock and roll revolution. GREG SOUTHAM / POSTMEDIA

Things really notched up during Wings’ Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five, and here’s not a bad place to mention his most excellent band: Paul Wickens on keys, accordion; the charismatic Abe Laboriel Jr. on drums; Etta James’ old musical director and guitarist Brian Ray; and especially Rusty Anderson, who played the role of everyone from Hendrix to most importantly Lennon when needed.

It was almost a car accident of foundational songs: Lady Madonna; Eleanor Rigby; Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!; Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da from way back in the day. Band on the Run; Live and Let Die from Wings; even the first-ever recording session of most of the Beatles, the Quarryman’s In Spite of All the Danger.

Here McCartney noted that session cost them five British pounds. “The deal was, we would each keep it for a week,” he recalled. “Duff had it for 20 years. He sold it back to me at a decent profit.”

In another legend of yore, McCartney noted he was asked to sing a line a bit unwillingly in one of the Beatles’ first recording sessions, Love Me Do. Listening to it now, “I can still hear my voice, the terror in it.”

Not Sunday night, mind you.

McCartney’s newer songs were solid, too, including with the awesome video of My Valentine with Natalie Portman and Johnny Depp delivering the song in sign language, or the Kanye-Rihanna collaboration, FourFiveSeconds.

The new Fuh You also had a great assist from its exceptional video with a little kid with the singer’s sad-dog eyes walking through Liverpool, have a look!

There was a large contingent of Japanese tourists waving glowing runway sticks, complete with their own camera crew outside. Dressed as Lonely Hearts Club Band members, many of them held up individual signs for every song and a few Japanese fans waved signs reading ichi ban, which means No. 1. “The whole of Japan is here tonight,” noted Paul, claiming his affection of the use of the word “saiko!” in Japan to mean the best. “You thought you were coming to a concert and here you are getting a language education.”

The show’s last hour was stunning: Band on the Run, Back in the U.S.S.R. with its amazing Russian propaganda art, Let It Be, Live and Let Die, and a total singalong Hey Jude taking us to the encore, where the band walked out with three flags. McCartney had Canada’s, Wickens the Union Jack and Anderson waved the Pride Rainbow.

Finally, to take us out: Yesterday, I Saw Her Standing There, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise), and a total freakout Helter Skelter, complete with flashpots, pillars of smoke and flame and beautifully unnerving fireworks as the video screen shot us forward through a computerized maze.

Finally, the trio of Golden Slumbers, Carry That Weight and, makes enough sense, The End.

It’s Paul McCartney, what else is there to say? Oh wait, how about this? SAIKO!


Set list:

A Hard Day’s Night (the Beatles)

Hi, Hi, Hi (Wings song)

Can’t Buy Me Love (the Beatles)

Letting Go (Wings)

Who Cares

Come On to Me

Let Me Roll It (Wings song) (with ‘Foxy Lady’ coda)

I’ve Got a Feeling (the Beatles)

Let ‘Em In (Wings)

My Valentine

Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five (Wings)

Maybe I’m Amazed

We Can Work It Out (the Beatles)

In Spite of All the Danger (the Quarrymen)

From Me to You (the Beatles)

Michelle (the Beatles)

Love Me Do (the Beatles)

Blackbird (the Beatles)

Here Today

Queenie Eye

Lady Madonna (the Beatles)

FourFiveSeconds (Rihanna and Kanye West and Paul McCartney)

Eleanor Rigby (the Beatles)

Fuh You

Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! (the Beatles)

Something (the Beatles)

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (the Beatles)

Band on the Run (Wings)

Back in the U.S.S.R. (the Beatles)

Let It Be (the Beatles)

Live and Let Die (Wings)

Hey Jude (the Beatles)

Encore:

Yesterday (the Beatles)

I Saw Her Standing There (the Beatles)

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) (the Beatles)

Helter Skelter (the Beatles)

Golden Slumbers (the Beatles)

Carry That Weight (the Beatles)

The End (the Beatles)