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Paul McCartney | 07.17.09 | New York

July 22nd, 2009 | No Comments

Words by: Ron Hart

Paul McCartney :: 07.17.09 :: Citi Field :: Flushing Meadows, NY

The Beatles at Shea Stadium 1965

One of my all-time favorite stories about my mom was the time she had my grandfather take her and her girlfriend to Shea Stadium to see The Beatles in 1965.

Now, depending on who you talked to, it was either the greatest thing a person could ever experience in their lives or the thing that gave them a headache for the rest of the week from all the noise and screaming. According to my grandpa, the noise level at Shea when The Beatles first walked across the field to the stage was simply deafening, like a Merzbow/Sonic Youth double bill I’d guess. And, as much as she was having fun being part of one of the most defining moments in rock, mom, too, admitted they could barely even hear the band over the tinny PA their amps were broadcasting from. This was also something Sir Paul McCartney reminisced about with the sold out crowd at the Mets’ brand new stadium, Citi Field, this past Friday night.

“The first time we played here,” he proclaimed, “we couldn’t hear a thing because of all the girls screaming and the stadium sound system.” He used the whole “girls screaming” thing throughout the night for cheap pops, and referenced that hot August night in 1965 many times over the course of his epic, expertly played two-hour-and-forty-minute set.

When The Beatles played Shea, they made history as the first rock group who booked a major sport stadium for a concert. Macca playing a three-night stand at Citi Field bears a definite importance on a cultural level in that respect, ushering in a new ball park replacing the old one on that lot in Flushing Meadows where he helped to change the face of live music as we know it.

Paul McCartney :: 07.17.09 :: Citi Field by Hart

New York City has been as crucial a fabric to the DNA of The Beatles as Liverpool and London for reasons we’re all aware of – the JFK landing marking their first U.S. visit, Shea, Ed Sullivan (which Macca saluted by playing the top of the marquee of the TV legend’s theater during Letterman just the other night), the Madison Square Garden shows, George Harrison’s Bangladesh concert, Lennon’s One-to-One fundraiser and McCartney’s 9/11 benefit, Lennon moving to the Dakota, Strawberry Fields in Central Park memorializing Lennon’s untimely passing, and so on and so forth.

Sir Paul’s first night at Citi Field certainly had the hallmarks of these pivotal moments in terms of nostalgia and sentimentality, even if the skeptic in me can’t hold a concert played at a venue named after one of the very banks who are reporting handsome profits as foreclosures soar and unemployment is in the double digits in the same light as some of those other historic, selfless moments in Beatles history.

Nevertheless, McCartney made the obvious act of profiteering off the memories of the same people banks like Citibank are bringing to their knees as genuine as it could be. Granted, as a Mets fan, the new stadium is an absolute beaut of an edifice – a veritable modern day update of the old Ebbets Field in nearby Brooklyn, where the Dodgers used to play in the first half of the 20th century and blows Shea away in every way, shape and form. And Macca brought the damn thing down with a powerful, touching and phenomenally choreographed performance augmented by a state-of-the-art stage and sound system that certainly compensated for the lack thereof 44 years ago.

Paul McCartney

Macca and his longtime touring band – guitarist Rusty Anderson, guitarist/bassist Brian Ray, drummer Abe Laboriel Jr. and keyboardist Paul “Wix” Wickens – were as tight as ever and are, in every way, Paul’s finest band since Wings. The way they hit the four-part harmonies on such Beatles gems as a visceral take on “Helter Skelter,” a by-the-numbers “Paperback Writer,” “Eleanor Rigby” (a song that personified the English weather McCartney seemed to have brought to Queens with him), a poignant “Blackbird” and “I’m Down,” the same number the Fabs closed out their Shea Stadium concert with, were pitch perfect to say the least. The man even found time to hawk the upcoming Beatles: Rock Band game during “Got To Get You Into My Life,” as images of the digital Fabs graced the jumbotron while Paul and his band delivered a brassy, classy take on the Revolver hit. In fact, all 21 Beatles songs performed Friday night were of optimum quality, especially in the show’s final third, where Macca and the boys barreled through nine Fab jams in a row, chief amongst them a rousing, audience-inspired version of Paul’s ode to Julian Lennon, “Hey Jude,” and a kinetic rip through “I Saw Her Standing There,” for which McCartney invited Billy Joel on stage to play piano. Joel had summoned Macca last fall for an appearance during the Piano Man’s acclaimed residency closing out Shea Stadium, so the return of favor on Joel’s part was perhaps expected yet still equally surprising. And, in spite of the fact that he looked either drunk as shit or incredibly sunburned behind the grand piano, the Hicksville native’s hurried cameo was certainly a highlight for fans of both icons.

