November 10, 2005


Paul McCartney delivers

It is pretty easy to spot those who attended the sold-out Paul McCartney concert Monday night—three days later, they’re still talking about it.

Paul McCartney delivers a fiery end to a red-hot concert Monday night, although he returned for three encores. The heat could be felt throughout the stadium.

For nearly three hours, the 63-year-old former Beetle moved effortlessly from one instrument to another, delivering nearly 40 familiar tunes to the an average 30-something audience—a crowd that happily lent their voices to the contingency of background singers nearly 15,000 strong, vowing to “still meet him and still feed him when he’s 64.”

Musician and radio host Greg Kihn called it “a religious experience,” one of the best concerts he had ever experienced.

Aside from a sound system that seemed at times a little too loud and a pre-show dj who was anything but a warm-up act, the evening was filled with a perfect mix of storytelling and hard rock, new cuts from his current release “Chaos and Creation in the Backyard” and flawless renditions of unforgettable favorites such as “Yesterday ,” “Let it Be,” “Penny Lane” and “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” —all wrapped up with elaborate set changes and a pyrotechnic finale.

And whether you shelled out $50 or $250 for a seat, he certainly lived up to the ticket price, taking a cue from one of his more popular numbers— “When you’ve got a job to do, you better do it well. You better give it hell.”

He did that, and then some. Just leave the DJ home next time.

—By Kymberli Brady

Many fans stayed on their feet for nearly three hours of non-stop McCartney.	Each of the nearly 40 songs performed came with choreographed sequences of set and lighting changes.