Larry mentioned in July that Paul McCartney was coming to Dallas in August on his summer tour, and he was considering getting tickets. He was a fan on Paul’s website, and alerted of the ability to purchase tickets in advance. He knew they would be expensive, but the waning opportunities to see this him seemed to supersede the cost. He was also graduating with his MBA, so the tickets would have been a great present to himself. AND a great chance to see the brand new Cowboys Stadium, before a football game had ever been played there.
As luck would have it, some identity thief had gotten a hold of his debit card and he had his bank cancel the card and reissue a different number. It was during this period of time that the tickets went on sale. He knew that if he wanted a shot at getting them, he would have to use his corporate card, and didn’t want to bother with having to ask for permission, or explain the exorbitant charge before he had a chance to pay it back.
So, he told me that he decided against it, and I was disappointed for him. I have always been a Beatles fan - who hasn’t? But I haven’t made much of a point to follow Sir Paul’s post-fab 4 solo efforts. Larry on the other hand, had. I reasoned with him that if he was truly a fan, he would kick himself for not going for it and reminded him that this may be his last opportunity to see a Beatle. There have been rampant rumors that this would be a leg of Paul’s final tour, after all.
Then one morning in early August, we were at his apartment getting ready to go out to breakfast. I was in the bathroom examining my pores or something when he called, "Hey come over here and check out this letter I got." He handed me an envelope containing two tickets to the show! How cute is that?! It's like something my dad would do. I love surprises, but for one reason or another, it doesn’t happen very often. I was so excited that he actually got the tickets, I didn't even pay enough attention enough to notice that the seats were in the fifth row!!!
We coordinated the day very carefully, making sure to eat dinner nice and early and factor in plenty of time for traffic. On this particular night, in addition to regular the rush hour and concert traffic, there was a Ranger’s game going on right next door at the same time – the makings of a “perfect storm”, and the first time the City of Arlington would have to test out such a double-header scenario.
We left early and traffic wasn't bad at all, and we got there earlier than we expected. The only downfall of the evening was having to wait out in the blazing heat a little longer than we anticipated because their sound checks ran long, and our assigned entrance was on the sunny side. Not the most pleasant of experiences, but completely overlookable in the grand scheme of things.
The new stadium is gargantuan and pretty on the outside, but aside from the slew of slick looking suites and HUGE LCD jumbotron inside, it looked just like any ol' stadium (apparently there are all these swanky little areas the regular public can't access unless they pay more than their ticket price, but it wasn't an issue that night).
After a brief 40-minute set by opening band The Script, the packed stadium was a buzz with anticipation. To help fill the space between bands while the stage crew did their thing, two large digital screens flanking the stage began streaming an elaborate animated collage of Beatles photos, newspaper headlines, videos, cartoons and other graphics.
When Paul and his band finally came out, they simply walked out on stage. There was no cloud of smoke, no fancy mechanisms lowering or raising him onto the stage. They didn’t even kill the house lights. They all just walked out on stage, waved to the audience and began playing.
Drive My Car
Jet
Only Mama Knows
Flaming Pie
Got to Get You Into My Life
Let Me Roll It
Foxy Lady
Highway
The Long and Winding Road
My Love
Blackbird
Here Today
Dance Tonight
Calico Skies
It’s So Easy
Mrs Vanderbilt
Eleanor Rigby
Sing the Changes
Band on the Run
Back in the USSR
I’m Down
Something
I’ve Got a Feeling
Paperback Writer
A Day in the Life
Give Peace a Chance
Let it Be
Live and Let Die
Hey Jude
Lady Madonna
I Saw Her Standing There
Yesterday
Helter Skelter
Get Back
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band/The End
He played for three hours and we were honestly stunned at his energy, from guitar to mandolin, to piano and back and forth. Two encores, great mix of old Beatles, Wings, and solo Paul. He indulged us with stories of his also legendary friends: John, George (to whom he dedicated a lovely version of Something, that he played on a mandolin George had given him), Jimi Hendrix (as he went into Foxy Lady), and Buddy Holly. Since we're in Texas and Buddy was born in Lubbock, they played a version of It’s so easy, just for us. Dedicating My Love to “all the lovers out there - you know who you are,” as he told us how he wrote the song for Linda. It was one of my more favorite and touching moments of the night.
Before he played Here Today, he indulged us by sharing the heartfelt motivation for having written the song. He told us that he wrote it after John died, because unfortunately when you lose someone, you don’t always get the opportunity to tell them everything you want to.
Right along side it, when he told the story behind one of my favorite songs, Blackbird, and followed up with a moving acoustic version. He said it was the 60s, and he knew what a racially difficult time it was in America. He wrote the song thinking of the potential trials of a young black girl.
When he played Hey Jude, the end of the song elapsed into elongated rounds of “na-na-na-na’s”, where he let the audience sing along in various segments (men, women, balconies, etc.)
The most exciting moment must have been during Live and Let Die. There we were singing along, completely unsuspecting and in the groove of the song, when sudden blasts of fire and pyrotechnics erupted from the stage. Needless to say, we felt like our faces were sunburned from the fitth row!
The main body of the show ended on an energetic note, with a stream of upbeat songs flowing one into the other. It was at the end of the first encore when Paul graced us with Larry’s favorite song, Yesterday, during another quiet acoustic moment. The second encore was fast-paced and closed the show with a bang before we knew what hit us. But we did what we could to completely soak in the entire experience, not wanting to let go of a single moment.
Though it was late, and a work night, when we got home, we laid in bed for more than an hour just recalling impressions from the night. We hadn’t wanted it to end, and were both sad the following day that it was over. You know how it is when you look forward to something so much, and then it’s gone? Luckily, I am documentarian supreme! And I feel so lucky and blessed to have lived the experience. It was A-MAZ-ING! It was once in a lifetime.
