Paul McCartney Houston 11/19 /05

[Kelly]

Paul McCartney, US Tour 2005
Houston, Texas 11/19/05

Play List

Magical Mystery Tour
Flaming Pie
Jet
I'll Get You
Drive My Car
Till There Was You
Let Me Roll It (Foxy Lady Jam)
Got to Get You into My Life
Fine Line
Maybe I'm Amazed
Long and Winding Road
In Spite of All the Danger
I Will
Jenny Wren
For No One
Fixing a Hole
English Tea
I'll Follow the Sun
Follow Me
Blackbird
Eleanor Rigby
Too Many People
She Came In Through the Bathroom Window
Good Day Sunshine
Band on the Run
Penny Lane
I've Got a Feeling
Back in the USSR
Hey Jude
Live and Let Die
Yesterday
Get Back
Helter Skelter
Please Please Me
Let It Be
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)

In being a Beatles Fan since 1963, this show in Houston 2005 was a long time coming for me. I was very surprised to see the crowd of all ages and types in attendance. Unlike a few of the last shows where either the demographics of the music was oriented towards a culture or a specific age group.
The show was scheduled to start at 8:00 PM and at that time a movie was shown about Pauls life as a Beatle,then not a Beatle, Paul and Linda with Wings, Paul without Linda, lots of War clips( I thought this was unusual ,but seemed to tie in to his "No More Land Mines Campaign".) I felt we were about to get political here but that never happened.
A DJ spun wild audio clips of Beatles music to the film and we were wondering what they needed a DJ for after about 45 minutes of this activity.
Paul hits the stage to a standing ovation,( we all just wanted to stretch our legs some)...Paul really seemed to enjoy playing the old hits at times and other times he seemed somewhat dissappointed that his new music was not as much of an event for the obviously nostalgic crowd on hand. I got the feeling in the middle of the set Paul was also painfully aware of what the crowd wanted and even commented that he was losing us and that happened to crowds mysteriously at times. He was painfully aware of what music was being enjoyed and wanted to escape from being a Beatle again in my eyes.
He took a little break and asked for a moment of silence in remembrance of his and our departed friends, mainly John, George, and Linda. After a few minutes of total silence Paul said " Thank You ", and the crowd stood for a rousing applause that lasted 5 minutes longer than the silent moment. It was very moving unto all of us. I was so close to the stage I saw Paul tear up and he wiped his eyes. Even made me cry for a minute..Ah suck it up...
The Band is the same band as has been touring with Paul since 2001,Abe Vittorio-Drums, Rusty Anderson-Guitar, Brian Ray-Bass and Guitar and Wix Wickens-Keyboards(and Pauls musical director since 1991 I might note.) The band was tight as it could be but at times they did seem to lose a beat here and there when Paul put down his bass and played Guitar. The musical director Wix Wickens is just one awesome man. I dont know what all he had behind his magic box but all the orchestral parts were very well done and realisitic in tone and phrasings. The modern miracle of computers and programming .The Yamaha Motif had many of the sounds sampled from actual recordings of Beatles tunes into a computer and linked with the Yamaha Motif keys Wix was using. The result was just awesome..
All in all the show was a highlight in my life, I will not soon forget. I have heard the songs I grew up with performed by the Man who wrote them..even got to yell at Paul with ackowledgement" I got blisters on my Fingers"


please forgive my 1st review and let me know what I can do to improve.I will keep these short and sweet for now. Next up Dec 1st The Rolling Stones!!!

[Marjorie]

Thanks for the great review, Kelly. I enjoyed reading it. Sorry to hear that the audience wasn't more receptive to Paul's new stuff. I'm sure he's very tired to singing Beatle tunes!

I've never been to a live concert of Paul's. Since they're usually performed in big arenas, I figured unless I paid a fortune to sit up front, I really wouldn't see much. But now you have me wishing I'd made more of an effort to catch one of these shows. This tour is quite a happening! Thanks again for sharing it with us.

Marjorie

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[Kelly]

Your too kind Marjorie, Thank you for taking your time and making a post. Tonite is another big night in Houston. The Rolling Stones. Odd we just had a discussion about them and the Beatles. It will take me a few days to get a post up on them, but from what I have heard, they are doing a wonderful job. The crowds are loving the performance.Tonite is the night. I did not get a Paul McCartney Backstage pass, but I do have one for the Stones. I'm excited about even though I have not historically been a Stones fan. We shall see if they can convert me