Another wonderful Beatles-related moment of the night came when McCartney broke out the ukulele given to him by his beloved friend, the late George Harrison, and did an emotional rendition of the Quiet One’s Abbey Road wedding standard “Something” as classic images of the guitarist faded in and out on the big screen behind the stage. Paul also gave a sentimental nod to his beloved songwriting partner John Lennon by delivering a heartfelt rendition of the greatest album closer of all time, “A Day In The Life,” which he smoothly segued into a version of John’s own timeless protest anthem “Give Peace A Chance,” leading a stadium full of voices singing and swaying along so loudly one would hope it could be heard in Iran, North Korea and Dick Cheney’s little hole in the ground. There were rumors of a Ringo appearance, but unfortunately those of us who waited for him to emerge at the end of the concert to sing us out with “Goodnight” were met with disappointment.

Paul McCartney with Billy Joel :: Citi Field 2009
From www.paulmccartney.com

As arguably the one Beatle to consistently deliver winning post-Fab material over the course of his lengthy, near-50 year career, the concert was also peppered with plenty of great material from McCartney’s solo catalog and, of course, his work with Wings as well. The group broke into Jimi Hendrix’s “Foxy Lady” at the end of an incredible spin through “Let Me Roll It,” which McCartney followed up with the story of how Hendrix learned and covered “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” two days after it arrived in stores at a performance at London’s Saville Theatre which Sir Paul attended. In addition to finding time to slip in such superior new material as “Flaming Pie,” “Dance Tonight” and two tracks from his recent Fireman album, Electric Arguments, Paul also managed to drop a few deep cuts from his past as well, including “Only Mama Knows,” a great track off 2007′s Memory Almost Full, a rousing romp through the Band On The Run sing-along “Mrs. Vanderbilt” and a tearful version of “Here Today” off 1982′s Tug of War, which Paul had written shortly after the assassination of Lennon. However, the house truly came down in terms of emotion when Macca performed a beautiful, beautiful version of “My Love,” his soulful ballad from Wings’ Red Rose Speedway that he dedicated to the one true love of his life, Linda McCartney, who he touchingly referred to as “a New York girl.” However, as a fan of his 1989 comeback album Flowers in the Dirt, it would have been cool to have seen Paul acknowledge the 20th anniversary of its release with a jam through “My Brave Face” or “Figure of Eight,” but we can’t get too greedy now, can we?

The most fantastical moment of the evening came when the band broke out McCartney’s reggae-tinged anthem for the “Blaxploitation” entry in the James Bond film series, “Live and Let Die,” replete with the kind of fireworks and pyrotechnics that would make Vince McMahon second guess himself. It was the kind of spectacle that could only be pulled off by a very select few in the rock arena without looking completely bogus, and Sir Paul did indeed pull it off in spades as only he, The Rolling Stones and Kiss can.

Though it might be a stretch to put Paul McCartney’s three-night stand at Citi Field alongside the likes of the original Shea Stadium show or the Concert for Bangladesh as a historical event it most certainly succeeded in its goal of being one concert nobody in that beautiful new ballpark will soon forget, both in scope and in sound. It was certainly a show that I will always remember, as will my date for the evening, my mother-in-law, who was deemed too young by her parents back in ’65 to attend the first time around. And I am for certain my mom was smiling down in the middle of her George Harrison foot massage in heaven over the fact that I brought her to witness this most beautiful night for Beatles fans.

