PAUL LIVE: BACK IN THE U.S. 2002

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On October 19, 2002

background

    During the Spring of 2002, Paul McCartney was going on his "Drivin' USA" tour.  My friends and I decided to do all we could to see him.  Unfortunately, none of his shows were anywhere near where we were...ultimately, our plans to fly across the country and see Sir Paul were stymied.  Little to say, many tears were shed.  I was absolutely convinced that was the last tour Paul would be doing...he is, after all, getting older.

    Things got better for those of us who missed the Drivin' USA tour.  During the Summer of 2002, Paul announced that he would be continuing the tour - this time calling it "Back in the U.S."  I feared that my friends & I would be in a predicament similar to that of the last tour...but luck was on our side for once.  One of Paul's concerts was set for October 19, 2002, in Tacoma, WA - where I would be conveniently attending college.  My other Paul-obsessed friend, Heather, would be attending school only an hour away from Tacoma - so we were good to go.

    We ordered tickets and treated them like gold once they arrived in the mail.  Then it was just a matter of waiting (easier said than done).

pre-show

    Finally, October 19th arrived.  Heather & I requested for a taxi to come pick us up to take us to the Tacoma Dome.

    Fifteen dollars later, we were at the Dome.  The experience was absolutely surreal...it didn't seem possible that, inside of that globular structure, the musician whom I've admired for so long was preparing for a show that I would actually get to see.

    It was a good thing we arrived 2 hours early...the line was already massive.  Outside the Dome, a brass-band of teenagers had come together to perform Beatles songs in hopes of earning some money to buy tickets.  When they played Hey Jude, I had to donate to the cause.

    The night grew dark - the sky was a beautiful pink/violet mix at the horizon and turned navy blue above us.  Spotlights at the top of the Dome were lighting the sky, reminding the whole city of the concert.

    While standing in line, I noted the variety of Beatle/Paul fans - from first graders to retired adults, the entire spectrum of ages was represented.  And I suddenly realized that other fans such as myself exist - people with Beatle wardrobes, who live and breathe the band. 

    Finally the doors to the Dome opened and the audience was ushered inside.  Heather and I explored the various booths that were set up - no more land mines, PETA, merchandise, etc. - and I made a few purchases on insanely over-priced items (a tour book and some t-shirts).  We eventually found our seats and waited impatiently for the show to start. 

the first act

    Finally the lights went down and the pre-show began.  The smell of incense filled the air and people dressed in a variety of elaborate costumes - representing all sorts of time periods and nationalities - paraded through the aisles.  Clowns came by with huge helium-filled balloons bobbing up and down.  Steadily, the costumed performers arrived on the stage, where they performed numbers according to their dress.  The pre-show, although odd and rather eclectic, was absolutely wonderful - it really created an ethereal atmosphere.

    Suddenly, as the stage filled with performers and the speed of their performances increased, the music and lighting changed, and the huge silhouette of a Hofner bass appeared on a transparent screen.  The performers left the stage, and Paul's silhouette, carrying his real bass, stepped up behind the Hofner silhouette.  The screen went up, and there was Paul - I still can't believe it.  The crowd screamed and hooted their approval, and I started crying.  I simply couldn't get over the fact that Paul - the person who helped create all the music that had gotten me through tough times and made the good times seem better - was right there in front of me.  We were close enough that we could actually see his face; it seemed so unreal.

Paul's set

    Needing no introductions, Paul started with a rousing performance of "Hello, Goodbye."  He was absolutely glowing - it was easy to tell that he loves being able to perform live and wallows in the audience's approval.  The band (which was very talented) performed a number of songs from his solo career, Wings, and The Beatles.  

    Paul eventually did an acoustic set completely by himself (as he said to the audience, "It's just you and me - I can handle it if you can").  His performance of "Blackbird" absolutely blew me away - it's one of my all-time favorites and was the first song I learned to play on the guitar.  He also did "We Can Work It Out" and "Every Night."  The band came back to help with backup on the acoustic version of "Eleanor Rigby," which was absolutely amazing.

    I'm a Sgt. Pepper's fan - that was the album that converted me to the Path of the Beatles.  So I was absolutely delighted when Paul did several songs from the album that had never before been performed live - "She's Leaving Home" and "Getting Better."  I never thought, years ago when I first popped Sgt. Pepper's into my CD player, that I would be hearing it LIVE and straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak.

