July 10, 2010: Sir Paul in San Francisco!

San Francisco, CA
AT&T Park

I've been trying to recall just how many times I've seen Sir Paul over the last 20 years. I know the first show was 20 years ago at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley and that was the one and only time in my life I camped out for tickets. All I can say now is thank god for the internet and credit card pre-sales!

In any case, this was at least the 5th time I've seen the former Beatle. And this time it was in San Francisco proper -- the first time he's played inside the city limits since the last Beatles concert at dear old dreary Candlestick. (AT&T was a cold and a bit foggy, but still a far cry from the 'Stick!) The combination of a stadium show and seriously expensive tickets meant I was headed to the show by myself this time. I'm not a huge fan of stadium shows, but there are definite exceptions. This was one and to heck with the cost!

Granted, that meant paying way too much for a seat too far back to see the stage over the heads of the folks in front of me, but it also meant a seat on the lawn in front of the sound board. Couldn't see the stage much, but the sound was GREAT!

I got to the park a bit early, but got in easily since I didn't have to go in through the Willie Mays gate, but through the Marina gate -- no lines! Alas, not so lucky grabbing some food -- slowest moving lines I've ever encountered at the park. Quite obviously I was in line behind people who'd never ordered a hot dog before! Sigh. I did get a kick out of the two girls behind me in line who were so excited to be at the show. One was wearing the t-shirt from that Memorial Stadium show and I said "hey I have that shirt!" She replied -- "Yeah it's my mom's. I was born two years after this show." Ouch. Still, there's hope for the next generation.

I settled in and waited for the show to start and visited with folks sitting around me including a 60-ish couple who were seeing Paul for the first time. A "bucket list" item the husband told me. He was a bit surprised that I had seen so many shows.

We watched the stadium fill and by the stated start time of 7:30 it looked like everyone was in their seats. I didn't expect the show to start at 7:30 (really, who does?) so when 8:00 hit and the video screens on each side of the stage came on I figured here we go. Well, no. 25 minutes of scrolling video to remixes of various Beatles/Wings/solo material. Not particularly stimulating, but hey you just go with it. Paul will take the stage when he's ready to take the stage and not a second earlier.

8:30 the lights on the stage start going, people are on their feet, and Paul and the band finally take the stage. ROAR. And the show opens up with "Venus and Mars/Rockshow" a pretty decent opening, but I've seen him open better. "Jet" came next and got a better response.

The opening few tunes were a mix of very old, old, obscure, and new. A little tepid I thought. Not that the crowd didn't eat them up, but you could feel people wanting to really sing along and the choppy mix made it hard to sustain the energy.

But still, this is a Beatle. Solid musicianship and excellent production are a requirement and as always I was not disappointed. Macca's band is fantastic -- he's been touring with the same 5 guys for a while now and they can nail the harmonies and are just fabulous musicians.

The show really got rolling about 10 songs in with a solid set of known tunes. As he did the last time I saw him, he played "Here Today" - his tribute to John. That song made me cry the first time I heard it in 1982 and every single time I've heard it since. Saturday night was no exception especially as the older I get the more I understand the feeling behind it. One of three teary-eyed moments of the night -- the others being "The Long and Winding Road" (the first song I ever burst into tears upon hearing live back in 1990 shocking myself even more than my cousin Denise) and "Something" (Paul's tribute to George of course.)

From time to time, Paul would stop and talk to the crowd and strut on stage and every time I couldn't help but think "Wow, it's like my dad trying to be cool." It was unintentionally humorous to me. Of course then I thought "Well, he's just an old hippie and doing things that were cool when hippies were cool." Still at 68, he may be almost as old as my dad, but definitely way cooler! (Sorry Dad!)

The show went on for three hours with no intermission and not a lot of down time between songs. THREE HOURS! He's SIXTY EIGHT!

Amazing.

One of the neat things about having my seat somewhere in the vicinity of second base meant that there were thousands of people sitting behind me and when people started singing along you could feel the wave of voices coming from behind. It was pretty incredible. People were singing along all night though some tunes were more vocal than others. When he spun from "A Day in the Life" to "Give Peace a Chance" the crowd was incredible. And of course the closing song "Hey Jude" and 40,000 voices singing along. Fantastic.

