Yesterday...

started out as a not so great day.  I have been feeling pretty blah lately.  I'm tired of not having a job, tired of looking for a job, tired of not having extra money to play with, I've just felt tired.  Adding to my not so great mood was the fact that my musical hero, Paul McCartney was performing just down the street from us and I wasn't going.  Not that we couldn't have found tickets- they were out there- but the prices were so incredibly expensive there was no way we could afford to go. 

It probably goes without saying at this point, but I have an amazing boyfriend. Amazing.  After Will got home from work he decided we should walk down to Broadway and have a few drinks while we checked to see how much scalpers wanted for their tickets.  The concert was scheduled to start at 7:30, and right around 7:20 a torrential downpour started.  Lucky for us, that moved all the scalpers into the bar we were in, so we started dealing.  We made an offer on a pair of tickets (not necessarily a lowball offer, but definitely not face value)- the dealer said "no way jose", understandably.  We weren't trying to pull one over on them, but we did have a set limit to spend.  Well, I don't know if it was the rain, the time (being so close to the start of the concert), the desperate look in my eyes, or simply the fact that the broker was standing right next to the dealer and OKed it, but at around 7:25 last night all the stars in the universe aligned and we got our tickets to see Sir Paul McCartney!  Not only did we get the tickets, but we payed $200 under face value and had amazing seats.

To say that the concert was spectacular is truly an understatement.  I mean, it was Paul McCartney!! 1/4 of The Beatles! Author of several of my most favorite songs in the world.  The man that I used to fantasize that I would one day marry.  (And yes, I realize that I'm far younger than he is.  However, rock stars always go for younger women, so at one point I legitimately thought I had a chance, should I just get the opportunity to meet him.) Quite possibly the most famous musician in the world. Ever.  And we sat about 100 yards away from him. I was literally giddy with excitement.  I realize that I'm a music freak, and can get fanatical over things like this, but even Will, who is much more level-headed than I, was in awe.  As a warning to non-music lovers, this blog is going to be long. But I just want to record some of the things that went on at the show so I don't forget them.

There weren't a lot of pyrotechnics or fancy things happening during the show.  Just Paul and his bass, guitar, ukelele, or piano, and his back up band.  During "Live and Let Die", though, they shot blasts of fire off the stage, and it was awesome.  The crowd went crazy when that happened! 

He played a little snippet of Jimi Hendrix, at which point I leaned over to Will and mentioned how crazy it was that he probably knew Jimi back in the day.  Sure enough, Paul went on to tell a little story about Jimi performing and asking Eric Clapton (who was in the audience at Jimi's concert) to come onstage and tune his guitar for him.

Paul played a few songs that were predominantly "George's" or "John's" Beatles songs.  He played "Something" as a solo with a ukelele as a tribute to George, before it turned into a beautiful ballad with the band backing him up.  He also made "A Day in the Life" and "Give Peace a Chance" into a medley as a tribute to John. 

I literally cried during the show. Twice. Is that embarrasing to admit? Kind of.  I didn't cry in that weird, psycho, Beatlemania way.  But when he played "Blackbird", which is one of my favorite songs EVER, it just hit me.  I wasn't watching a band play a cover of this song.  I was watching THE man who wrote the song play it. Live.  A living legend.  Goosebumps abounded.  And tears fell at the sheer awesomeness that I was experiencing.  I also cried just a lil bit during "Something".  It's another favorite of mine, and it was really sentimental the way he dedicated it to George.  During the whole song, pictures of George were streaming behind Paul.  It was touching.

I can't remember exactly which song it was (I'm thinking "Day Tripper"...) but Paul informed us that he was playing with the bass that he used to record the song originally.  How amazing is that?!

Another way to give me goosebumps?  Seeing an entire sold out audience sing "Hey Jude" in unison.  People were singing every song, obviously, but during "Hey Jude" Paul actually stopped singing and the audience took over.  It was a really, really cool moment.

Paul was really great about interacting with the audience.  A lady had a sign made up that asked him if he would sign her Hoffner (his bass from the Beatles years) tattoo on her back, and at the end of the show he obliged her.  It was pretty cool.  He signed right under the bass tattoo, and I'm willing to bet that she went straight from the concert to the tattoo parlor down the street to have his signature tattooed permanently.  I personally am not a tattoo person, but I would tattoo his autograph on me in a second if that had been me! 
Also during the encore Paul noticed a boy, who was probably around 12, holding up a sign that said, "Hey Paul, I want to play a song with you".  So Paul brought him up on stage.  As it turned out, the boy informed Paul that he was from Mexico (not sure if he told him that because he didn't speak english or what), and Paul wasn't really able to decipher what instrument he played.  Paul ended up telling him (in broken Spanish) to just "groove" to the next song, "Get Back".  The boy was wearing a Paul McCartney shirt, and danced around stage while Paul played, and then joined him at the mic to help sing the chorus.  That kid basically has a million cool points going for him- he jammed onstage with a Beatle.

Despite having several cocktails before the concert, I didn't leave the arena once to go to the bathroom.  Did I have to go? You bet I did! Really, really badly in fact.  But I couldn't bear to miss even one second of the concert so I held it.  For over 3 hours!

Overall, the concert was everything I could have hoped for.  Paul was charming, energetic, funny, engaging, and appreciative.  I know it has to get old playing the same songs over and over again for years on end, but it has to feel good knowing how much his music has affected people of all ages.  Truly a night I'll never forget, and one more thing I can mark off my bucket list! Thank you Will for turning an otherwise not so great day into one of the greatest musical evenings of my life! Smooches!

And naturally, since we didn't expect to actually get tickets, I didn't bring my camera with me.  (Had I brought the camera, we wouldn't have gotten tickets. Murphy's law.) I took a few pictures with my phone, which don't do the concert, or our amazing seats, justice.  But at any rate, here they are: