PAUL: US AIRWAYS CENTER / SETLIST/PHOTOS

Another great show. Two-and-a-half-hour concert at US Airways Center in Phoenix last night, boldly showcasing two in a row in the midst of his set without losing momentum.

He set the tone, in fact, by bouncing back and forth between the two extremes. After opening strong with a spirited "Eight Days A Week," Paul and his bandmates took the energy up a notch on stage with "Save Us," the driving rocker that opens "New," before diving back into the Beatles' early days with "All My Loving," the first song the Beatles performed in 1964 - that's 50 years ago! - the first time they played "The Ed Sullivan Show."

Paul's vocals have held up amazingly well over time and it showed, from an aching performance of "Eleanor Rigby" to a screaming "Helter Skelter" that he somehow followed with a tender read of "Golden Slumbers" in the second encore. And he's touring with the same guys he's been using since 2002 -- Brian, Rusty, Paul "Wix" and Abe- a 12-year run that's given the five of them plenty of time to really gel and develop the chemistry it takes to make musicians bring the best out in each other.

The playing was often incredibly faithful -- that "All My Loving" solo nailed it and the keyboard player did a brilliant job of recreating all the necessary orchestration, including Phil Spector's arrangements on "The Long and Winding Road," despite Paul having said he doesn't like what Spector did to that song. Other solos felt more improvised, but even then, they were able to capture the essence of each studio recording, harmonies and all.

The Beatles songs Paul chose to play included several obvious contenders ("Let It Be," "The Long and Winding Road," "Hey Jude" "Blackbird," "Yesterday," "Lady Madonna" and "I've Just Seen a Face," for instance). Hell, five of the songs I just mentioned were featured on 1976's "Wings Over America."

But there were also songs that felt like real surprises, not the least of which were "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite" which sounded amazing and "All Together Now,"a loopy gem from "Yellow Submarine."Neither song had apparently been performed in concert before Paul launched this latest tour. 

Among the many other Beatles highlights were "Paperback Writer," "And I Love Her," "Lovely Rita," "Day Tripper," that encore performance of "Helter Skelter" and "The End." He also saluted the memory of George with a ukulele-driven "Something" and John with a heartfelt "Here Today," which McCartney introduced with "I wrote this next song when my dear friend John passed away."

The concert wasn't all about the Beatles and the new release. The man has been a solo artist longer than he ever was a Beatle. And those solo years provided any number of the concert's strongest moments.

"Let Me Roll It," its raunchy guitar riffs much closer in spirit to the sort of rocker you'd have found on one of Lennon's records at the time, was an early highlight, as was the second selection he played from 1973's "Band on the Run," the rollicking, piano-driven pop of "Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five." A soulful "Maybe I'm Amazed" remains his most inspired moment as a solo artist, and Tuesday's performance was nothing less than transcendent.

 "Another Day" felt every bit as haunted as the studio recording. "Band on the Run" is a highlight just by virtue of appearing in the set, although it should be noted that it rocked a good deal harder than the studio recording. 

A slide-guitar-fueled "Hi Hi Hi" held its own as the only solo number featured in the encores, as sandwiched between "Day Tripper" and "Get Back." And "Live and Let Die" was a show-stopping triumph, its spy-movie bombast underscored by fireworks and giant walls of flame shooting out of the floor. 

Paul's sense of showmanship extended well beyond the energy with which he brought those songs to life. He's an engaging raconteur, recalling seeing Jimi Hendrix cover "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" two days after the album's release and sharing the lyrical origins of "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite".

Another spoken highlight was his "Blackbird" introduction, in which he explained that the song was inspired by the American civil rights movement and how he had wanted to give the people in Little Rock, Arkansas, hope.

He also married a couple on stage because they'd brought a sign that read "You're ordained. We're engaged. Please marry us tonight." He did point out that he's not actually ordained. But he performed the ceremony anyway, advising, "I'm not sure that's gonna stand up in a court of law."

The wedding was during the first of two encores, coming out of "Hi Hi Hi" and followed by a version of "Get Back" that featured the crowd-pleasing antics of a fan named Annie, whose dancing consisted of hopping up and down across the stage. It would have been the perfect ending to a perfect night, but he had one more encore up his sleeve, returning, acoustic guitar in hand, to treat the crowd to a suitably bittersweet reading of "Yesterday" before letting it rip on "Helter Skelter" and closing with a three-song suite from "Abbey Road."

SETLIST
"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
"Day Tripper"
"Hi Hi Hi"
"Get Back"

Second Encore
"Yesterday"
"Helter Skelter"
"Golden Slumbers"
"Carry That Weight"
"The End"