San Jose review

By Steve Marinucci

I'm still a bit groggy after getting to bed late last night and getting up early this a.m. for work, but here goes...
All I can say is what a show! Let me repeat that: What a wonderful show!
The first thing you noticed when coming in the building was the smell of incense all through the arena. The souvenir stands were busy. T-shirts range from $30-$85. Also on sale were hats, baseball shirts, "Driving Rain" CDs (with the new slipcase), and the tour program ($30).
Things started happening at 8:15. Up to this point, the music, which had been a combination of various things (including an instrumental version of "Junk" and some bits of "Liverpool Oratorio") turned into a drum beat. One at a time, a bunch of people, both male and female, in costume, came out of nowhere and started walking toward the stage. (The one closest to us was a gorgeous woman dressed in an all-white dress and hat from the 19th century. My first thought was that she was a fan who really knew how to dress up for a show.) But then, we noticed similar folks all over the arena and they had spotlights on them. On stage, they started dancing and twirling around for several minutes. They were supposed to be circus performers, though one, a weightlifter, had lots of obvious padding, so this was obviously more a bunch of actors. It continued on for about 12 minutes getting EXTREMELY surreal with the ambient music building to a crescendo. Finally, the video screen went white and we saw Paul's Hofner bass and his small silhouette in black. (Neat looking effect.) The crowd went crazy. The blue backdrop curtain on the stage pulled back revealing the band, and they went into "Hello Goodbye."
I'm am not a Paul crazy person, but no lie: He looked incredible. I hope I look that good when I'm his age. His hair, for those of you who keeping track, is very very short. He smiled a lot and waved to the crowd on all sides of the arena very often.
The set list was the same as the Oakland show. The band is very very tight, though I think the '90 band (the one Wix, who is in this one, was in) was a bit better. Still, these guys are no slouches.
Special moments: He dedicated "Your Loving Flame" to "a special person in the audience." (She was sitting down near the front in a yellow outfit.)
During "Band on the Run," the screen showed footage of Wings, including Linda.
During the tributes to John and George, I'm sure there wasn't a dry eye in the house. That included Paul's. I wished, however, he'd do "Something" a bit slower (he plays it on the ukelele, a favorite instrument of George, at a fast tempo). Most of the pics of George used during the tribute were familiar, except for one, which looked like it was taken maybe early last year. Curiously, while there were lots of pictures of George during his tribute, there were no individual pics of John during his except for Beatle pics. Make what you will of that.
Paul messed up the words to "You Never Give Me Your Money," saying something like "This is the bit where I didn't know the words but I'll probably get it before the end of the tour." Strange, because he's using a Teleprompter for the lyrics...
During the show, he switches instruments several times and also uses what appears to be the psychedically painted piano from the New World Tour during "Fool on the Hill" (which had some of the MMT video on the video screen) and a few other songs.
All in all, a great evening.