Paul McCartney :: 07.17.09 :: Citi Field :: Flushing Meadows, NY

Drive My Car, Jet, Only Mama Knows, Flaming Pie, Got To Get You Into My Life, Let Me Roll It / Foxy Lady, Highway, The Long and Winding Road, My Love, Blackbird, Here Today, Dance Tonight, Calico Skies, Mrs. Vanderbilt, Eleanor Rigby, Sing the Changes, Band on the Run, Back in the U.S.S.R., I’m Down, Something, I Got A Feeling, Paperback Writer, A Day In The Life, Give Peace A Chance, Let It Be, Live and Let Die, Hey Jude
Encore: Day Tripper, Lady Madonna, I Saw Her Standing There (feat. Billy Joel)
Encore 2: Yesterday, Helter Skelter, Get Back, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise), The End

Paul McCartney tour dates available here.

JamBase | Worldwide
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Coldplay | 07.13 | Mountain View

July 17th, 2009 | No Comments

Words & Images by: Tracy Nunnery

Coldplay :: 07.13.09 :: Shoreline Amphitheatre :: Mountain View, CA

Chris Martin – Coldplay :: 07.13 :: Shoreline Amphitheatre

So, someone mentioned something about a recession the other day. “Things are going to get worse before they get better,” they said. “People are going out less, choosing their entertainment options more carefully and have decided to forgo vacations this year.” At least that’s what the talking heads are saying on TV. Far-removed from the somber media reports of the soft economy, the sell-out crowd in attendance to see Brit rock superstars Coldplay found themselves worlds away from any crisis with their hard-earned dough well spent. The evening was filled with incredibly tight arrangements, elegantly uncomplicated visual effects, an endearing frontman and even a few surprises for their economy-conscious fans. Having never been a huge follower of the band, I now understand why they are one of the biggest bands on the planet.

More than a year into their tour in support of their best-selling, Grammy-winning 2008 Best Rock Album Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, vocalist Chris Martin along with guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman and drummer Will Champion appeared fresh and energetic. Aside from their obvious talent as musicians, the band seemed to truly relish the opportunity to play their music and interact with the crowd. How many bands could actually turn the anachronistic “Good evening, San Francisco [roar of the crowd]/ I can’t hear you” call-and-response into something a little more creative? And they had fun doing it, too.

Coldplay :: 07.13 :: Shoreline Amphitheatre

Beginning the show from behind a sheer mesh, the familiar sounds of “Life In Technicolor” brought the already frenzied fans to their feet. When the drape was raised, Martin appeared in a multi-colored military cadet-style jacket and began to lead the crowd through nearly two hours of energetic sing-along moments and anthemic choruses. The now-familiar 1830 painting “Liberty Leading the People” by EugÃ¨ne Delacroix served as the backdrop for the show, while vintage style televisions onstage displayed video feeds and provided a warm glow behind the band.

A sprinkling of tiny-stickered acronyms adorning road cases backstage was the only hint of Coldplay’s deeply rooted interests in activism, such as their support of Amnesty International, Paul McCartney’s Meat Free Monday and Oxfam’s Make Trade Fair campaign. Other simple but effective visuals were integrated into the atmosphere including giant yellow balloons resurrected from 2005′s “Twisted Logic” tour, which were released for the audience to bat around, creating what resembled a human-powered lava-lamp. Other touches included spherical screens displaying imagery or simple color patterns above the stage, pulsating bands of laser lights as well as millions of confetti butterflies set free to flutter throughout the venue.

