There’s a moment when you’re standing in a packed arena, thirty feet away from Paul McCartney, who just so happens to be in the middle of performing The Beatles classic “Eight Days A Week”; and you realize that words like “legendary” and “iconic” seem like impotent adjectives for describing what's it like to be in the presence of a Beatle. You can't help but think: I am in the room with one of the hands that penned the most valuable songbook of certainly the 20th century, if not in the history of mankind.
McCartney who is 72 now, is as spry and charming as he has ever been when it comes to being in front of a crowd, and last night (his first show in Louisville) was no exception. His surprisingly small band (only five people including him), have managed to perfectly consolidate the arrangements of even the most complex arrangements in McCartney’s catalog, flawlessy. Songs like “Eleanor Rigby”, “Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite”, and “Band on the Run” are not lacking even the slightest nuance when in the hands of these players.
On the whole, the show was nearly 40 songs and three hours long, while remaining primarily a love letter to the fans (he even brought a mother and daughter from the audience on-stage for hugs). From opening with “Eight Days a Week” to closing with Abbey Road’s “The End” – the set featured everything you would want to hear and more from a man with a 50 year career. “Hey Jude”, “Live and Let Die”, “Maybe I’m Amazed”, “Let It Be”, “Helter Skelter”, “Lady Madonna” – the setlist of crowd favorites goes on and on.
Fronting the tight band McCartney was in good spirits – and generally sounded fabulous. A voice with 50 years of wear and tear on it, he slipped out of tune here and there (generally when he attempted a bluesy adlib breakdown), but for the most part he sounded like the same harmoniously melodic McCartney (perhaps and octave or two lower) that we fell in love with decades ago.
Here is the complete setlist from last night’s show at KFC Yum! Center:
Eight Days a Week
Save Us
All My Loving
Listen to What the Man Said
Let Me Roll It
Paperback Writer
My Valentine
Nineteen-Hundred and Eighty-Five
The Long and Winding Road
Maybe I’m Amazed
I’ve Just Seen a Face
We Can Work It Out
Another Day
And I Love Her
Blackbird
Here Today
New
Queenie Eye
Lady Madonna
All Together Now
Lovely Rita
Everybody Out There
Eleanor Rigby
Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
Something
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
Band on the Run
Back in the U.S.S.R.
Let it Be
Live and Let Die
Hey Jude
Encore 1:
Daytripper
Birthday
Get Back
Encore 2:
Yesterday
Helter Skelter
Golden Slumbers
Carry That Weight
The End