    Paul's performance of "Live and Let Die" was intense and included some pyrotechnics (although the poor guy was choking on the smoke by the end).  Even though I prefer Paul's work in The Beatles to his work in Wings and thereafter, I was still blown away by his solo stuff; he chose his best solo work for the concert, including "Band On the Run" and "Roll It."  He did a beautiful rendition of "My Love" for his Lovely Linda (and he dedicated it to "all the lovers in the house").

    It was great to see him play old Beatles songs like "All My Loving" and "Can't Buy Me Love" (during which shots from A Hard Day's Night appeared on the large screens in the background).

    I was crying in various degrees throughout the entire concert, but I finally broke down entirely when Paul played "Here Today" for John (the film clip at the end, featuring Paul and John at the mic together at Candlestick Park, was almost too much to take).  Then Paul had to out-do himself and play "Something" on the ukulele for George, with images of George appearing on the large screens. 

    I should point out that my all-time favorite songs are "Let It Be" and "Hey Jude."  As the concert progressed, I was getting more and more anxious for Paul to perform those two pieces...but at the same time, I knew that I would have a breakdown when they would be played.

    Finally, Paul played "Let It Be"...the piano solo at the beginning just sets the whole mood for the piece.  Images of candles appeared on the screens, and members of the audience swayed back and forth with their lighters.  It was unreal.  I remembered so many difficult times in my life that were at least lightened by that song.  And the concept of it is so beautiful.

    Then, of course, I had no recovery time from that song.  Paul launched into my absolute favorite song: "Hey Jude."  When school or life in general got to be to stressful, that song seemed to make things so much simpler.  When I listen to it, I think about how every single note and beat in it is absolutely necessary - there's no superfluity in that piece.  I tried to sing along during the "na na na" portions that interrupt the main stanzas, but I was too choked up to get the sounds out.  I just stood there with my hand covering my mouth.  Finally, the 5-minute fade-out, consisting of the "na na na" sing-along, began.  The entire audience was singing along to the chorus, and I was absolutely amazed at what I saw - never before have I seen such content and truly happy faces.  The incredible aspect of it was that they were just singing a simple "na na na" chorus - just the same words over and over again.  Somehow, those words, set to that tune, manage to pull the deepest of emotions out of people.  Cares, fears, and stresses were gone for 5 minutes; it was all about the music.  Paul stopped singing and playing the piano to let the audience have a solo of their own with just the drums and bass to keep them going; then he requested that just the guys sing, followed by the ladies.  All genders sung together again, and finally, Paul joined back in on the piano.  By that time, he had managed to build up so much camaraderie amongst an audience of strangers.  The song ended, but the noise didn't - the cheering was intense.

    "Hey Jude" was supposedly the finale - the band paraded off the stage, but the audience wouldn't give up Paul that easily.  We screamed until they came back out for an encore.  There ended up being a total of two encores in all.  Paul played "Yesterday" on the guitar he used on the Ed Sullivan Show; since that was the song that defined Paul as a solo artist, it was wonderful to hear it live.  He also did "The Long and Winding Road," another one of his gorgeous ballads.  He finally ended the show - this time for real - with the reprise of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," which merged beautifully into "The End."  Since the reprise of Sgt. Pepper's was one of the songs that really made me a Beatles fan, I was absolutely blown away.  "The End" was amazing; the part featuring the battling guitar solos went on for double the time it does on the album.  As Paul struck the famous piano chords at the end of the song, the image of a massive sun appeared on the screens behind him, and the sun continued to rise during the "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make" set of lyrics.  The stage lighting actually managed to create the illusion of a sunrise.  Then red, white, and blue confetti fell from the ceiling, and I grabbed a piece of blue confetti to take home as a cheap souvenir.

post-show

    I was spellbound.  Heather and I left the Dome steadily, trying not to lose one another in the massive crowd, and we finally reached the outside world.  It was around 11:30 pm - the concert was around 3 hours long.  We tried in vain to hail a taxi, but that was seeming impossible.  It took us around half an hour to successfully hail one.  We were delirious from fatigue and stimulation and managed to zonk out rather quickly (after I had woken up my other friends to give them a quick run-through of the joy I'd experienced).

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You can read more accounts of Paul's 2002 performance in Tacoma, WA at Macca-Central.

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