On The Download: Paul McCartney’s ‘Chaos And Creation At The Hollywood Bowl’

Paul McCartney
Venue: Hollywood Bowl
Date: March 30, 2010
Capacity: 18,000

“I didn’t think, I never dreamed, that I would be around to see it all come true!”
– Paul McCartney & Wings, “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five”

Paul McCartney sang those words on the closing track of his landmark “Band on the Run” album from 1973, but little did I realize how fitting they would be for his sold-out performance at The Hollywood Bowl on March 30, 2010.

That’s because other than Paul’s 45-minute set during an April 16, 1993, Earth Day concert that included other artists, it’s hard to believe that McCartney hasn’t performed at the famed venue since August 29, 1965, when Beatlemania was in full swing. It’s also hard to believe that McCartney didn’t perform his 1975 arena-ready song “Rockshow” at the Earth Day celebration, since The Hollywood Bowl is specifically mentioned in that crowd-pleasing potboiler.

So, McCartney’s first-ever solo performance at The Bowl started off by righting that wrong, which was followed by an impressive playlist that include career-spanning songs both old and new, standard and obscure, Beatles and Wings, solo and Fireman. He even threw in a few classics that paid tribute to his late bandmates, John Lennon and George Harrison. All told, McCartney played for almost three hours – not bad for a guy who turns 68 on June 18 and still has more energy than people a third of his age.

There were times when his voice showed signs of strain, most notably during the slower and more intimate songs, like “Here Today” (his tribute to Lennon, from the 1982 “Tug of War” album) and “Eleanor Rigby” (from the groundbreaking 1966 Beatles album “Revolver”). But overall, McCartney was in top form, and his super-tight touring bandmates for the past nine years – Abe Laboriel Jr., Rusty Anderson, Brian Ray and Paul “Wix” Wickens – provided perfect harmony and were more than happy to have his back during the rockers.

McCartney joked around in between songs, reminiscing about his first time at The Bowl with The Beatles “70 years ago,” and even though he shared some of the same stories that he told during the 2002 and 2005 U.S. tours, his charm was still infectious.

And his set spanned his nearly six-decade career as a recording artist. In addition to songs that casual fans wanted to hear (“Let It Be,” “Hey Jude,” “The Long and Winding Road,” “Yesterday”), diehard Macca fans were treated to more obscure oddities that haven’t been performed live before on U.S. soil (“Two of Us,” “I’m Looking through You,” and “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da”).

Then there’s “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five,” which was one of five songs performed from the “Band on the Run” album, including the title track, “Jet,” “Let Me Roll It” and “Mrs. Vandebilt” (they all sounded great). Wings was also well accounted for with “Letting Go,” “My Love” (dedicated to his late wife Linda) and “Live and Let Die,” while Macca’s recent Fireman album, “Electric Arguments,” was showcased with “Highway” and the excellent “Sing the Changes.”

It’s safe to say that if McCartney tours again, he could come up with a completely different playlist, and it would still match the quality of just about every tour he’s done since Wings Over America in the mid-70s.

Until that happens, I’ll dream of hearing personal favorites like “The Night Before” and “Daytime Nighttime Suffering,” and hopefully I’ll be around to see them all come true.