PAUL ROCKS ALBANY

After four songs and 15 minutes of performing at the Times Union Center on Saturday night, Paul McCartney doffed his electric-blue blazer and said with the gentle, throwaway humor of a veteran performer, "That will be the only wardrobe change of the evening."

 

 

The sold-out crowd of 13,500, who snapped up every available ticket in 28 minutes, hollered and applauded. The noise was immense but not unprecedented in the arena; absent were the shrieks and sobs and faces clasped in the helpless abandon of young fandom — the kind that greeted the Beatles in 1964 and today is aimed at whoever happens to inspire it, however fleetingly, in preteen girls.

 

 

After 50 years as one of the most famous people in the world, McCartney hasn't been that kind of artist in decades. He inspires adoration if not ecstasy, a mature and lasting appreciation for much of a lifetime's worth of soundtrack.

 

 

"It's great to be back," said McCartney, who turned 72 two weeks ago. He looked none the worse for wear, putting on a show of just under three hours with 38 songs before finishing with the three-song medley that ends the "Abbey Road" album.

Paul opened with the Beatles' "Eight Days a Week." He wore black jeans and a sky blue blazer. When he took the jacket off four songs in, he joked that it was the only wardrobe change of the evening.

The crowd-pleasing show contained a mix of expected hits like "Hey Jude" and "Let it Be," four songs from McCartney's latest album and a generous sampling from more obscure corners of his catalog, including the Beatles' songs "Lovely Rita" and "Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite" and Wings work such as "Another Day" and "1985." Most of the 1980s and 1990s were passed over.

He paid tribute to the two late members of the Beatles, singing "Here Today" to former songwriting partner John, which Paul described as the conversation they never had. He began playing George Harrison's song "Something" on the ukulele, and it built into a full band rendition.

Paul also honored another late rock star, Jimi Hendrix, with an instrumental interlude of "Purple Haze."

Nancy, was on hand and he dedicated the song "My Valentine" to her. Perhaps one oblique reference to his absence was the new song, "On My Way to Work," which Paul said he hadn't performed publicly before.

During his second encore, he brought a couple from Rochester onstage after the woman held up a sign saying her boyfriend wouldn't marry her until he met McCartney. After the man led the audience in a verse of "When I'm 64" to honor his age, he went to his knees and successfully proposed.

 

"And he booked us for the wedding,"Paul joked.

He has 19 U.S. shows scheduled, including one at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, where the Beatles made their final concert appearance in 1966.