Chris Martin – Coldplay :: 07.13 :: Shoreline Amphitheatre

Moving fluidly between the main stage and two mini-stages jutting into the crowd on either side, Coldplay showcased early hits from three previous albums including “Clocks,” “In My Place,” “Yellow,” “Speed of Sound,” “Trouble” as well as songs from 2008′s Viva including the bluesy “Violet Hill,” “Lost!” and the underrated “42,” infused by Champion’s surgically precise percussion. A highlight was an acoustic jam session where the band gathered on a tiny side stage to perform a brilliantly funky version of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean.” The show ended with a particularly expressive performance of “The Scientist” and then back where it began with “Life in Technicolor II” to draw the evening to a close. Most of the orchestral tracks were performed with a stripped-down treatment, which came across as both bright and unrehearsed. Champion, pulling duty on guitar, drums and vocals, was a potent force as the familiar songs became much more dynamic than their more unassuming recorded counterparts.

Throughout the show, Chris Martin’s playful interaction with the crowd, raucous piano pounding and uncoordinated flailing about added to the spectacle and sense that the band was enjoying themselves at least as much as their audience. The sheer joy and giddy energy bubbling over from the stage was contagious. It was as if everyone in attendance was sharing in the joy of having just discovered the most perfect radio station. The lively atmosphere never seemed to have a down moment and, as fans headed out into the night holding their recession-friendly live CD LeftRightLeftRighLeft (which you can download for FREE at coldplay.com), it seemed as though fans felt like they had gotten their money’s worth. This was a big-time band performing huge songs in a way that few bands can match.

Coldplay :: 07.13.09 :: Shoreline Amphitheatre :: Mountain View, CA
Life In Technicolor, Violet Hill, Clocks, In My Place, Yellow, Glass Of Water, Cemeteries Of London, 42, Fix You, Strawberry Swing, God Put A Smile Upon Your Face, Talk, The Hardest Part, Postcards From Far Away, Viva La Vida, Lost!, Green Eyes, Sitting on the Dock of the Bay / Death Will Never Conquer, Billie Jean, Viva La Vida, Politik, Lovers In Japan, Death And All His Friends

Encore: The Scientist, Life in Technicolor II, The Escapist (outro)

Continue reading for a more pics of Coldplay in California…

Coldplay is on tour now, dates available here.

JamBase | All Yellow
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Regina Spektor:Far

July 17th, 2009 | No Comments

By: Dennis Cook

Regina Spektor‘s fifth album cements the notion that she isn’t just another comely chica at a piano. With a steady hand, curiously angled wit and on-point melodic sense, Far (released June 23 on Sire/Warner) makes a good argument that she’s Randy Newman‘s curly-topped little sister.

“You went into the kitchen cupboard/ got yourself another hour/ and you gave half of it to me/ We sat there looking at the faces of the strangers in the pages/ till we knew them mathematically/ They were in our minds until forever/ but we didn’t mind/ we didn’t know better.”

The above verse opens the album as Spektor’s confident, quasi-classical piano and Matt Chamberlain‘s drums skip with child-like glee before we’re soon in that kitchen making computers out of macaroni pieces and counting up our feelings. She simultaneously tickles the places in our brains that adore Paul McCartney and e.e. cummings, poetry in populist motion. Far goes down so smoothly that it’s only on repeat that one realizes how many big thoughts Spektor has stuffed into her ditties – views from space, astute observations on faith and how one laughs in the face of, well, all the horrors outside our windows. She’s especially succinct and adroit at handling God on “Laughing With,” which neatly foils notions of flat atheism by citing all the situations no one is laughing at God (and noting that “God can be funny,” something fundamentalists of all stripes frequently forget). But even when she’s not so sky-high-minded, Spektor ladles up music that’s bright and danceable and oh-so-smart without ever breaking a sweat (and she’d catch that perspiration with her eyelashes anywayÂ…).

