“Hey, that was a Beatles scream!” Paul McCartney said, responding to a female audience member’s shriek midway through his exuberant surprise concert at New York’s Bowery Ballroom on Tuesday night. “Okay girls, let’s get it over with: Let’s hear your Beatles screams.”
A huge percentage of the audience complied, producing a credible impersonation of the shrieks that shook the world in 1964 while McCartney stood, nodded in mock appraisal, and then said, “OK that’s enough.” While some would have basked in the moment, Sir Paul has probably heard enough screaming in his 83 years to burst a thousand eardrums.
But for the lucky people in the room, it was a night worth screaming over: Seeing Paul McCartney and his ace band play a 575-capacity venue that later in the month is hosting shows by such artists as Bartees Strange, Willow Avalon and Jesse Welles. The show was announced suddenly at noon, with no advance warning:
PAUL McCARTNEY ROCKS THE BOWERYTuesday, February 11th Bowery Ballroom5:00 Doors 6:30 Showtime Tickets on sale now only at Bowery Ballroom box office. No tickets sold online.First come, first served. One ticket per person.
And at 6:44 p.m. on the nose, the band — led by McCartney — walked down the narrow stairs leading from the Bowery dressing room to the stage and launched straight into “A Hard Day’s Night,” soaring through a tight but relaxed careeer-spanning set that featured lots of banter, much of it in direct response to comments shouted by audience members.
There was plenty to shout about: Although McCartney said they’d had just one rehearsal the day before, this band — guitarist Rusty Anderson, guitarist-bassist Brian Ray, keyboardist Paul “Wix” Wickens and powerhouse drummer Abe Laboriel Jr., accompanied on some songs by a three-piece horn section — has been together for a dozen-plus years and has toured nearly every one of them (and just wrapped a 23-date European jaunt last Dec. 19), so it’s safe to say they’re tour-tight even after one rehearsal.
And the show, with a tightened version of that tour’s two-plus hour setlist, spanned McCartney’s entire recorded career, from 1963 (“From Me to You”) to his 1970s solo hits and even last year’s “final” Beatles song, “Now and Then.” In between, of course, was nearly every song you’d need to hear: big crowd singalongs on “Hey Jude” and “Ob-la-di Ob-la-da,” blazing romps through “Get Back,” “Jet” and “Got to Get You Into My Life”; deeper cuts like “Letting Go,” “Let Me Roll It” and “Mrs. Vandebilt”; a couple of 21st-century tracks (“My Valentine,” “Come on to Me”); acoustic songs like “I’ve Just Seen a Face” and a solo “Blackbird.”
To his credit, McCartney has switched up the set on nearly every tour he’s done in recent years, and the band has a vast repertoire at its fingertips. As always, he switched between bass, guitar and piano, and he was in strong voice, hitting essential high notes with ease but without overdoing it. While all of the bandmembers are strong musicians, Laboriel is the most interesting: a bruising but deft drummer who makes the most of his very small kit, he has been allowed much more room to roam than most of McCartney’s accompanists, dropping complicated fills in between the beats but always holding it down, taking liberties with some of Ringo’s best-known flourishes without being sacriligious.
But the most remarkable thing about the show — well, apart from Paul McCartney performing 15 feet in front of you — was the banter. McCartney is usually quite chatty during his shows, but everyone knows his jocular comments in arenas aren’t actually directed at any one person, even if he makes it seem that way. Here, he was responding directly to fans’ shouts, which this time he could actually hear, although they were usually “We love you!”s or calls for relatively obscure songs. After one man shouted loudly for the flop 1980 single, “Temporary Secretary,” McCartney chuckled and said to the band, “Can we work that one in?”; after another shouted “Yeah!” to a mundane comment, he joked, “You’ll say ‘Yeah!’ to anything!”
After a rousing finale of “Lady Madonna,” “Let It Be” and a massive “Hey Jude,” McCartney and the band bowed and exited the stage precisely 90 minutes after they’d walked onto it (probably by accident, but they’re such a well-oiled machine that it wouldn’t be surprising if it was intentional). But of course, they were back for an encore after just a couple of minutes: The “Golden Slumbers-The End” finale of “Abbey Road,” which saw McCartney, Anderson and Ray trading off the famous guitar solos while Wix held down the bass on keyboards. It’s an impossible song to follow (except with “Her Majesty,” which he didn’t) and the band took another bow and walked off.
“This has been a blast — we’ve looved it,” McCartney said, also speaking for seemingly every person in the room, most of whom had woken up with no idea that they’d be seeing a Paul McCartney concert at what is usually dinnertime.
But as much as it felt like a once-in-a-lifetime moment, we couldn’t help but notice that both of the Max McNown concerts originally scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday at the Bowery have been moved uptown to the Irving Plaza. Hmmmmm…..
Paul McCartney setlist Bowery Ballroom, New York, 11 Feb. 2025A Hard Day’s Night Letting GoGot to Get You Into My LifeLet Me Roll ItMy ValentineNineteen Hundred and Eight FiveMaybe I’m AmazedI’ve Just Seen a FaceFrom Me to YouMrs. VandebiltBlackbirdCome on to MeJetOb-la-di Ob-la daGet BackNow and ThenLady MadonnaLet It BeHey JudeEncore:Golden Slumbers-The End
