Paul McCartney really surprised us at Dodger Stadium – Variety

The Dodger Dogs were working hard on Saturday night when Paul McCartney appeared at the stadium with the same name. He is not one of those artists who tries to impose dietary restrictions on the sites he plays, if it were possible on the tour circuit of rarefied stages. Neither food nor any type of health diet appeared as a subject while he was laughing at the crowd. Nevertheless, it is the best advertisement of 170 minutes that we have ever seen without meat, implicitly, while 57 000 spectators, mostly younger, scratched their heads, amazed by the way they could perhaps they also succeed in a three-hour show regardless of its most common equivalent – at 77, the superstar in all its veggie fighting trim.

McCartney was not the only one not afraid of anything. The same could be said of the 38-song group itself, which flew as if it had been launched in half an hour – something we promise never to say about 38's group of somebody's songs. on the other hand, if we ever meet another, because it will not be true. The lines of food and merch were so ridiculously long as the show hours because all those who had done any recognition knew that it would take three hours without a break in the pot – that is, without no change of costume (jokes McCartney, as he always did). in fact, removing his jacket was the only one), but also without mocking trail. If anyone had written the equivalent of any of these articles "When can you go to the bathroom during the new article" The Avengers Movie? "… Well, they might have written in" Come On to Me "or one of the other five items 21^st songs of the century dotted among the classics, but they would have been wrong. When Steven Tyler says you have the guy who is the most talented artist in the history of popular music going through the city, you will not want to miss the wind.

Any McCartney tour inevitably causes a sense of disappointment, perhaps especially now that we can reasonably ask ourselves how much is left in reserve. That's right, disappointment. (Store the forks.) He favors it by filling the hours before the show in a stadium with a DJ set other the biggest (and some less big) hits – literally hundreds of songs loved by someone, if not from around the world, that he will not play later in the evening. And so the hardcore fan remains sitting to say to himself, "Damn – I guess" Big Barn Bed "above the sound system means that he's not going to celebrate the luxury reissue of" Red Rose Speedway "in this show?" This means that the chances of seeing our full album "Back to the Egg" that we expected to decrease also every day. The less hardcore fan may also notice that McCartney's show does not have much room for really deep cuts, but it does not leave room for some of the shallower ones that are rotated, as in this tour, "Yesterday. But they probably do not notice it until the next day. Three hours of assault on the greatness of pop have the means to make you forget a wait or two.

Much of the series is what McCartney fans expected, though big surprises were not needed, but it was a joyous occasion when they arrived. Nothing has been diverted from the list of current sets, but McCartney is building a very good track record for those who could come to help on "Helter Skelter" in the recall segment. In Las Vegas, June 28th, it was Tyler, who was spending an evening away from the Aerosmith residence. At Dodger Stadium, it was Ringo Starr, who was having a night out do not be a Beatle so that he can help half reform the group by playing the drums at once and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Resume). "It was difficult to hear what had been recorded on the drum kit rolled up for Starr on the drummed drummer Abraham Laboriel Jr.'s pace, but we could at least see Ringo, smiling from a storm. and seemingly wanting to renew the bulbs he had prepared for the first record of "Skelter", despite the limited time he had to do it.There were at least a few people in the fan division, who had seen Ringo and Paul last time they were playing together at Dodger Stadium in 1966, in what turned out to be the next Beatles' latest show.Of course, it was not necessary to be there to find this meeting deeply sentimental – and to feel pleasure from the fact that she had been spent on two as uncomfortable rockers as the reprise of "Pepper's" and "Helter Skelter." Bono flew ( agree, borrowed) this song, and finally the freakin 'Beatles stole it. (For more information on Starr's appearance, including video, read our account here.)

The other guest was Ringo's brother-in-law, Joe Walsh, who was one of three guitarists recreating the role of "The End" where McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison alternately played two-guitar solos. measures. There was a bit of shyness in that was really going to shred when, as McCartney admitted right away about the probably not understood cameo, "We had no idea what we were doing. "

It was not something he could have said of another moment in the series. McCartney fans in Southern California who saw him at Desert Trip in 2016 or here at Dodger Stadium may have a better idea of ​​what the stories expect of the songs waiting. At one point, introducing "Back in the USSR" with the memory of having met Russian military officials when he and his group were playing for the first time in the country, McCartney even acknowledged that "some of them were not". have you heard this before, "but he realized that most of them were: newcomers. You can discuss these demographics, although there has certainly been a high turnout rate. "Take your son (or grandson) to Beatlechurch! But if you are a fan, you have probably learned to love the repetition of these anecdotes, almost as if you wanted to start again: the Russian general thought that he had learned "hello, goodbye" like a real one. American greeting; how George's love for the ukulele led Paul to write a "something" cover inspired by the uke for these contemporary homage tours; how George Martin asked him to sing the chorus of "Love Me Do" instead of John and he can still hear "the thrill in my voice" in the recording; how he saw Jimi Hendrix cover "Sgt. Pepper" and detuned his guitar two days after its release, how "Blackbird" was a secret anthem of civil rights, how "Here Today" was written as the statement "I t & # 39; Love man "that he should have had the presence of mind to tell Lennon before his death.This last lesson really does not get old, for a public big enough so that many dear ones disappear into circumstances less tragic than those of Lennon.

Some things do not get old either, like the brief, amusing story that McCartney told of "In Spite of All The Danger," a song he'd recorded before the Beatles with the Quarrymen (played here as part of 39, a complete group essentially acoustic). interlude). He recounted how a copy of the tape was to be distributed among the members of the group, and the last one to have "kept for 20 years" before selling it to McCartney "at a very inflated price". Speaking, in these times of Swift, has a long history of no control of his masters.