Moods shift flexibly, where the big blue planet, humanizing reverie of “Blue Lips” is sandwiched between the bouncing inducement to just move “Eet” and “Folding Chair,” the niftiest summer number this season. There’s little she seems incapable of handling with style and a personal character that’s rarely less than seductive and almost never grating in the way that kindred iconoclastic ancestors like Jane Siberry, Nina Hagen and Kate Bush can often be. And like honey to a bee, she’s attracted some clever collaborators. Besides Chamberlain (your go-to skin thumper for girly singer-songwriters when he’s not a Critter Buggin), there’s ELO’s Jeff Lynne, Reggie Watts (Maktub), veteran producer David Kahne (Tony Bennett, Stevie Nicks, Sublime) and engineering comer Jacknife Lee (U2, Snow Patrol, Bloc Party). Often multiple studios and many hands projects like this come across as scattered and overly manipulated but Far‘s vision is all Spektor, who sings with characteristic carelessness, a strong voice utilized like a flaming baton – wild and beautiful despite all the practiced sureness underlying each move.

Far feels timely, a song cycle that’s absorbed the general feeling of being overwhelmed and frightened that marks the early 21st century but refuses to be cowered despite the acknowledged weight of it all. Where it would be easy for Spektor to capitalize on her nook on VH1 and their ilk, she’s sidestepped the spotlight being proffered for a richer and, I dare say, nobler path. Far drives down to the deep strata of us with laughter and sincerity, a giggling hallelujah just when we need one.

JamBase | Tickled Blue
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Paul McCartney â€œLate Show With David Lettermanâ€ VIDEO (July 15)

July 16th, 2009 | No Comments

On Wednesday night, music legend Paul McCartney returned to New York’s famous Ed Sullivan Theater 45 years after his first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show sparked “Beatlemania” in America. During his chat on the Late Show with David Letterman, Paul McCartney opened up about befriending and later drifting apart from the late Michael Jackson. [...]

George Harrison:
Let It Roll: Songs of George Harrison

July 10th, 2009 | No Comments

By: Ron Hart

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Over the last ten years, Capitol/EMI has been notorious for treating its reissue campaign of George Harrison‘s post-Beatles catalog like some kind of under-appreciated stepchild whose parents force ugly new clothes and disgusting new food onto.
First was the 30th Anniversary reissue of the Quiet One’s masterpiece, All Things Must Pass, from early 2001, considered by many to be the single greatest work by a Beatle outside of the band itself. In addition to the ghastly “colorization” of the original album artwork that would even make the people who tarnished It’s A Wonderful Life cringe, whoever engineered the remaster somehow buried the vocals and guitars even deeper in the mix than original producer Phil Spector had already done initially with his Wall of Sound recording style. Then, there was the label’s 2005 hatchet job on Harrison’s sublime 1971 double-live album chronicling his acclaimed Concert for Bangladesh. While the remastering job of the actual live cuts themselves was great, they cut out the majority of the breaks between songs, destroying the natural flow of the concert that made you feel as though you were right inside Madison Square Garden when listening to the original LP. And worst of all, Capitol finally got its way with the album artwork. After losing its original battle with Harrison over the cover concept – that stunning, iconic image of a malnourished refugee child sitting cross-legged in front of an empty bowl of food, which the suits thought was too depressing and would hurt album sales and then wound up becoming a bestseller and winning the Grammy for Album of the Year in 1973Â—the label went with the cover they had wanted all along, an image of Harrison from the accompanying concert film, for the reissue (and doing so after Harrison’s tragic demise due to cancer in November 2001, thus adding a whole new layer of sleaze to the whole predicament). Meanwhile, the label’s 2006 reissue of 1973′s Living In The Material World as well as the box set covering the albums released on the guitarist’s own Dark Horse imprint were modest campaigns that somewhat offered a reprieve for fans otherwise annoyed by the label handling of the Quiet One’s catalog thus far, in that it vastly improved upon the original issues in both sound quality and packaging (although some beefier bonus material would have been nice).

