Paul McCartney at FedEx Field report 10: You are there #1

     Paul arrives at FedEx Field #1. See below for #2 (Photos by ottagosoon.)

Here are some comments we're received from you about the show. We'll have more to come later today.

From Bill Elifritz Jr.:

Another great performance from Paul. Voice sounded strong and the band as tight as ever. Crowd was awesome, very very few empty seats near the top of the stadium. Not a big fan of FedEx Field though.

On to Dallas for the 19th. Can’t wait!

 From Nancy McConaty:

"Great show! Paul and the band were in top form.
It's sad to see every report about the concert headlined with "Paul dedicates song to Michelle Obama." That was hardly the highlight of the show. His extraordinary talent and showmanship and the excellence of the band are what people should be talking about."

And a detailed report from Frank C. Branchini:

It was a really hot, humid, muggy day with temperatures near 90 degrees. Late afternoon there were showers and thunderstorms in some parts of the Washington area.

Traffic heading towards FedEx Field was horrendous. There were long backups particularly on the Washington Beltway. It took more than 2 hours for some people to get from the Beltway into the parking lots.

I was at the stadium and parked by 7 pm.  This is the first time I have been to FedEx Field. For a new facility, everything looks shabby. There were puddles of water in many places on the floor in the roofed parts of the building, no running water in one of the men’s restrooms, and everything looked old and in need of a paint job.

I stopped at a merchandise stand near the entrance. As expected, the FedEx Field show had its own t-shirt. I wanted to buy two. I got the last one in extra-large at that stand. They were out of merchandise over two hours before McCartney came on stage! Then I decided to try to find something for dinner.

The only non-meat option was pizza at Papa John’s, There were lots of customers and absolutely no food of any kind that was ready. The young women who were waiting on customers kept running in the back into the kitchen and grabbing anything that was ready. I was really astonished at the inefficiency in crowd handling a stadium where they have even larger crowds for games.

I entered the stadium at the very back of the first level above the field and even the seats at the very back of that level didn’t seem like they were a huge distance from the stage.

I walked down to the Field and found my seat. The staff were handing out yellow wristbands for those with tickets for seats on the field.

It was in the 7th row of the B Section – the second section back from the stage – but my seat was dead center – straight back from McCartney’s center of the stage microphone. This was a much better seat than I expected from the seating chart. It was not as good as the one I had in NY.

It proved to be very interesting to see the same show from up close and from further back.

One of the hallmarks of McCartney and other Beatle-related shows is that they usually attract an audience of all ages. That was true for this show, but it seemed like there were fewer younger people than in New York and more people who appeared to be first generation fans.

Ticket sales for this show were definitely slow. Excellent seats were available through Ticketmaster just days before the show. I know a number of people who got mediocre seats when they were first put on sale and then traded up to better seats in the last week before the show. But by 9 pm the stadium was more than 90% full. The speculation was that ticket sales were slow due to the economy but there were no visible empty seats on the field and greatest number of visible empty seats were in the cheapest sections in the top tier of the stadium!

The opening act for this show was Thievery Corporation – two DJs playing techno music. They were mostly ignored by the audience although they were more interesting than The Script.

I made a trip to the restrooms. There are no restrooms on the field. At CitiField they had set up portapotties for those seated on the field. I walked back up to the restrooms. There was no running water!

When I went back down to the field, there was as a long slow moving line. The staff was checking tickets of every one including those with wristbands . So what was the point of the wristbands?

I stopped by the merchandise booth on the field to a get a second FedEx Field shirt. There was a long line. One of the women selling merchandise told the person in front of me that Memory Almost Full was McCartney’s latest release (even though they were selling Electric Arguments) and told her that it had the songs McCartney would be performing that evening. She was very annoyed when I pointed out that Electric Arguments was the most current release and then walked away and refused to serve me.

Eventually, I did get a t-shirt. They were unable to take credit cards at the booth but didn’t attempt to communicate this to the long lines of people waiting and it seemed that most people who got up to the front left without buying anything because they didn’t have enough cash.

