Every touring artist has an agenda. Whether it\u2019s Willie Nelson working to pay off the IRS or Axl Rose trying to prove that he alone is Guns N\u2019 Roses, there\u2019s usually some reason superstar artists take to the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tickets for Paul McCartney<\/strong>\u2019s show at Arco Arena<\/strong>, scalped for more than $1,000 a pair for floor seats, kept the audience confined to roughly age 40 and older.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why was the former Beatle doing a national tour? McCartney doesn\u2019t need the money. The royalties and mechanicals from his back catalog would be enough to sustain a small country for at least a decade. Now past age 60, one would imagine he\u2019d hang up his bass for a \u201cnormal\u201d domestic life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead, McCartney has Back in the U.S. Live 2002<\/em>, a two-CD set featuring 35 songs played on his current tour. The Capitol release will be in stores two days before Thanksgiving, around the time McCartney\u2019s tour ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His show at Arco last Monday, which could have been another case of an aging rocker ambling through a sweet Geritol set list, was anything but. Backed by a small but talented group of musicians\u2014Brian Ray<\/strong> and Rusty Anderson<\/strong> on guitars, Paul \u201cWix\u201d Wickens<\/strong> on keyboards and Abe Laboriel Jr<\/strong>. on drums\u2014McCartney delivered an energized set of solo, Wings and Beatles material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Aside from the opening festivities\u2014a Cirque du Soleil-meets-Shanghai Ballet disaster featuring dancers; acrobats; and lame, pre-recorded, new-age slop\u2014the show was exceptional. McCartney opened with the chorus of \u201cHello, Goodbye\u201d only to hit hard with a driving rendition of \u201cJet.\u201d From there, he launched into a lovely solo set highlighted by the politically challenging \u201cBlackbird\u201d and a gorgeous, acoustic, harmony-enhanced \u201cWe Can Work It Out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even McCartney\u2019s between-song banter, which ranged from stories about drives along the Pacific Coast Highway to George Harrison\u2019s strange fascination with ukuleles, was top-notch. By personalizing his Sacramento show and remembering his lost loved ones\u2014half the Beatles and his former wife, Linda\u2014McCartney unveiled a kind and caring side that many didn\u2019t realize he still had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By the time McCartney launched into the chorus-laden \u201cHey Jude,\u201d it was hard to believe the end was near. Two encores later and a rendition of \u201cYesterday,\u201d and it was over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, McCartney still likes playing music. What\u2019s more, he\u2019s more than able to reproduce all eras of his legacy. Agenda or not, it was a damned fine night to be in Sacramento.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (SN&R)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Every touring artist has an agenda. Whether it\u2019s Willie Nelson working to pay off the IRS or Axl Rose trying to prove that he alone is Guns N\u2019 Roses, there\u2019s usually some reason superstar artists take to the road. Tickets for Paul McCartney\u2019s show at Arco Arena, scalped for more than $1,000 a pair for floor seats, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=717"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":718,"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717\/revisions\/718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}