Now comes Let it Roll: Songs by George Harrison, a single-disc retrospective released by the EMI group on June 16 touting itself as the first-ever collection spanning the length of George’s career. Compiled largely by George’s widow Olivia Harrison and engineered by legendary Beatles producer George Martin’s son Giles Martin, who did such an outstanding job in 2007 mashing up classic Fabs tracks for the soundtrack to Cirque de Soleil’s Beatles-themed production Love at the Mirage in Las Vegas, the 19-track collection focuses primarily on Harrison’s biggest successes as a singles artist, something he was much stronger at as opposed to his former mates John Lennon and Paul McCartney, who exhibited supremacy creating both killer hit songs and outstanding full-length albums to back them up. Harrison, meanwhile, produced albums that basically consisted of one or two really great songs backed by a majority of filler material that was neither here nor there. True, Harrison did produce some gems in his solo career beyond All Things Must Pass, notably 1973′s Living In The Material World (which, to its credit, EMI did a masterful job reissuing back in 2006) and his 1987 comeback album, Cloud Nine. Not to mention 2002′s posthumous swan song Brainwashed and his pair of experimental solo albums he released while still with The Beatles, 1968′s Moog-tastic Electronic Sound and 1969′s Indian-flavored drone-fest Wonderwall Music, both of which remain woefully out of print at press time.

While there have been George Harrison compilations in the past, none have chronicled the span of his entire career. And though Let It Roll is not exactly a completist’s ideal set, as this collection could have easily been beefed up to anthology status given there are much stronger points in Harrison’s solo catalog than, say, Ringo Starr, but it certainly does an excellent job in gathering the guitarist’s sonic crÃ¨me de la crÃ¨me. Sequenced not by chronology but almost seemingly by vibe, the 19 tracks that ultimately made the cut here interweave as though they have existed side by side on the same long player for all these years. For instance, the segue between Brainwashed‘s “Rising Son” and Cloud Nine‘s phenomenal tribute to his old bandmates, “When We Was Fab,” flows one into the other so perfectly. The same can be said for the blending of “Blow Away” off Harrison’s eponymous 1979 effort into the thankfully-included “Cheer Down” from the Lethal Weapon 2 soundtrack, not to mention “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)” going into Let It Roll‘s title track, “The Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp,” originally featured on All Things Must Pass. And while stubbornly elitist Beatles fans (like this writer) might wonder why the likes of “Old Brown Shoe” and “Blue Jay Way” were excluded from the fray here, the inclusion of his big three from his Fab Four output – “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” “Something” and “Here Comes The Sun” – is imperative to any collection with GH’s name on it, and the fact that the versions came from the Bangladesh concert album seems more appropriate for this project. Another great inclusion on this set is Harrison’s rarely-spoken-of cover of Bob Dylan’s “I Don’t Want to Do It,” which was originally featured on the soundtrack to 1985′s comedic bomb Porky’s Revenge (which should give you a good clue as to why it was little heard).

Sure, one can rail against the powers that be who oversaw the creation and production of Let It Roll and their failure to include such glaring absences as “You” off his 1975 EMI swan song Extra Texture and “Crackerbox Palace” from 1976′s diamond-in-the-rough Thirty Three & 1/3 – his first release on Dark Horse. It’s understood there are only 80 minutes on a CD, but these omissions – not to mention the exclusions of such rarities as Harrison’s working version of Ringo Starr’s “It Don’t Come Easy” or “Bangla Desh,” the 1971 charity single that spearheaded the famed concert and has only appeared on album once via 1976′s The Best of George Harrison collection – could have made this very good single-disc set into an excellent double-disc compendium.

Nonetheless, any Beatles fan, be they casual or hardcore, would benefit from adding Let It Roll: Songs by George Harrison to their CD shelves, as it is gorgeously packaged in a tastefully designed digipak with a 28-page booklet loaded with great information and amazing photos, making it one of the finer justices given to any kind of Beatle-related reissue in recent years (don’t even get me started on the John Lennon stuff). A quality George Harrison best-of has been a long, long time coming, and one can only be grateful that EMI has finally done right by this amazing man and his cherished legacy.