madison.com
Paul McCartney's joyful, energetic Madison debut worth the 76-year wait
By Rob Thomas
Jun 7 2019
Icon, god, legend — the words seem inadequate to describe the impact Paul McCartney has had on popular culture and the effect he has on a room.
MICHELLE STOCKER
On Tuesday night, the members of Greta Van Fleet were in the spotlight, strutting on stage before a sea of fans at Breese Stevens Field for an outdoor rock show.
But on Thursday night, they were the fans, sitting in the audience at the Kohl Center to see Paul McCartney’s first-ever show in Madison.
Icon, god, legend — the words seem inadequate to describe the impact McCartney has had on popular culture and the effect he has on a room. They’ve made recent movies about Elton John (“Rocketman”) and Queen (“Bohemian Rhapsody”), but McCartney’s presence is so large in the world that they’ve made a movie about what it would be like if he didn’t exist (“Yesterday”).
When he took the stage at the Kohl Center in a light pink shirt, maroon jacket and black jeans, he could have just ridden the waves of goodwill coming from the crowd. At 76 (he turns 77 in a couple of weeks), he’s certainly earned the right to coast a little, right?
Instead, he still plays like he has something to prove. McCartney and his tight four-piece backing band (who he’s played with for 20 years, twice as long as the Beatles or Wings) delivered a joyful and energetic 39-song, three-hour show. It covered the entire gamut of his 60-year career, from his earliest songs (including one pre-Beatles) to the newest tunes off his 2018 album “Egypt Station,” showing he’s still vital as an artist.
MICHELLE STOCKER
And it hit every possible emotional note, from the (literally) explosive pyrotechnics of a furious “Live and Let Die” to a tender “Blackbird,” performed solo by McCartney on an acoustic guitar on a small stage that rose 20 feet above the audience.
It was McCartney’s first show ever in Madison with any of his bands. He seems to be staying off the beaten rock-tour path on his current “Freshen Up” tour, playing Green Bay on Saturday and Moline, Illinois, next Tuesday. The audience at the Kohl Center was a mix of ages, from kids with their parents to one veteran fan who claimed to have seen McCartney play 123 times.
“You know we love you, but it’s slightly obsessive,” McCartney responded dryly.
McCartney spent the first few songs settling in to a groove, mixing Beatles classics like “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Can’t Buy Me Love” with newer songs like 2013’s “Save Us.” It was a little surprising how songs written a half-century apart fit so comfortably together, although McCartney could clearly tell that the audience wanted the older stuff.
“When we do old Beatles songs, all your phones light up, and it looks like a galaxy of stars,” he said. “When it’s a new song, it’s like a black hole.
“We don’t care. We’re going to do them anyway.”
MICHELLE STOCKER
The show seemed to shift into a higher gear after about a half-dozen songs, as the band stretched out “I’ve Got a Feeling” and “Let Me Roll It" into longer, looser guitar rock jams. Overall, the show leaned more towards the rock side of the pop-rock equation, including a blistering “Helter Skelter” and a rousing “Back in the USSR.”
But then McCartney could immediately shift the mood of the room, slipping behind the piano for the bouncy “Let 'Em In” or “My Valentine,” a love letter to McCartney’s wife, Nancy Shevell, that sounds like an old torch song. And then he could bring the mood back up with a swirling, psychedelic “1985,” pounding away on the keyboard he had just been gently caressing minutes before.
McCartney’s trip through his old songbook was an eclectic one, playing some songs you’d expect (“Love Me Do”) and skipping others (no “Yesterday” or “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”) Off the iconic “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club,” he played not the opening version but the end-of-album reprise, as well as the crazy carnival sounds of “For the Benefit of Mr. Kite.”
Between songs, McCartney told stories about his earliest days with his pre-Beatles band The Quarrymen, or going to see Jimi Hendrix cover “Sgt. Pepper’s” just two days after the album came out. (Hendrix’s wild version pulled his guitar so out of tune, McCartney said, that he had to call Eric Clapton out of the audience to help him tune it.)
MICHELLE STOCKER
He paid tribute to fallen comrades John Lennon (“Here Today”) and George Harrison, starting Harrison’s “Something” by playing a ukulele that Harrison had given him.
As the main set neared its finale, the show just seemed to keep topping itself. For “Let It Be,” with McCartney at the piano, audience members waved their phones in flashlight mode in the air. That reverent mood was shattered by “Live and Let Die,” in which flame-pots and fireworks shot off in the air, filling the arena with the smell of cordite.
