Paul McCartney: July 13, 2013

Concert Details:

Bands: Paul McCartney
Location: Nationals Stadium, Washington, DC

1. Eight Days a Week (The Beatles)
2. Junior's Farm (Wings)
3. All My Loving (The Beatles)
4. Listen to What the Man Said (Wings)
5. Let Me Roll It (wings)
6. Paperback Writer (The Beatles)
7. My Valentine
8. Nintenteen Hudnred and Eight-Five (Wings)
9. The Long and Winding Road (The Beatles)
10. Maybe I'm Amazed
11. I've Just Seen a Face (The Beatles)
12. We Can Work It Out (The Beatles)
13. Another Day
14. And I Love Her (The Beatles)
15. Blackbird (The Beatles)
16. Here Today
17. Your Mother Should Know (The Beatles)
18. Lady Madonna (The Beatles)
19. All Together Now (The Beatles)
20. Lovely Rita (The Beatles
21. Mrs. Vanderbilt (Wings)
22. Eleanor Rigby (The Beatles)
23. Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! (The Beatles)
24. Something (The Beatles)
25. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (The Beatles)
26. Band on the Run (Wings)
27. Back in the U.S.S.R. (The Beatles)
28. Let It Be (The Beatles)
29. Live and Let Die (Wings)
30. Hey Jude (The Beatles)

Encore:

   31. Day Tripper (The Beatles)

   32. Hi, Hi, Hi (Wings)

   33. Get Back (The Beatles)

Encore 2:

   34. Yesterday (The Beatles)

   35. Helter Skelter (The Beatles)

   36. Golden Slumbers (The Beatles)

   37. Carry That Weight (The Beatles) 

   38. The End (The Beatles)

I should start by saying that I am not a fan of The Beatles.  It's not that I don't understand their importance in the scheme of things musically, I am just not a fan of their songs when they sing them.  This seems counterintuitive as I went to a Paul McCartney show but it's only when the hold band sang them, I quite enjoy them when other people sing them or when McCartney sings them solo.

McCartney has not lost a single step since he started performing in the 50's and this was one of the best large venue shows I've ever been to with only one low point from me and some serious, unexpected highs.  With a catalogue of over 300 songs by The Beatles to choose from, plus his solo career, and Wings, there was little expectation of what songs would be heard short of maybe three or four that were absolutely expected to be played (Hey Jude, Let It Be and Live and Let Die).

He started strong with Eight Days A Week cutting through his catalogue and seemlessly moving between Wings songs and Beatles songs before hitting the first high with Maybe I'm Amazed, a highly emotional song written for his late wife Linda.  He then continued through the catalogue mixing in some unexpected songs including one that I personally love Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite! which is a song written by John Lennon and is a bit creepy and seemed to quite scare many of the people in the crowd.  The only true low point from me was not of McCartney's personal fault, but I hate, perhaps more than any other song ever written Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, so I had some difficulty dealing with it.

Before moving into his encore McCartney pulled out his big guns, first pulling on the emotions of the crowd with Let It Be and then playing hard and heavy with Live and Let Die with fireworks going off behind him followed by a crowd singalong to Hey Jude. 

The encore consisted of two part, eight songs in total to close out the over three hour, exhausting but fantastic set.  The fact that the man can still play like he once did is truly a testament to both his skill and talent.