Sir Paul McCartney at Petco Park
June 25th, 2019
Love, Love me Do, yes Sir Paul, we do love you! At age 77, the Sir Paul McCartney experience has aged like the finest whiskey-- oh so velvety smooth, mellow with a just bit of heat and an good ole fashioned a#* kickin the longer you imbibe. He truly embodies the terms: musician, artist, multi talented, star, legend and the title, Sir.
Petco Park could not do this legend justice. I've never been to Petco, so I was initially impressed when we arrived and found the grand new structure melded to the old existing buildings of downtown. To my dismay and that of thousands of others arriving early to the show, it was jam packed with a miles long security entrance line serpentining like Axl Rose around the city. Once inside and up to the top, the views of the city and the bay are impressive. You are at no loss to find a fine restaurant, bar, craft drink or the usual ball stadium fare. At first it appears that every seat is decent, until you actually sit and realize you are forced to sit at an angle, facing the home plate, the opposite direction of the concert stage. This place was built to be a baseball stadium, not a concert venue. You are forced to sit at an angle and cannot move your legs to the opposite direction or even in the middle direction, the spacing between rows is tighter than a cave crevice and the rows are mountain goat steep. It is no easy task getting up and down, trying to exit over everyone in your row or sitting the wrong way for over three hours. The back pain and leg pain that ensued left me cursing the designer of this seating all night. But by far the worst thing about Petco for concert going is the horrendous echo that travels around the park rendering the artists speech and their slow songs sounding like the town ice cream truck playing garbled hurdy gurdy music.
Now Paul McCartney holds the title the best concert I have seen in my nearly 40 years of concert going, so I looked forward to another and have been informing my husband for years this will be the best concert he has ever seen. As Sir Paul opened, I thought: oh hell no! It took the first two songs for the sound booth to make the appropriate adjustments for the sound to be recognizable. Finally, the third song "Cant Buy Me Love" came on and the magic began to unfold.
Not only is this band simply stellar, they are a delight to watch, each member a stand out personality and incredible musician. You can see and hear they have played together a very long time. The three piece horn section and their perfectly synchronized steps, the very animated, facially expressive and dancing drummer, two amazing guitarists/vocalists, an incredible keyboardist and Paul on bass and piano are perfection together. They performed a repertoire of Paul's career to perfection. Part way through the show, Paul informed us (with an echo) that they knew which songs we liked- their oldies, because they looked out at a sea of twinkling lights that did not appear when they played new songs from Egypt Station. He added, but we don't care we're going to play the new ones anyway. The stadium lit up like a galaxy when they played the next new song. San Diego knows how to respect royalty.
Sir Paul and his band delivered a 3 1/2 hour perfect cocktail of 32 songs and 6 encore songs from the new album Egypt Station, expected classics from The Beatles and Wings, interspersed with personal and Beatles' stories, funny gestures, dances by band members, audience participation, an incredible light show . The show ramped up to a seeming finale of Live and Let Die with a bang of sound, fireworks and lights. Was it over? No, Hey Jude came next. They said goodbye and then returned for 6 more encore songs including Helter Skelter, again with an incredible rocking sound, light show and big screen images to rival any rave. Like I said, a perfectly aged, mellow, smooth, a bit of heat and a good ole fashioned rock and roll a#* kickin from everyone's favorite Sir, Paul McCartney and his Band.