Then the mood flipped again with the set closer, “Hey Jude,” the crowd singing the chorus (based on a Tibetan chant) over and over. McCartney and the band returned for a four-song encore, and decided to end the show with one of the greatest finales in rock albums, the “Golden Slumbers/Carry that Weight” suite that closes “Abbey Road.”
These songs are beyond familiar — they’re almost in your DNA. I’m more of a fan of mid-to-late period Beatles than the “Fab Four” era. But when McCartney started singing “From Me To You,” the words just started tumbling out of my mouth unbidden — I didn’t even consciously realize I knew all the lyrics. It was, to quote another song, as if they were only waiting for this moment to arise.
Jun 7 2019
When Paul McCartney took the stage at the Kohl Center on Thursday night in a light pink shirt, maroon jacket and black jeans, he could have just ridden the waves of goodwill coming from the crowd. At 76 (he turns 77 in a couple of weeks), he’s certainly earned the right to coast a little, right?
Instead, he still plays like he has something to prove. McCartney and his tight four-piece backing band (who he’s played with for 20 years, twice as long as the Beatles or Wings) delivered a joyful and energetic 39-song, three-hour show. It covered the entire gamut of his 60-year career, from his earliest songs (including one pre-Beatles) to the newest tunes off his 2018 album “Egypt Station,” showing he’s still vital as an artist.
Paul McCartney performs at the Kohl Center Madison, on Thursday, June 6, 2019.
MICHELLE STOCKER
Paul McCartney performs at the Kohl Center Madison, on Thursday, June 6, 2019.
MICHELLE STOCKER
Paul McCartney performs at the Kohl Center Madison, on Thursday, June 6, 2019. It was McCartney’s first show ever in Madison with any of his bands.
MICHELLE STOCKER
McCartney’s trip through his old songbook was an eclectic one, playing some songs you’d expect (“Love Me Do”) and skipping others (no “Yesterday” or “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”) Off the iconic “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club,” he played not the opening version but the end-of-album reprise, as well as the crazy carnival sounds of “For the Benefit of Mr. Kite.”
MICHELLE STOCKER
Paul McCartney's show shifted into a higher gear after about a half-dozen songs, as the band stretched out “I’ve Got a Feeling” and “Let Me Roll It" into longer, looser guitar rock jams. Overall, the show leaned more towards the rock side of the pop-rock equation, including a blistering “Helter Skelter” and a rousing “Back in the USSR.”
Icon, god, legend — the words seem inadequate to describe the impact Paul McCartney has had on popular culture and the effect he has on a room.
MICHELLE STOCKER
Between songs, Paul McCartney told stories about his earliest days with his pre-Beatles band The Quarrymen, or going to see Jimi Hendrix cover “Sgt. Pepper’s” just two days after the album came out.
MICHELLE STOCKER
Paul McCartney performs at the Kohl Center Madison, on Thursday, June 6, 2019.
MICHELLE STOCKER
Paul McCartney's show hit every possible emotional note, from the (literally) explosive pyrotechnics of a furious “Live and Let Die” to a tender “Blackbird,” performed solo by McCartney on an acoustic guitar on a small stage that rose 20 feet above the audience.
MICHELLE STOCKER
Paul McCartney performs at the Kohl Center Madison, on Thursday, June 6, 2019.
MICHELLE STOCKER
madison.com
Concert review: Paul McCartney rocks Madison on 'Freshen Up' tour
WILLIAM J. DOWLDING
WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL
Jun 7 2019
Legendary rock star and former Beatle Paul McCartney greets a Kohl Center crowd Thursday during a stop on his "Freshen Up" tour.
AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL
The hair is gray and the voice that helped turn on the world to Beatlemania in the 1960s is raspy around the edges but Paul McCartney delighted a packed Kohl Center Thursday night with a nearly three-hour show that called back his many triumphs of the past six decades.
With a tight band and carefully timed pyrotechnics, he alternated between rockers that got the all-ages crowd dancing and ballads that got them slowly swinging their arms in the air. For many of the songs there was a multimedia backdrop featuring vintage footage from his days with The Beatles and Wings.
McCartney didn't stray too far from his classic recordings but he added a hard edge to "Let Me Roll It" and "I've Got a Feeling" with extended instrumental endings, the latter featuring a rare electric guitar solo from the famous bassist.
