McCartney has received solid accolades from the Twin Cities media and press on his recent show in St. Paul. Several things were especially impressive to me:
* His Voice: The quality of his voice is amazing. Having heard his songs hundreds of times over the years, it was incredible to hear how little difference there was in the quality of his voice (does he still smoke??)
* His energy level: a 2-1/2 hour long show without an intermission (and no water bottle at hand)
* The screen graphics: I loved the color choices--very reminiscent of the opening credits to late 50s-early 60s movies (eg Otto Preminger films).
* Underplayed songs: although his set list is heavy on the classics, I really enjoyed hearing Getting Better, She's Leaving Home and Every Night. I hope next time he'll consider adding a few solo songs such as Figure of 8, Somedays, Beautiful Night (w. Ringo on backing!), and That Day is Done.
The band was tight, the sound was well-engineered (loud but no ringing ears) -- all in all an excellent show.
From Dean Gustafson:
Hello! nice to discover this great site with all of its fine reviews! I wrote a few words on the show the other night, mostly covering the new stuff of this tour.
Paul McCartney 9/23/02 in St Paul, Minnesota. Xcel Energy Center. First off, the correct city for the MN show was St Paul (appropriately:-), NOT Minneapolis. Though the two are the geographically close 'twin cities'. I caught the previous tour, was at Oakland 4/1 and have heard some of the other shows. As the event began and continued, I felt this was repeating the exact show plan as before, even a lot of the between song banter. Which was mildly disapointing at first, but was still glad to be there and hear it all repeated.... this is after all THE act of the year and not much else can be as enjoyable and rare as live Macca! And this performance felt fresh, enthusiastic and well rehearsed, as many of the others reviewers point out so well. When they finally got to a different song it was refreshing and delightful to get the surprise. 'Michelle' was performed beautifully from this band that really knows how to play this material! and the visuals of Paris lights were a dazzling visual touch. One of the other new additions was a COMPLETE surprise, and perhaps one of the most unexpected songs to ever hear him do live. I'm talking about 'She's Leaving Home'. It was the first time I've ever seen Paul play where he sang through an entire song while not playing an instrument. With Hofner still strapped on, he sang as the rest of the band played, all singing beautiful harmonys. Rusty and Brian both played acoustic nylon stringed guitars, with desirable results. 'Let 'em in' was the only other different song and sounded great. I have heard this one before at the '90 show in Berkeley, I think this one had more punch to it with this band, especially given what Abe adds. All of these added songs were great renditions! I would have prefered a few less repeated songs from the previous tour, and of all songs wishing they didn't drop 'Mother Natures Son', which was wonderful before.Particular moments of this show was Pauls hysterical mistake of greeting all of us in "Minneapolis/St Paul... Wisconsin!" Had to wonder for a moment if that was purposeful joke and then later he told a short story of greeting a Pittsburgh audience as "Detroit! " resulting in a black hole of a response from the audience, understandably! It was funny. So he made up for it and had Minnesota well represented through the rest of the evening. (he should recall that Minnesota is where Rocky Racoon originally came from ;-)
Rusty referred to Mpls/St Paul as being "like a binary star", a nice cosmic analogy to use for the twin cities.
After 'Yesterday', Paul claimed that his acoustic guitar was the same one played on the Ed Sullivan show. From my distance it looked like it could have been a Martin ( will have to look up some of the early footage to verify).
Personally I had a FANTASTIC time! The show knocked our socks off! The vibes were good all around. It's great fun to attend this show with a group of friends, we had almost an entire section of us in the same locale and the place was bouncing. Paul likes a bopping audience, and we were certainly being that on the rocking numbers! 'Back in the USSR ' gave the best op to go crazy.
If not in one of the few up-close seats, I feel its important to use binoculars for seeing this band play instead of relying on the big screens, mainly to see what they are doing with their instruments! The screens seem to mostly offer only head shots, while I want to see how the guitars are being played... it's a privilege to watch lefty Paul play those chords on acoustic and work that Hofner!
TREMENDOUSLY glad that Paul came back around with this tour, and bringing it to a few unrepeated citys! I expected either he could possibly tour again many years ahead, or more likely never again. But you never know...he did again say "see you next time" and at 60 is in impressive shape!
Have a great show to all attending this tour! (next up for me is the San Jose return! :^))
(9/25/02) From Mike Lane:
Just got back from a fabulous show in St. Paul. Everyone's saying Paul looks great and is singing better than ever - and it's absolutely true! The band rocks when it should, and constantly spurs Paul on with their energy. And Paul is a dynamo! I don't think I saw him take a drink of anything while onstage!
What made the show great for me was the intimacy that Paul managed to create (in a hockey arena) during the solo and quieter band moments.No easy trick. Of course, it helps when you have a back catalog of songs as beautiful and memorable as his. What most impressed me ( besides his singing) was his engagement with his songs. He really seemed to be summoning the emotions that he felt when he originally wrote them...a big difference from the last tours,in my opinion. Thanks for all the great work you do on your site.