An upside of a stadium show -- more fireworks! Paul always sets off fireworks for "Live and Let Die," but of the indoor variety -- great, but tame. Outdoors -- a whole different show! Fireworks on the stage (which I could barely see.) Fireworks off the top of the rigging (which all of San Francisco could see!) And the added bonus of that fireworks smell.

Two encores and 11:30 arrived and the show came to an end. Walking back to my car (yes, I drove -- train takes too long to get home!) everyone was humming a different tune and commenting on what a great show it was. If anyone left disappointed it wasn't because of the performance.

Who knows if/when Paul will come through town again, but he's always on my "don't miss" list.

Set list*
(courtesy of PaulMcCartney.com)

1. Venus and Mars/Rockshow
2. Jet
3. All My Loving
4. Letting Go
5. Got To Get You Into My Life
6. Highway
7. Let Me Roll It
8. The Long And Winding Road
9. Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five
10. Let ‘Em In
11. My Love
12. I’m Looking Through You
13. Two Of Us
14. Blackbird
15. Here Today
16. Dance Tonight
17. Mrs Vandebilt
18. Eleanor Rigby
19. Something
20. Sing The Changes
21. Band On The Run
22. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
23. Back In The USSR
24. I’ve Got A Feeling
25. Paperback Writer
26. A Day In The Life / Give Peace A Chance
27. Let It Be
28. Live And Let Die
29. Hey Jude

Encore:
30. Day Tripper
31. Lady Madonna
32. Get Back

Second Encore:
33. Yesterday
34. Helter Skelter
35. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band / The End

*Set List addendum: San Francisco Bay Blues was played somewhere early on, but not included in the official set list posted. Paul's comment was "we had to throw that one in." Pretty nifty while sitting on the shores of McCovey Cove.

June 18 2010: I'm a Screamng Thirteen Year Old

San Mateo, CA
San Mateo County Event Center

June, 1982 -- Flush with cash from my eighth grade graduation, I make my mom take me to the mall so I can hit Musicland. I have enough cash so that I can buy not one, not two, but THREE new records. Woo hoo was I loaded! I pick up Paul McCartney's Tug of War, Journey's Escape, and Rick Springfield's Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet. Thus begins the foundation of my music collection....

June, 2010 -- Time just flies by and by now I've seen Paul McCartney at least a half dozen times, Journey too many times to count, but ah.. Rick Springfield... nary a once. But, lookie here, he's playing the San Mateo County Fair on a Friday night. Ten bucks for a flashback to the early 1980s and junior high -- why not?!

Now, I have no problem going to shows by myself, but this one... this one just screamed "girls night out." And after a bevy of emails and text messages and varied changing plans, I wound up going to the show with my good friend Mary who picks me up after work and off to the fair. Being a GA show, we got in about an hour before show time and grabbed a couple of seats as close to the front as we could (probably about 20 rows back) and camp out -- taking turns going for food. Looking around, as expected, there were lots of groups of women in their 40s out for a fun, light hearted night.

Show starts right on time at 7:30 and out comes Rick and his band and the crowd gets up on their feet. My first thought... "Wow, does he look good or what?!" Let's get serious for a minute here... back in '82 I bought McCartney because he was a legend, Journey for the songs, and Rick 'cause he was eye candy! Sure, I loved the music and "Jessie's Girl" was one of my favorite tunes, but oh the ever so dreamy Dr. Noah Drake... siiiiiigggghhhh.... So the music, obviously, was secondary to my 13-year old hormones. 28 years later... well, he's older to be sure, but has aged very VERY well... (another siiiigggggghhhh....)

The set list was filled with the old hits, some new tunes, and a sprinkling of covers. My personal highlight from the set was "Love Is Alright Tonite" -- which was probably my favorite of his hits and the song that always got me dancing in the living room when I played Working Class Dog (a gift from my dear cousin Laura who couldn't join us at the last minute!) All these years later, I was dancing and singing like I was 13 all over again. I did fairly well at remembering the lyrics to the old songs, some of which I hadn't heard in 25 years (having listened to the two albums I own earlier in the week, I was covered on some tunes), but had to hum along at a couple of points because they weren't all coming back to me. At a couple of points in the show, he climbed out into the crowd and stood on the seats and sang and played guitar. I must say he's a pretty decent guitarist. Most of the time he's handling the rhythm duties, but he pulled off a couple of nice solos and a pretty decent cover of "Crossroads." The handful of "newish" tunes were pretty good too and worked well in the set, but of course, everyone was really there to hear the old '80s hits.

