Driving USA Tour!
Continental Arena Show Review (NJ)

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Here is my concert review for NJ, got it posted quite a bit late, but I find that the
concert still feels like some kind of wonderful dream.  This report is
quite long, and probably rambles on at times, anyway, here ya go.

It is about a 1 hour drive without traffic, but with traffic, it is 2
hours, luckily we left for the concert just before 4pm.

This was my first McCartney concert (I'm 20).  I shall now share some of
my experiences and thoughts.

Upon arriving at the arena, I can't tell you how great it was to get out
of the car, and hear McCartney music playing everywhere.  Truly, I was
among my own people hear.

I went with my parents, but was not sitting by them due to the fact that
our tickets were split up.  The ticket I had was row U section 9, seat
15.  Luckily I was able to strike up a conversation with the guy sitting
next to me, where we discussed various topics, mostly Paul/Beatle
related, and the horrible state of the music world today.  Here is where
an unexpected bonus occurred.  At one point he tapped me on the
shoulder,
motioned over to the side, and said, something like "look, there's
Heather Mills."  Upon looking, it did indeed appear to be her, with only
one guy in a suit as her personal entourage, though, a couple of the
ushers/security people were sticking close by.  I was at the most only
10 feet from her.  My new found friend and I were sitting on the very
end of row U, and she was in the very front part of the lower sections.
I was surprised she was sitting back this far, but it appeared to be
her.  She seemed to have somewhat of a tired expression on her face, but
did clap and sing along to some of the songs. She did not stay there for
to long of the show, I would say not long after Loving Flame is when she
got up and left that seat, perhaps she was moving to a better one.

Anyway, on to the show.  Actually, before the show started, they were
playing some soft music in the background, one of which was Sing along
Junk.  Anyway, during this time, when one of the instrumental background
bits ended, the crowd would actually start to cheer, thinking that it
ending was the signal for the show to start, only to be silenced when
the next instrumental bit started.  Finally, that "Auraverde" circus bit
started, the lights dropped, and the music from what I hear was Paul's
Fireman album started playing.  The Circus bit was okay, and it was
amusing to watch the looks on the faces of people in the crowd who
obviously had not snuck a peak at any show reviews and didn't have a
clue what was going on.  Actually, the more I think about it, the more I
think I actually liked the circus bit, but at the time, I was more
interested in seeing Paul.

Well, finally the show started, with a picture of Paul's Bass on the
screen, then his shadow.  Then, the screen rose, and there he was.

He started off with Hello Good bye and then went into Jet.  After those
two, any worries I had about the condition of his voice were gone.  I
have to say Jet was one of the songs I was really looking forward to
live, and was not disappointed.
Then he went into All My Loving, one of my favorite earlier period
Beatles songs.
Oh, what I still can believe is I got to hear Paul say "Hello New
Jersey", I mean, it just seems incredible to hear him mention the state
I live in (I know that sounds a bit strange). The concert continued with
Getting Better, which was great to hear live, and Coming Up, which was
even better yet.  He then went into Let Me Roll It.

I will mention this now, as I think it happened a couple of times, but I
don't remember the exact times, but I was making the Wings symbol with
my hands a lot, and I'm pretty sure he pointed/gestured to me once or
twice. I think the fact that I am 6'3" tall helped me stand out a bit,
my height also insured that when I stood up, no one else was tall enough
to obstruct me view :). The real funny thing is after he did (or I
perceived him motioning to me), I said "Thank You!" aloud, like he could
really hear me!  I did it at least twice too.  Hope I was drowned out by
the music and the crowd so no one near heard me, as it was a bit
embarrassing.

Anyway, he did Lonely Road, Driving Rain, and Your Loving Flame next,
all of which sounded good, I looked over at Heather when Paul said he
was dedicating Loving Flame to someone special in the audience.  She
didn't seem to react to it.  She seemed tired/bored at times, but for
some songs she did sing and clap along.  Anyway, I thought the three
Driving Rain songs sounded good live, especially in the case of Driving
Rain (the song).  Started with a drum bit instead of the funky bit on
the album version.

It was after this he went into the acoustic solo bit, which I really
enjoyed.  I mean, just him and his guitar/piano, that was great.
Blackbird was a real treat, along with Every Night, We Can Work it Out
(his only vocal weakness I heard all night was in this song, still
good).  Mother Nature's Son was nice too, and the nature
video of beautiful scenery being projected behind him fit in with the
song nicely.  Vanilla Sky was good too, Paul certainly can whistle well.
You Never Give My Your Money and Carry that Weight are among my
favorites, though I was a bit disappointed he didn't do Golden Slumbers.
The Fool on the Hill was next, complete with MMT video in the
background.  I waved my hand in circles over my head in the "round and
round" bit.  Probably looked pretty stupid doing it but I was having
fun.
He then told the story behind Here Today, and sang it quite beautifully,
I thought his voice was almost exactly like on the Tug Of War Album.
Something was next, dedicated to George.  I thought he performed it
well, the ukulele seems kind of silly but it works, especially after
hearing it belonged to George.  A very touching moment.

Eleanor Rigby was next, once again was performed well, with a little
help from Wix on the keyboard.  I still remember the first time I heard
this song, was the earliest thing I had ever heard.  Still love it.