Between classic songs, he told stories from his famous past, such as Jimi Hendrix playing the title track of The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper" on a London stage only two days after the record came out in 1967 and then having to call up Eric Clapton from the audience to help re-tune his guitar. He also recounted how nervous he was singing "Love Me Do" in the recording studio at the last minute because John Lennon had to play a harmonica at the same time.
Sir Paul put the spotlight on his fallen Beatles comrades by playing the tune he wrote after John's murder ("Here Today") — telling the audience "if you want to say something to somebody, get it said" before they're gone — and his own version of perhaps George Harrison's best song ("Something") with rare photos of him displayed on the backdrop. McCartney even made a point of complimenting The Beatles' late producer, George Martin.
Although not known for being very political, McCartney also offered some social commentary, on bullying by playing "Who Cares," which he wrote about it, and on race relations by telling how he wrote "Blackbird" in 1968 to "try to give a little hope in places like Alabama."
McCartney interacted often with the audience by reading signs in the crowd and asking them to sing along. It added to the spirit of fun that permeated the show, with McCartney occasionally joking and doing a little dance after some songs and his powerful drummer Abe Laboriel Jr. mugging along with the lyrics.
When the band came back out for an encore, McCartney waved an American flag while his bandmates carried an English flag, a Wisconsin flag and a rainbow pride flag. Laboriel followed them waving a glass of wine.
No glum faces were seen in the crowd at the end of the show.
McCartney's set list
Jun 6, 2019
1) A Hard Day's Night
2) Save Us
3) Can't Buy Me Love
4) Letting Go
5) Who Cares
6) Got To Get You Into My Life
7) (Unknown)
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) (Unknown)
18) Love Me Do
19) Blackbird
20) Here Today
21) (Unknown)
22) Lady Madonna
23) (Unknown)
24) Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
25) Something
26) Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
27) Band On The Run
28) Back In The USSR
29) Let It Be
30) Live & Let Die
31) Hey Jude
ENCORE
32) Birthday
33) Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (reprise version)
34) Helter Skelter
GALLERY
Photos: Paul McCartney at the Kohl Center
Paul McCartney performs during his concert at the Kohl Center on his "Freshen Up" tour in Madison on Thursday, June 6, 2019.
Paul McCartney performs for a crowd during a visit to the Kohl Center on his "Freshen Up" tour in Madison, Wis., Thursday, June 6, 2019. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL
www.channel3000.com
In first-ever Madison show, Paul McCartney takes fans on a Magical Mystery Tour
By: Matthew Clark
Posted: Jun 07, 2019
MADISON, Wis. - It's doubtful Paul McCartney knew much about Madison, Wisconsin while growing up in Liverpool, but after Thursday's performance, he likely knows Beatlemania is alive and well in the city.
The 76-year-old rocker performed for nearly three hours Thursday to a sold-out crowd at the Kohl Center.
The iconic opening chord of "A Hard Day's Night," set the excitement as the former Beatle took the stage.
That excitement never faded as the set went on. McCartney took fans on a journey through his career with songs spanning from his early days with the Beatles (and pre-Beatles band the Quarrymen) to his most recent album, 2018's "Egypt Station."
His voice may not be as pristine as it was in his peak, but his charisma and musicianship quickly put to bed any questions about his status: he's still one of the best in the business.
There seemed to be many experienced McCartney concert-goers in Thursday's crowd, even one man boasting that it was his 123rd concert. Keeping it fresh, McCartney has added a horn section to his regular backing-quartet of guitarists Brian Ray and Rusty Anderson, drummer Abe Laboriel Jr. and multi-instrumentalist Paul Wickens.
In between songs, McCartney told stories of hanging out with other legends of the '60s like Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton as well as Russian politicians during a performance at Moscow's Red Square. The stories were nothing new to the seasoned fans, but something about hearing a Beatle tell a story about "the gold old days" doesn't seem to sour.
As the main set came to a close, McCartney launched through a few of his most seminal songs, "Band On The Run," "Let It Be," "Live and Let Die," and "Hey Jude." "Live and Let Die," was an absolute knock-out performance with pyrotechnics and lasers. The pyrotechnics filled the arena with smoke for the rest of the show.
A Paul McCartney show is unlike any other show on the road. It's fast-paced, but easy going. It's uplifting, but down to earth. McCartney's day job is being one of the most successful and influential musicians of all time, yet the man on stage is still very much an excited kid living out a rock n roll dream.
It's hard to believe the guy who has seen McCartney 123 times didn't walk out of the Kohl Center saying "I've got to see him at least one more time."
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