A Beatles Journey: McCartney in Concert
On Saturday, August 14th of 2010, I attended the Paul McCartney concert at the Wachovia (soon to be Wells Fargo) Center in Philadelphia. This was the first time I had ever seen any of the former Beatles perform live. I was accompanied by my friend Kevin York, who took all of the photos you see here.
Paul rocked, plain and simple, but you expect that from a former Beatle I suppose. By far the greatest concert (yes, the greatest) I’ve ever been to. McCartney learned how to “Mach Shau” in Hamburg half a century ago. It was ten songs into the show when Paul broke into the Wings hit Let Em In that Kevin looked at me and said with enthusiasm, “He’s still got it.” I guess that’s what sums it up best… He does still got it.
The last two concerts I’ve seen of older groups have been Van Halen and The Eagles “Hell Freezes Over” tour, and in both instances I’d been fairly disappointed. I feared the same of this in some ways, and I was glad to be dead wrong. This was no “reunion” tour of a band that hadn’t played together for a decade, this was a performer who has never stopped touring.
McCartney’s rapport with the audience was one of familiarity and intimacy. The audience was bantered with, serenaded, and Rock n Rolled. He jockeyed between the piano, acoustic and electric guitars, his legendary Hoffner bass and even a ukulele. The set list was chocked full of Beatles and Wings classics, as well as as well as some welcome surprises that were not on the list, like Give Peace A Chance and Hendrix’s Foxy Lady.
Might I add that Kevin York was able to capture these vibrant images with a pocket camera, which proves my point once again that what a real photographer can achieve with a $500.00 camera is far greater than what the amateur (like myself) could accomplish with a professional grade camera.
In the first rough of writing this article, I found myself going on and on about McCartney’s “epicness” referring to him in most cases as a superlative. Then I went droning on and on about the concert itself, filling it with lots of exciting and powerful Rock n Roll appropriate adjectives. So yeah, Paul McCartney put on an epic show, and it was likely the greatest concert I have ever seen, and the most fun I’d ever had at a concert. I danced, I sang, and I smiled from start to finish.
To the folks who have already seen Paul McCartney perform live, this is no great revelation, and to those of you who haven’t, McCartney really is a performer you shouldn’t miss. Did I forget to mention that Paul McCartney is a superlative and epic Rock n Roll God and perhaps one of the greatest performers of all time? Oh yeah, that too.
Bravo Sir Paul, that was really cool.
-Craig
Photography by Kevin York
www.kevinyorkphotography.com
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Hi love the photos could we buy any of them from you? We are the couple that was standing next to both on Sat. when Paul arrived. Never got a picture I was in to much shock first time we every saw him ( I am 51 ) Please let us know how we can buy any. Thanks George & Tina
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Great pics! Looks like you guys had amazing seats! I was at the concert on Sunday and it was awesome, but I didn’t have seats nearly that good.