As the show was winding down, he came out into the audience again during "Human Touch" and worked his way down the center section and wound up two rows behind me and across the aisle. Well, to head back up to the stage, he crossed the aisle, hopped up on a chair in the row behind me and started climbing forward. ZOINKS! I was about 3 chairs away as he climbed over into my aisle. My inner 13 year old dropped in a dead faint!

The main set closed out, naturally, with "Jessie's Girl" which he teased by saying "We don't play that any more." (Yeah, right, like anyone would believe that!) After he headed off stage, Mary asked me "Are there usually encores at these shows?" I told her the ones I'd seen always had them, but I couldn't think of what the encore might be this time. Rick and the band appear once again and do a cover of "Wild Thing" and close out with "Kristina."

All in all, a fun night out, and a good way to start my summer concert season (albeit a couple of days late since the U2 show I was supposed to see on Wednesday has been postponed for a year!)

March 27, 2010: Another Night Out with Neal

San Francisco, CA
Fillmore Auditorium

Birthday Weekend Number Two! Last week it was off to Modesto for Darryl's birthday and a concert. This week it was up to San Francisco for Emerson's birthday and a concert. Awfully repetitive wouldn't you say??

Last night started with a dinner for 17 at Benihana at the Japan Center just up the street from the Fillmore Auditorium. It was great having friends from near and far join up for a birthday/pre-show dinner before Neal's show at the Fillmore. We weren't as loud or raucous as we were last week, but that was more due to the nature of Benihana than the crowd. It was great, however, to get a little while to catch up with Jenn and Valerie P. -- I hadn't seen either in several years which is simply MUCH too long. As a bonus, we got to sit in the room that was visible to all passersby and we had quite a few people peeking in looking at us having dinner!

We walked back down the street to get in line for the show and, naturally, ran in to more people we knew. As we filed in, the crowd was a bit sparse and I was thinking that it would look like the Soul Sirkus crowd -- maybe a quarter full theater. Most of the group made their way to the stage to be front and center for the show and were pleasantly surprised when Miles and the keyboard kid came out 15 minutes early for their opening set. It was the same set as in Modesto, opening with Miles playing a ukulele. This time, however, there were some fans of the Miles Schon Band in the audience who were hooting and hollering and singing along. I was asked straight off by a couple of people standing behind me who was playing. When I said "Miles Schon" I got a puzzled look. "Neal's son." More looks of confusion. After some explaining it turned out they are fans of Arnel's who'd come to check out the show. (At least that's my best guess, it was a bit hard to converse, but I did get a bit about Arnel and Journey.)

After Miles's set, the crowd started squeezing in and I was getting claustrophobic up front, so I bailed and went over to sit by the bar and watch from the side. Had a good view and could visit some with Karyn and Joe, Charles, and Darryl, and anyone else in the group who decided to stay out of the throng. By the time Neal took the stage, the place was looking pretty full. Not packed sell out by any means, but a pretty decent crowd overall. The set was much the same as Modesto, but there was at least one different song (no clue what the name of it was) when Neal brought out a double necked guitar. Hadn't seen that in Modesto. Forgot to mention last time that one of the covers was Led Zep's "Immigrant Song" and again confirming for me a preference for Zep with out Robert Plant singing. Yes, I know, sacrilegious, but his voice always sounds like screeching cats dragging their claws on a chalkboard for me. Add in that I can't hear "Immigrant Song" with out thinking of the Viking Kittens* and well, I was laughing to myself a bit.

Cameras were scattered around the theater recording the show for posterity. Whether or not it sees the light of day, who knows, but at least there was a good crowd and good sound (MUCH better than in Modesto -- could actually hear the vocals!) Saw Ross on our way out too, which was fun.

All in all, a fun evening out with friends and I really do miss the "ole days" of groups of people gathering before shows. Will have to find a way to do this again soon!

*It's getting harder to find this online as it's been blocked on YouTube for copyright issues. Too bad, it's one of the best and earliest viral internet items I can remember.

March 20, 2010: Night Out with Neal

Modesto, CA
State Theater

At some point Saturday night while sitting in the State Theater it dawned on me -- it had been EXACTLY 12 years since the very first time I saw Neal Schon perform. That night, I dragged my poor friend Mary with me. This night, I was in the second row with almost a dozen other Journey buddies. My how time has flown.