The energy level of the crowd was visibly higher than at the New York show and by 9 p.m. people were getting restless.

I enjoyed the pre-show music and video. The music included a wonderful soul version of I Want To Hold Your Hand (Al Green?), Say Say Say, a technofied version of Silly Love Songs, and Temporary Secretary.

The video included postcards and snapshots of Liverpool and posters and memorablia from The Beatles’ early days. Some of the postcards and photos were altered so that the people or cars moved.

I saw Ingrid Newkirk, founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and Neal Barnard, who heads the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, being ushered to seats in the front center section.

Paul finally came on stage some time between 9:15 pm and 9:30 pm. By then the temperature had dropped to almost comfortable levels and during the show there was an occasional breeze that made it quite comfortable.

Paul started the show wearing a dark collarless jacket. After Flaming Pie he removed the jacket saying “that’s the wardrobe change”. He was wearing white shirt and red suspenders.

When they audience recognized Got To Get You Into My Life, it generated an enthusiastic ovation.

In his introduction to Let Me Roll It, Paul noted, “When we came to America with The Beatles, Washington was the first place we played.” For this song he used the bass that was painted red and covered with paintings of children with upraised arms.

Highway generated a surprisingly enthusiastic response from the audience.

I enjoyed seeing a second show from a different perspective. In New York I didn’t have a clear view of the video screens at the back of the stage. The Long And Winding Road was accompanied by photos of cacti and the desert. I wondered if they were Linda McCartney’s photos.

Blackbird was well received by the audience with many people singing along. It was one of the high points of the evening.

Paul was less emotional on Here Today than in New York., His voice cracked a bit at the end of the song, but it didn’t seem to me that it was from emotion.

Dance Tonight was another non-Beatles, non-hit song that went over surprisingly well with the audience. On the video screen Abe Laborial, Jr. could be seen dancing exuberantly behind the drum kit which drew approving chuckles from the audience.

For Washington, Paul introduced Michelle as a song which he said “Barack might want to sing to his honey”. Wix Wickens provided wonderful accordion backup on this song and the images of Paris that were shown were quite lovely. As they played this song the moon rose over the top of the stadium. At the end of the song, Paul dedicated it, “To the President and his lady.” Apparently I was not the only person in the audience hoping that Paul might perform Michelle here for our President and First Lady. I heard that the Obamas were out of town.

Thanks again to the Ukrainian fans who encouraged Paul to add Mrs. Vandebilt to the set list. The audience participation on the Ho Hey Ho is great. And I swear to God I saw some in the front section toss a small child into the air during this song! I really enjoyed watching Rusty Anderson kick his feet in the air while performing this.

Eleanor Rigby got a huge ovation from the crowd with the entire audience singing along.

Sing The Changes is one of my favorites in this show. Great song, great performance. The song is accompanied by video showing red dots which coalesce into a face. At the New York show I thought it was supposed to be Linda McCartney. At this show it looked like President Obama! Given the song’s title I’m guessing Obama!

The audience at this show was way more enthusiastic and responsive than at the Saturday CitiField show and it seemed like Paul and the band were having a great time and reacting to the enthusiasm of the crowd.

Band On The Run and Back In The USSR pushed the audience enthusiasm to an even higher level. The audience participation on the ooh section of Back In The USSR was beautiful. I have been going to concerts for 40 years and this was a memorable moment of pure audience ecstasy. I felt very lucky to be there and a part of it.

At the end of the song Paul turned towards Abe Laborial, Jr, and Abe leaned over his drums so they could do a finger wiggle.

Paul mentioned traveling to appear in Moscow and meeting a very young looking government minister who told him, “We learn English from your song. Hello Goodbye.”

The audience reached a fevered-pitch with I’m Down. Wix played the organ with his elbow like John did at Shea Stadium. The audience was so wrapped up in this performance and the noise level was so intense that even if people responded it would have been hard for me to tell.

Paperback Writer was another high point of the evening with the audience cranked to the max. Abe’s drumming was intense. All of Paul’s bands have been outstanding but the current line up is particularly brilliant!

