SCOTT TADY
PITTSBURGH — We can start with the numbers: An 83-year-old musical legend thrilling a sold-out PPG Paints Arena crowd with 35 songs expertly paced throughout two-hours-40-minutes of nonstop fun.
But it’s the unquantifiable measures of passion and professionalism; joy and jests — a supreme songbook performed by a brilliant band — that made for a magnificent concert Tuesday from Paul McCartney.
McCartney looked like he was having a blast, as audience and artist fed off each other’s energy, throughout a show starring Beatles and Wings hits, with a few surprises and enjoyable deeper cuts sprinkled in.
The pre-show concern centered around the strength of his singing voice. Could he still sing with power?
The night’s opening selection, a revved up “Help,” which McCartney is playing in its entirety on this tour for the first time in 50 years, didn’t instantly assuage any worries, as his voice did sound thin.
But as we’ve heard at concerts from other senior peers, like Rod Stewart, it just took a few songs for McCartney to warm up vocally, and get back to where his voice belonged. By “Drive My Car,” four songs in, any distractions about vocal flaws largely had dissipated. You couldn’t resist the urge to smile and sing along as McCartney delivered vocals with feeling, conviction and sufficient sturdiness, backed by twin guitar blazers Rusty Anderson and Brian Ray, drumming ace Abe Laboriel Jr. and slick Wix Wickens on keys, with added punch from the three-man Hot City Horns.
McCartney began on his trusty Hofner bass guitar radiating warmth on picks like The Beatles’ “Got to Get You Into My Life.”
McCartney later would showcase his southpaw strumming skills on acoustic guitar, mandolin and ukulele, that latter instrument shining in his solo on the George Harrison-penned “Something”. McCartney pointed skyward in his tribute to Harrison. McCartney also touchingly spoke about his other deceased Beatles mate, John Lennon, to whom he dedicated 1982’s “Here Today” and “Now And Then,” the 2023-Grammy Award nominated Beatles song that originated as a Lennon home demo.
Beatles and Wings footage from “Magical Mystery Tour,” “Let It Be,” the “Band on The Run” album cover shoot and other pivotal moments cropped up regularly on video screens.
There were tiny moments that mattered Tuesday, too, like the band adding a snippet of Henry Mancini’s “Peter Gunn Theme” amid “Coming Up,” and ending “Let Me Roll It” with a full-throttle jam on Jimi Hendrix’s “Foxey Lady.” McCartney told a story about being one of a handful of people in a club when Hendrix’s trio showed up unannounced and performed a full set of jaw-dropping greatness. Word spread quickly, as the next night a rock ‘n’ roll Who’s Who including Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend, Jeff Beck and McCartney attended to witness more Hendrix magic.
Seated at a piano, McCartney enthusiastically directed band traffic with hand gestures to ensure perfect timing to the start of “Maybe I’m Amazed.” It wasn’t vocally flawless, but sung with uplifting potency.
McCartney’s witty banter kept the entertainment non-stop. “That’s my one wardrobe change” he said after removing his vest early on.
“That’s our choreography” he later added when Laboriel did some booty shaking as part of “Dance Tonight.”
A timing issue with guitarist Anderson brought the launch of “I’ve Just Seen a Face” to an abrupt halt, and then a do-over.
“At least you know we’re playing live,” McCartney said.
McCartney musically strode down memory lane with “In Spite of All The Danger” from he, Lennon’s and Harrison’s pre-Beatles band The Quarrymen.
Expanding on a story he told on the 2010 opening night of PPG Paints Arena (then-Consol Energy Center), McCartney explained how he wrote the Beatles’ “Blackbird” as a song of support for the U.S. Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. He said the Beatles refused to play a Jacksonville, Fla. show until the show promoter agreed the audience would not be racially segregated.
In the show’s final hour, Beatles and Wings hits came with an exhilarating flurry. “Jet” lifted off with crisp and loud double barrel guitar. “Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da” allowed for an audience singalong.
“Band on The Run,” “Get Back” and McCartney back at piano for a soul-stirring “Let It Be” was a super trifecta.
The stage lights turned red, fire aggressively shot up from the stage and pyro explosions boomed and cascaded sparks as “Live and Let Die” amped up the energy.
Camera cranes flanking the stage beamed to the video screens images of fans singing along blissfully to “Hey Jude”.
The encore began with McCartney magically doing a virtual duet with Lennon, shown and heard on the video screens singing “I’ve Got a Feeling” from the Fab Four’s famed rooftop concert. McCartney said he and the band believe Lennon’s voice needed to be featured in that segment of the show.
An appropriately feisty “Helter Skelter” paved the way for the “Abbey Road” medley romp through “Golden Slumbers,” “Carry That Weight” and “The End,” building mightily to McCartney’s profound vocal line “And in the end/The love you take/Is equal to the love you make.”
A lovely night it was.