REVIEW : PAUL McCARTNEY IN GREENVILLE

www.greenvilleonline.com
Paul McCartney offers fans a thrill ride through his long career at Greenville concert
Donna Isbell Walker, The Greenville News
Published  May 31, 2019

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.”


Paul McCartney performs in Greenville on his Freshen Up tour at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena Thursday, May 30, 2019. (Photo: JOSH MORGAN)

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."

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.


Paul McCartney performs in Greenville on his Freshen Up tour at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena Thursday, May 30, 2019. (Photo: JOSH MORGAN)

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”


As tens of thousands of March For Our Lives protesters gathered on the western edge of New York City’s Central Park Saturday, Paul McCartney was there to honor the murder of his legendary song-writing partner and fellow Beatle, John Lennon. Time


GALLERY
Paul McCartney concert at Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville SC

Paul McCartney performs in Greenville on his Freshen Up tour at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena Thursday, May 30, 2019.
JOSH MORGAN









Paul McCartney fans during before his Freshen Up tour performance at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena Thursday, May 30, 2019.
JOSH MORGAN





Paul McCartney performs in Greenville on his Freshen Up tour at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena Thursday, May 30, 2019.
JOSH MORGAN


















www.blueridgenow.com
Review: Paul McCartney takes fans on emotional journey at Bon Secours concert in Greenville
By Tim Kimzey
Posted May 31, 2019

GREENVILLE -- The “cute Beatle” strolled onto the center of the stage with his Hofner bass guitar strung across his shoulder. He beamed, waved, and pointed at the screaming fans, a crowd of thousands filling the seats at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville Thursday night.
Paul McCartney turned his guitar around and started playing. The chords to “A Hard Day’s Night” resounded throughout the stadium amidst the loud cheers. It was more than 50 years ago when he and his famous band-mates stopped touring and playing live shows. The crowds were just too loud to keep up with the amplification circuits of the day, and they couldn’t hear themselves play or continue to enjoy the chaos. But you would never know it from McCartney tonight, his mop of now graying hair still bobbing as he jumped, kicked out his leg, and incited the crowds, singing “you know I feel okay.”
Surely the billionaire could retire. In 1967, he sang lyrics he wrote as a teenager about what it might be like to be 64, but at just a few weeks shy of his 77th birthday, the most successful songwriter of all time doesn’t appear to be happy digging weeds in the garden or holding grandchildren on his knee.
McCartney never seemed to slow down, but frequently reminisced between songs during the three-hour show. He spoke of his fondness for Beatles producer George Martin, recording The Beatles first song “Love Me Do” in the studio at Abbey Road. McCartney wandered the stage, frequently changing instruments and playing each adeptly. Switching to lead guitar on “Let Me Roll It,” a “tribute to the late great Jimi Hendrix,” he told a story of Hendrix playing “Sgt. Pepper” live, just days after the album was first released, asking Eric Clapton in the audience to help him re-tune his guitar after tearing it up playing the song.
McCartney’s voice, though maybe not quite as apt at belting out a raw 1968 version of “Oh, DarlIng” is still strong, and capable of delivering the emotion of the lyrics written so many years ago. Songs for his mother who died when he was 14 (“Let It Be”), lost loves, “Maybe I’m Amazed” for his wife Linda who died in 1998. “My Valentine” for his current wife Nancy, who he said was in the audience.
McCartney took off his black coat, and the crowd went wild. “That is the only wardrobe change of the whole evening,” he quipped. “How many people are from Greenville?” he asked. “Somewhere nearby?” “Completely different?” he laughed, “on behalf of the tourist board we welcome you,” launching into “From Me To You.”
Pointing to signs held up by fans he joked that he tried not to ever look at them, blaming the audience for the distractions if he were to forget a lyric to the nearly 40 songs sung throughout the night.
“We’re going to take you back in time,” he said. “Waaay back in time,” playing “In Spite of All the Danger” a song recorded by The Quarrymen “before the Beatles existed.”
He spoke of the 1960s and civil rights, picking up his acoustic guitar and playing a lovely rendition of “Blackbird” that made some in the audience begin to cry. He then admonished that one should never wait to say something nice to anyone, playing “Here Today,” a song he wrote for John Lennon who was murdered in 1980.
McCartney is still writing songs, still recording albums, including last year’s “Egypt Station,” whose release started the current world tour. The “Freshen Up Tour,” which began in September of last year in Canada, has already made stops in Japan, France, Denmark, and his hometown of Liverpool. It resumed in South America in 2019 and will end at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles in July.
The drive is still there, even after being the one sometimes blamed for breaking up the greatest rock band that ever existed, for losing his songwriting partner to an assassination, his first wife to cancer, and his childhood friend (and band-mate George) to the same disease. He understands loss and having to keep on. Listening as the screams reverberate in the stadium long after the last notes have faded, you get the feeling he never really stopped wanting to please the fans. He never wanted it to end at all.




www.gastongazette.com
PHOTOS: Paul McCartney in Greenville
May 31, 2019

Paul McCartney performs at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville Thursday night

Singer-songwriter and Beatles legend Paul McCartney performs to a crowd of fans at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, SC during his “Freshen Up” tour, Thursday night, May 30, 2019. [TIM KIMZEY/Spartanburg Herald-Journal]