Months of buzz and anticipation surrounding the arrival of a Beatle
performing in Montana for the first time reached its pinnacle Tuesday
night as Paul McCartney finally took the stage in Missoula to a packed
house.
At more than 25,000 tickets sold, the show was easily the
largest to ever take place on Montana soil, surpassing the Rolling
Stones gig from 2006, which was also at Washington-Grizzly Stadium.
Paul arrived at the venue like the president, accompanied by a posse of
about six local police cars complete with lights flashing and honking
horns. McCartney hung his head out of a black SUV, waving at fans who
had begun to congregate outside the stadium about three hours before
show time.
Mount Sentinel was affectionately renamed “Mount
McCartney” for the day and it sporadically filled with dozens of people
looking to simply listen to the show from afar. A dozen hang-gliders and
para-gliders filled the sky above the mountain as fans slowly filtered
in to take their seats down below.
The man of the hour (or three
hours, if you’re counting the length of the show) took the stage to
thunderous applause with no opening band and kicked right into the
classic Beatles tune “Eight Days A Week.”
He followed with his new
solo song, “Save Us,” and immediately took off his blue jacket, telling
the crowd, “Hey Missoula. I’ve got a feeling we’re gonna have a little
bit of fun. The jacket has come off early and that’s the only wardrobe
change of the evening.”
A massive sing-along ensued when he kicked into “All My Loving.”
“This
is so cool,” he said after the song, stepping back to look at the
massive crowd. “I’ve gotta take a minute for myself to drink it all in.”
Passing
on his signature bass for a Gibson guitar painted with cartoon images
of children, McCartney went into a rocking rendition of Jimi Hendrix’s
“Foxy Lady” before telling the crowd a story about an interaction he had
with Hendrix back in the day involving “Sgt. Pepper,” an out-of-tune
guitar, and Eric Clapton.
On the night, McCartney went through a
list of songs that he in one way or another dedicated to people in his
life. When he played “My Valentine,” he prefaced it by saying, “This
next song, I wrote for my wife Nancy. She’s here tonight.”
The
song featured a video displayed on the two eight-story-tall screens to
each side of the stage with actors Johnny Depp and Natalie Portman using
sign language to the tune.
Later, he played “Maybe I’m Amazed” and told the crowd he wrote it for his late wife and former Wings bandmate, Linda McCartney.
Before
playing the song “Here Today,” McCartney explained to the fans that he
had written the song for his former bandmate, John Lennon.
“Sometimes
in life we want to say something to someone and put it off, and this is
like a conversation I never got to have with him,” he said.
Finally, he paid tribute to another fallen Beatle, George Harrison, by performing Harrison’s song “Something” with a ukulele.
“I don’t know if you know this, but George Harrison was a really great ukulele player,” he said as a video collage of Harrison played behind him. “Let’s hear it for Georgie.”
The night included one rock
staple after another like “Paperback Writer,” “Long and Winding Road,”
“We Can Work It Out,” “Lady Madonna,” “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” “Band on the
Run,” “Day Tripper,” “Helter Skelter,” “Back in the USSR,” “Being for
the Benefit of Mr. Kite!” and “Lovely Rita.”
Showing no signs of
being 72 years old and in the twilight of his life, Paul also
performed hit songs like “Yesterday,” “Hey Jude,” “Blackbird,” “I Saw
Her Standing There” and “Let It Be.”
Perhaps the highlight of the
entire show occurred when Paul played “Live And Let Die,”
surprising everyone in attendance with a display of pyrotechnics that
included fireballs, explosions, fireworks and lasers each time he went
into the chorus.
Coming out after the first encore, Paul arrived on stage carrying a massive American flag, while one stagehand had a British flag and another carried the Montana state flag.
The
most bizarre occurrence of the evening happened moments later when
Paul invited a mother and daughter on stage after reading their
sign that read “Please sign my daughter.” Paul did just that,
signing both the mother and daughter on the back of their shoulders with
the promise that they will have the signature permanently tattooed.
As promised, Paul took fans on a tour through his entire career, finishing the night having played a marathon-like 43 songs.
As he
ended his final song of the night, a collage of “Golden Slumbers,”
“Carry That Weight,” and “The End,” Paul left the fans with one
final display of awesomeness.
“Missoula, Montana,” he said. “You
have been fantastic.” And like the end of the Super Bowl, more fireworks
ensued and confetti sprayed from the front of the stage.
.............................................
Soundcheck
Jam
Matchbox
Honey Don't
Only Mama Knows
Hope and Deliverance
San Francisco Bay Blues
Every Night
Ram On
Midnight Special
Things We Said Today
Lady Madonna
SETLIST SHOW:
1-Eight days A week
2-Save Us
3-All My Loving
4-Listen to What the Man Said
5-Let Me Roll It/Foxy Lady
6-Paperback Writer
7-My Valentine
8-Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five
9-The Long and Winding Road
10-Maybe I'm Amazed
11-I've Just Seen a Face
12-We Can Work It Out
13-Another Day
14-And I Love Her
15-Blackbird
16-Here Today
17-New
18-Queenie Eye
19-Lady Madonna
20-All Together Now
21-Lovely Rita
22-Everybody Out There
23-Eleanor Rigby
24-Being for The Benefit of Mr Kite!
25-Something
26-Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da
27-Band on the Run
28-Back In The U.S.S.R.
29-Let It Be
30-Live and Let Die
31-Hey Jude
Encore:
32-Day Tripper
33-Hi, Hi, Hi
34-I Saw Her standing There
Encore 2:
35-Yesterday
36-Helter Skelter
37-Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End
MORE PHOTOS... HERE.
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