Then came Here There and Everywhere, absolutely beautiful.
Then Band on The Run, I was loving every minute of it.
Back In The USSR, it just kept getting better!  Red lights shined on the
stage for this song.  It is also during this point I was kind of bopping
and dancing around when I bumped into a lady trying to leave, I assume
for the rest room, as I can't imagine anyone going one a beer break
during this song.
Maybe I'm Amazed was incredible too.  I had heard that in the 89 tour he
had taken it off the set list due to the difficulty he was having in
hitting some of the notes.  Didn't seem to be any problems tonight
though.  In fact, I had recently watched one of my Mom's Wing's concert
tapes( Venus and Mars Rockshow I think?), and he performed Maybe I'm
Amazed then, and it sounded quite a bit like I was hearing it tonight.

C Moon - One of the few Wing's songs on the set list which isn't
considered a huge hit.  Nice to hear, seemed to get a decent response.

My Love - Before he played this song, he talked about how he had written
this song for Linda, who had died exactly 4 years ago.  Very emotional.

Can't Buy Me Love - One of my favorite "Beatlemania" songs.  Almost 40
years ago, almost 20 years ago before I was even born, this was the
sound that was to change the world.  I felt as though I had gone back in
a time machine.  And he performed very well, complete with the Macca
scream midway through the song.  I actually watched a bit more of the
video through this song.  Having seen A Hard Day's Night many times,
here I was, watching the famous "were out!" scene.  This time though, it
was live!  Probably one of the most memorable moments of the concert for
me.

Freedom -  This song went over extremely well, in fact, I'd say it got
almost as much response as a Beatle's song.  The stomp-clap bit was
surprisingly hard to keep the beat too, so I mainly just clapped.  After
the song ended, after the applause died down, you could hear at first
just a bit, then the whole arena chanting "USA, USA, USA"

Live and Let Die - You know it's funny, I have seen video of this song
performed live, knew when the explosions were coming, but flinched every
time they occurred. There were also "big sparkler" like things above the
stage.  Clips from the Bond movie Live and Let Die played in the
beginning of the song, then halfway through, colors and patterns were
flashing on the screen.  Then towards the end, the famous Bond Gun
Barrel opening scene played on the screens.

Let It Be - Another great song, though it is ironic this one comes right
after Live and Let Die, seems to be delivering completely opposite
messages.  Anyway, it was great.

Hey Jude -  At long last, I finally got to join in on the Hey Jude sing
along!  Now for most of the show, the music and the audience had been
drowning out my singing to the point even I couldn't hear it (hope no
else could either).  At this point though, when he said just the men
sing the Nah Nah Nahnahnah Nah part, I could hear myself, and it wasn't
pretty.  I eventually tried to sing it lower, and I think that made it
sound a bit better.  Anyway, great fun, and I think he pointed at me
with one of the "you were great" bits, though, I can't really be sure on
this one, though as mentioned before, my height didn't hurt, and the
enthusiasm I was trying to show throughout the whole show maybe caught
his attention (or at least I'd like to go on thinking that :)

The first encore started at this point, with the Long Winding Road being
first.  I know some of you have been saying that this song along with
some of the other famous ones be taken out of the show due to the fact
they have been played often, but I for one (who was just seeing his
first show) am glad they were played.  Though I was disappointed there
were no Flaming Pie songs, but the songs that were there didn't give me
much to complain about.
Lady Madonna came next, had video of famous women on the screen.
Another great song to hear live.
I Saw Her Standing There was the last song of the first encore, and it
did not disappoint.  It is another one of my favorite "Beatlemania"
songs.

The Second and Final Encore then started, a few of the people in front
of me thought the show was over at this pointed and started to leave
their seats, only to hear the sound of applauding, indicating McCartney
was not done yet, they had surprised but happy looks on their faces.
No McCartney concert would be complete without the famous Yesterday,
which was performed up to the perfection of all the previous songs of
the night.  As a side note,  I can play the melody of this song and
recently learned Eleanor Rigby on my Mom's keyboard.
The final song of the night was Sgt Pepper's Reprise which lead into the
song "The End".  An awesome end to the show, and amazingly, Paul seemed
to have as much energy as he did at the beginning of the show.  I loved
hearing Sgt Pepper and The End jam session, even though I knew it meant
the end of the show, it was still incredible to see.  At the end,
firework like things were going off overhead, and at the very end,
confetti fell from the ceiling, which I was able to stuff in my pockets
as a souvenir.  And with that, McCartney said "see ya next time", and
the show was over.

Anyway, that's it.  I had brought a sign, but security said I couldn't
bring it in.  Though I did get bring in my binoculars, and bought the
program, a key chain, and a big sticker.  I did take some pictures
outside the arena, will post a link to them when I get them on my site.
Also, when the DVD comes out, if they should happen to show a rather
tall person, with glasses (need for distance, not for reading), and a
white Las Vegas T-shirt (never actually been to Vegas), then that is
probably me :)

To some it up, great show!

Stopped at an all night Dunken Donuts on the way home.

PS, during the show, I realized during one point (possibly when he was
talking to Wix about learning the guitar, he said one of the lines from
the movie Help!  Though when the show ended, the line had slipped my
mind, so when I got home, I was to pumped to sleep, so I put on my Help!
DVD.  I am fairly certain now that the line was the one that the
Scotland Yard's cop says, something like "I believe you, thousands
wouldn't"  Not 100% sure but I seem to remember that being it.