At the beginning of A Day In The Life it seemed that Paul’s vocal was out of sync with the music. The audience response in New York to Give Peace A Chance was impressive but the Washington audience topped New York. Every one seemed to be waving the peace sign in response to this song.

The audience went even more wild during Live And Let Die. The jets of flames and the fireworks are awesome! At this show the smoke from the fireworks was blown directly into the stadium.

When Paul started Hey Jude there was actually a very loud and unprovoked wave of screaming. When Hey Jude first came out I thought it was the best song ever written. Over the years I got sort of tired of hearing it. Hearing this song at the show and watching the audience reaction really gave it new life for me.

The lighting for this show is brilliant. For some of the songs at the end of the show they used lighting tubes (that looked like fluorescent lighting tubes) with different colored lights. And the tubes were moved up and down and horizontally. It was a neat effect.

There was a family in the row in front of me – obviously father, mother, and two twenty-ish sons. The taller son really got into the show and was singing along very enthusiastically, particularly on The Beatles numbers. I heard him lean over to the brother and sing a bit of a song he hoped to hear – Maybe I’m Amazed. This is the power of McCartney’s music – people who weren’t born when most of these songs were written – who know the songs and the words and come the show hoping to hear their favorites.

I Saw Her Standing There was another high point of the audience with an exuberant response from the audience.

At the end of the first encore, Paul and the band walked offstage. I knew there would be a second encore. I turned around and in the row behind me there was a little woman with with short, white hair wearing a Biker Like An Icon t-shirt from one of Paul’s previous tours and clutching a tour program. For some reason she reminded me of my Nonnie, my Italian grandmother. Just at that moment, she realized that the band was coming and her face lit up with the most beautiful smile. And at that instant I was struck by the fact that this woman was probably about the same age that my grandmother was when she died, and that I am probably about the same age myself.

Paul’s voice seemed a bit hoarse on Yesterday. I think it was at the end of Yesterday when I turned noticed that instead of holding up lighters, like in the days of old, people are now holding up their cell phones. The sight of the lights of thousands of cell phones help up in the air all over the stadium was really very, very impressive.

Helter Skelter is wonderful with the roller coaster video images.

Before leaving the stage for the final time Paul thanked the audience, “You welcomed us to your town magnificently.” The confetti cannons shot red, white, and blue confetti into the air. It came down in a huge cloud towards the front of the audience but I was surprised when I was leaving that there was confetti all the way to the back of the stadium!

This was one of the best shows I have ever seen. Paul looks and sounds great. The band is exceptionally good. The set list is broad ranging and crowd-pleasing for both casual fans and for those of us who see him every time he tours. The lighting and sound work are top of the line. And the exuberance of the audience at this particular show brought everything to an even higher level.

Trying to leave the stadium was an ordeal. Traffic was at a complete standstill until about 1 pm. While I was waiting for the traffic to start moving, I ran into a co-worker. He was very enthusiastic about the show. We were talking about people who have played with Paul on previous tours. I was struck by how much the fans admire the musicians who have played with Paul. We talked for a long time but then it began to rain about 12:45 am.

Traffic finally began to move very slowly out of the parking lot. I got on 202 North heading towards the Beltway and traffic was jammed up and moving slowly even there. It was almost 2 am by the time I got home.

Set list: Drive My Car, Jet, Only Mama Knows, Flaming Pie, Got To Get You Into My Life, Let Me Roll It, Highway, Long and Winding Road, My Love, Blackbird, Here Today, Dance Tonight, Calico Skies, Michelle, Mrs. Vandebilt, Eleanor Rigby, Sing The Changes, Band On The Run, Back In The USSR, I’m Down, Something, I’ve Got A Feeling, Paperback Writer, A Day In The Life/Give Peace A Chance, Let It Be, Live And Let Die, Hey Jude, Day Tripper, Lady Madonna, I Saw Her Standing There, Yesterday, Helter Skelter, Get Back, Sgt. Pepper/The End
 

MORE OF YOUR ACCOUNTS AND PICTURES TO COME ...