By the way: "Despite the danger", there is now a deep cut (recorded in 1958!). So maybe we were a little misleading about the lack of less ubiquitous material in McCartney's set. Although nothing could be half-seen as darkness, Wings fans had reason to be satisfied with the way the set was loaded with 70's selections such as "Junior's Farm" and "Letting Go". about the introduction of a frequently used horn section for three men, lit from a back position in the stadium beams before bringing them back to the stage later.

"One thousand nine hundred and eighty-five" gave McCartney another chance – in addition to "Lady Madonna" – to show how he could do this fun thing on the piano, by putting Fats Domino in a minor mixer here. The two songs "Let" from the mid 70's – "Let's Em In" and "Let Me Roll It" – were almost consecutive highlights, although the most fun aspect of "Let's # 39; Em In could have been the combination of fanfare sequences and marauding silent movie crowds on the big screens, while "Let Me Roll It" really sounded like a group in slow-jam discovery mode, analyzing the changes as s & ## They were looking for the melody in the studio for the first time instead of playing live for maybe the 500^th.

It's good, too, that McCartney has not forgotten all the other albums of the current century in addition to the new one, as superstars of his kind often do. So we have "Dance Tonight" of "Memory Almost Full" from 2007, maybe just because Paul really likes to get the mandolin out, and who would want to stop it? "Queenie Eye" and "My Valentine" were more likely to see their respective MTV clips in their entirety and ask if Johnny Depp has participated in more Paul McCartney videos than "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies .

Regarding the 2018 material, "Who Cares" was the most powerful of the lot, with or without the anti-bullying message attached. (Not wanting to be flippant, but do Lennon and Harrison's fans insist that their guy be the only one to be really enlightened?) Let's not talk about bullies who think that "Come On to Me" is unsuitable for him. age. sensual for a man of McCartney's years; Live, as on the record, it was a charming lark in the powerful mind "Hi Hi Hi". The "Fuh You" written by Ryan Tedder will always be more polarizing for his fans, but he has found a way to make it more special than it could have been. "We think we know what songs you like, because when we play an old Beatles song, your phones go on," McCartney said while introducing it. "It's like a galaxy of stars. And then when we make a new song, it's like being in a black hole. But we do not care, we'll do them anyway. It was a bait of the highest order, 56,000 fans turned on their phone during the song. "Okay, you've fooled me. I have a galaxy of stars. Gorgeous, "said McCartney later, not to mention that this gambit had worked almost every night. We may be suckers, but it's a good cause.

With the oldest and most proven, a McCartney show offers the opportunity to find something new in them – and it's always there to find them, for students in pop. For example, have you ever thought about the beauty of the low part in the crystal clear opening sequence of "Band on the Run"? Maybe you did it for the first time, seeing his hands at work on the big screens. And there were many moments to admire his particularly melodic turnings on his trademark Hofner. But above all, of course, it was his voice that was going to be scrutinized. Does he still have it? Does not any rocker who has so modeled his style on Little Richard, but who also aspires to reach the heights of the great pre-rock balladers, can still be 77 years old?

Nobody really wants to rate a McCartney show – or, as a result, a Rolling Stones show – on the age curve, or offer a discount to seniors when it comes to crippling performance. But part or most of it is inevitable, as we move to a new territory for how long a reasonable person with wealth will withdraw, it is still possible to perform shows ridiculously energetic and epic. We are becoming more and more used to moving the bar, but it is worth remembering that McCartney, who has just turned 77, is barely two years old from the point where the main candidate of the best singer 20^th century, Frank Sinatra had to leave the scene because he could no longer remember or wear the tunes. And with this norm gone in mind, we are witnessing a miracle. A miracle powered by all the vegetables that the greatest chefs and dieticians in the world have to offer, perhaps, but a miracle nonetheless.

It is therefore pleasant for the court to find that McCartney remains an artist of the highest level without any "good, for a man of his age …". At Dodger Stadium, in terms of his performance level, the crowd was in the "70 years old, not his 70s. You can look for signs of inevitable vocal thinning at any given time and find it in isolated places. But it sounded better than at Desert Trip three years ago. And even if you knew how he could protect his voice at the end of a tour, there were very few signs that McCartney was half assing, as a singer who likes to go on stage and scream. There were grunts on the way out and top slaps that he could have left without anyone complaining … and instead, it just seemed to add some. Critics of his live presence may point out the idiotic mannerisms he favors between songs in concert as he waits for applause to subside. (What is going on isDoes he mime with these little nonsense, back and forth? All these decades later, we still do not see it either.) But her dominant personality is above all a generous person: she is generous with her pre-established lists, probably to the point of paying extra hours of curfew once outdated situation. 11, to his refusal to give him anything less than his all as a singer, while giving him the appearance of being effortless in the process.

One had to like the simple little moment of "Maybe I'm Amazed" when McCartney's long-time keyboardist, Paul "Wix" Wickens, was running his hand through the air as if he was directing his boss's voice. through a "whoo-whoo-oo". "Falsetto pass, which he probably does to have fun every night. Maybe in the night, Wix will "drive" McCartney's falsetto and a croak will come out. But that night was not Saturday and it seemed like it had taken a lot of years.

Let's face it: tickets were probably so expensive for this sold-out show (Saturday, the worst seats in the stadium were $ 300, and everything in the front sections was $ 4,000 and more) in part because the fans I think it may be the last time he can turn to this level with so much taste. It would not be an unreasonable presentiment, historically speaking. But leaving the Dodger Stadium, it was hard not to believe that McCartney would not be back in three or four years, being the first big pop to continue to be excellent in a massive and energetic setting in his 80s.

If the weather becomes clear in the next few years, he reduces it to two and a half hours, so be it. In the meantime, we will all eat our vegetables.