Paul in Concert 21 September 2002

(Written in Sept. 2002)

After all the fun I had at Paul McCartney's Chicago concert in April, I got the bug to see him again on the second leg of his US tour. So...for my 25th birthday, Kathy and I hit Ebay and won two tickets to Paul's Milwaukee concert, the opening night of Paul's second trek through the States. We tried for tickets to the Chicago show on the 24th, but there are apparently some goofy resale laws in Illinois that prevented us from bidding on them. Go figure. But anyway... We left Chicago around 2:00pm on the 21st and made it to Milwaukee within an hour and a half. We checked in to the Ramada, which is about 4 blocks from the Bradley Center where the concert would be at, right in the downtown area.

While we were sitting around in our hotel room, I had a chance to open up the compact binoculars I'd bought at Target earlier in the day and try them out. I looked out the window and aimed them at the Hilton about 3 blocks away and WOW--I could literally count the bricks on the building, even at that distance! (FYI, I highly recommend getting these binoculars if you're going to the concert and have seats far from the stage; they're Bushnell pocket-size 12x25 strength, and they're $25--you'll see Paul close enough to see the sweat on his face :) ). Kathy yelled at me for staring at the Hilton (my guess at the time was that Paul probably stayed there while he was in town--very swanky hotel, located very close to the theater...of course, I was wrong on that, but anyway...). She was on the phone with a friend of ours and said "Yeah, we just got here and Tina's already busy stalking Paul!" :p

Anyway, we went to the big mall that was nearby, ate lunch, got some snacks from Walgreens for later on, then went back to the hotel. We left the Ramada for the show a little after seven o'clock. Our tickets were in the second balcony, Row T, directly dead-center across the theater from the stage. We went up and up and up and up what seemed like about ten thousand stairs, found section 412, walked up another big flight of stairs inside the arena. There were only about a hundred people seated by that point, so we got to our seats, turned around, sat down...and I nearly had a panic attack from the HEIGHT we were at!! I had NO IDEA that our seats would be that high up or that the seat arrangements were THAT STEEP!!!

Kathy took one look at me and said, "Are you okay?! Jesus, what's wrong?" Here I was, crunched as far back into my seat, feet braced against the back of the chair in front of me, and my fingernails gouged into the arm rests so hard I probably left permanent marks in the plastic. Mind you, I haven't been afraid of heights that badly since I went on the Condor at Great America in eighth grade! I could have either cried or laughed about being so freaked out, so I just started giggling, "I'm just in fear of my life, that's all!" Once more people sat down in front of us, though, I didn't notice the steepness as much, and my blood pressure blessedly dropped back down to normal.

So.....once I had relaxed, I scanned the auditorium with my handy-dandy Bushnells. The stage was the same setup as last time--the big blue polka-dot curtain concealing the stage, big monitor screen in the middle. I watched the stage techs organize the instruments on the sides of the stage. I sighed "Ohhh...Kathy, look, it's his guitars!" to which she gave me an odd look. "It's JUST his guitars!" she laughed. (She's not a hard-core Beatle gal like me, but she does like Paul...)

The opening act began around 8:10pm. It was the same deal as before: fifteen minutes of all those dancers dressed up in costume from various eras and countries, wandering around the audience and stage, etc. Then, at last, the Hofner outline appeared on the big monitor along with Paul's silhouette, and the audience went bonkers as he walked onto the stage. Even I got more hyper than I had last time--I watched him through the binoculars so close I could see the whites of his eyes, and I said "Oh my god, it's really HIM!" (As if there was ever any doubt in the first place! I think just seeing him that close nearly did me in! The man is GORGEOUS!!!)

Here comes the set list (yes, he did make some changes from the first leg of the tour, but most of it remained the same):
Hello Goodbye
Jet
All My Loving (both me and the 40+ year old lady next to me screamed when he started singing this one)
Getting Better
Let Me Roll It (I melted into the seat when he sang this one)
Lonely Road
Driving Rain
Your Loving Flame ("this is for my wife Heather"...)
(Acoustic solo set):
Blackbird
Every Night
We Can Work it Out
Michelle (I *think* he played it after WCWIO; I could be wrong, though)
You Never Give Me Your Money
Carry that Weight
Fool on the Hill
(Acoustic solo):
Here Today (I was weeping during this one!)
Something
Eleanor Rigby
Here There and Everywhere
Band on the Run
Back in the USSR (this one always rocks the house!)
Maybe I'm Amazed
Let 'Em In (this is a new one to the set list)
She's Leaving Home (another new one--we were THE FIRST AUDIENCE EVER to hear him sing that song live!!!!!!!!)
My Love
Can't Buy Me Love
Freedom
Live and Let Die (one of the pyrotechnic cannons flamed a bit too long after the second BANG--I thought they were going to have a fire crisis for about three seconds)
Let it Be
Hey Jude
Encore #1:
The Long and Winding Road
Lady Madonna
I Saw Her Standing There
(While we waited for Encore #2, Kathy and I screamed at the top of our lungs "WE LOVE YOU PAUL!!!" It was hysterical!)
Encore #2:
Yesterday (he played this on one of his old old old guitars--he was holding the guitar upside-down to play it)
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
The End

Other details...
--His voice was in great shape! I don't think he missed a difficult note on anything!
--As mentioned, the songs new to the set were "Michelle" "Let 'em In" and "She's Leaving Home."
--The songs cut out were "Vanilla Sky" and "C Moon" (thank god--I could do without those two). I still wish he would have included something from Flaming Pie or Run Devil Run (maybe something like "Calico Skies" during the acoustic set, and "Brown Eyed Handsome Man" from RDR)
--He told the same stories he's told before (the massage story; the stories on how "Michelle" and "Blackbird" evolved; how "Driving Rain" was inspired)
--He messed up the words twice on "Getting Better" (but we still love him!)
--I skipped buying a program this time (they were $30 again, and, despite a new cover, I don't know if there was much changed on the inside pages). Merchandise prices were RIDICULOUS--the same t-shirt I got in April for $30 was $38! They did have a nice black and white poster of Macca for $15, but IT SOLD OUT before I could buy one!!
--His wardrobe last night: red sweatshirt beneath that shiny gray suit he's worn at other concerts on the tour. He changed into a red "No more land mines" t-shirt for the second encore. Our boy was having a very good hair day as well.
--The date for the tour DVD and 2-disc CD release is set for 26 November 2002, as posted on advertisements on the wall by the merchandise kiosks.