It was kind of the theme for the day -- how fast time goes by when you're having fun. My day started with picking up Cheryl and meeting Leslie for Telysa's shower. How is this kid I've known since she was 16 suddenly old enough to be a mom and get married? Where'd the time go.

After the shower, we made a quick stop at Leslie's for a change of clothes and a little down time. Cheryl checked in with Jenn to get a report on the previous night's show in Vegas. The end of the conversation I heard sounded like it was good, not great. Hmmm. Well now it was time to head out to Modesto and environs to meet up with Darryl and Jenny, Chris C. and her husband, Chris W. in from Connecticut, and Emerson for some pre-show dinner and laughs. On the way we talked about how we've all kind of grown beyond the crazy passions we had from 1998-2005 (or thereabouts) and tried to figure out what we might be hearing that night. All the while listening to Neal's Piranha Blues CD with me remembering liking it more when it first came out than I was in the car and wracking my brains who came with me to see the Piranha Blues band perform. (I think that was another show I dragged poor Mary to if only because I remember following Ross to the parking lot and Mary commenting on the fact he was carrying his guitar case to his car. I'm pretty sure that was the gig.) I was also laughing to myself that we particular three were less than enthusiastic about this upcoming show. We were looking forward to seeing friends and hearing what we were confident would be good music, but there wasn't that jazz of excitement that there once was.

We met up with the rest of the gang and headed for a dinner full of stories and laughs and just general good times with friends. Being that it was Darryl's birthday, he got a balloon hat in the shape of a guitar. We were loud and laughing and all in all having a great time. This is the thing I miss the most about not going to as many shows as I once did.

Over to the State Theater where the show was scheduled to start at 8. As I mentioned above, our little group took up most of the second row. We found Hope sitting in front of us (me specifically) in the front row. I had calculated that if the show started on time and Neal and company played for two hours as promised, I'd be back on the road by 10:30 and home a little after midnight. Whoops, so much for making assumptions!

At 8:00 Miles and the kid on keyboards (forgotten his name, but I believe he's a regular in Miles's band) came out for a 30 minute opening set. It's incredible how good Miles is -- and he keeps getting better. He came out playing what appeared to be a ukulele (my best guess as it was a small, 4-stringed, guitar-like instrument) and completely blew my mind. Being that close I could really see his finger work and it's impressive. A couple songs in he switched over to guitars and even sang a bit. All in all, he did papa proud.

Thus it was closer to 9:00 when Neal and company hit the stage. In addition to Miles and the kid on keyboards he was joined by Marco Mendoza on bass and Prairie Prince on drums and launched in to "Kohoutek." Well, okay, a song I recognize. (My big fear heading into the show was that though I have nearly all of Neal's solo work, I have a really tough time distinguishing his original solo material apart.) The band was then joined by a singer and I've completely spaced on his name (help! Leslie!) who was absolutely adorable. Pretty decent singer too, though the vocals were hard to hear most of the night. Not sure if that was a problem with being in the second row or just a wholesale problem with the sound.

The sold-out house (my guess about 500 people) was loud and enthusiastic through out the evening as the band went through obscure Journey tracks ("I'm Gonna Leave You" and "The Time"), covers ("Whiter Shade of Pale", "Gypsy Queen") and a variety of solo material. It was really fun watching Neal and Miles play off each other -- with Miles getting a few solos out front. Though I must say the blond doppelganger effect was weird -- Miles looks sooooooo like his dad it's scary.

The crowd generally stayed seated all night long (much, I suspect, to Hope's disappointment) but they weren't sedate. It's probably a little hard to get up and dance to stuff you don't really know all that well.

The show lasted about 2 hours as promised, and didn't disappoint. I don't have a set list, though Hope took a picture of it so maybe she can fill us all in. Leslie, Cheryl, and I said our hasty goodbyes and piled back into my car for the drive back to the Bay Area (uh, thanks Darryl for coming to lead us to the freeway -- I was too brain locked to do reverse directions!) I finally made it back home around 1:30 and crashed into bed after an exhausting but thoroughly fabulous day.

Get to repeat all over again this Saturday, though with only about a 40 minute drive into San Francisco. So, who's coming to the Fillmore?