Paul McCartney

On Friday after school, we watched Seth’s final tennis match of the season. He played singles and won 6-1 sweeping 6 games in a row after double-faulting away the first game. Then we drove down to Cedar City and hopped into a hotel. We got settled just in time to watch the BYU game. They beat WV (despite three turnovers) pretty easily. 

On Saturday morning, we woke up about 7 and went to breakfast. We picked up Mark's friend, Aubrey, and took her to the All-American Diner. It was fun to see her, and she was so nice to us. At 9 o’clock we had a tour of the lighthouse in Cedar City. There are only 91 steps, but it seemed like 910 . We didn’t spend very long, and it was freezing (only about 50 degrees and very windy), but it was cool to look from the deck on top. It’s about 7 stories tall. 

Aubrey is one of our favorite friends!

It was so windy at the top of the lighthouse.

We took a little photo on their camera.

A look at the lighthouse from the bottom.

We listened to the first session of Conference on the ride down to Las Vegas. Jonny had ordered drinks and pizza for lunch when we arrived. We had lunch and then we watched the afternoon session with the Pooles. Mom had thought about not doing the treat bags, but she was glad that she’d brought them along when she saw how excited Ben was to open them. It was a long afternoon of hide-and-seek and conference naps before dinner finally came. Jonny cooked up some pork burritos. 

We love visiting the Pooles.

Mom trying to make Seth's smolder face.

We do have fun together!

The Paul McCartney concert started at 8pm, and Dad was ready to leave for Allegiant Stadium by 5:50. Mom insisted that was too early (she was right, but we left about 6:30). Traffic around the stadium was pretty intense, and we got parked (for $50) and came around the building about 7:10. There was a massive line wrapped around the building, and lots of people were getting in it, but that was just the t-shirt line. We walked right around them and went in. Since we were in the lower bowl, we had to walk through part of the stadium. There’s this huge lounge with food that we had to walk through to get to our seats. We were quite far from the stage, but we could still see. Every seat was full except for right next to Mom for some reason.

There were a lot of cool things to see in the stadium.

Such a memorable night!

McCartney didn’t go onstage until 8:30, and then he came out with a keyboardist, two guitarists, and a drummer. There was also a small horn section. Paul played bass on Help!, Coming Up, Got to get You into My Life, Drive My Car, and a few of his solo songs. Then he switched to his electric guitar and played Let Me Roll It, Purple Haze (instrumental), and Getting Better All the Time. Then he walked to the piano and played Let ‘Em In, and a few solo songs. He ended the piano section with Maybe I’m Amazed, which was so stunningly beautifully perfect. He did all the live piano runs and really banged it out. It was awesome.
On that note, Dad wore his YOU’RE AWESOME shirt to the concert. Six people talked to him about it on the way in. He even purposely stood in a guys picture with his wife, holding the shirt out behind them, and later, they came and told us how much they loved the photo and sent it to their whole family. The family wanted him to tell us they loved the shirt. 

Paul McCartney was really there!

You could see him really well (on the Jumbotron).

Then Paul picked up the acoustic and did I’ve Just Seen a Face and the first two Beatles songs ever (actually the first was the Quarrymen): In Spite of All the Danger, and Love Me Do. He played the mandolin on Dance Tonight. Then everyone else left the stage, and it rose up about 25 feet. By himself, he played Blackbird and Here Today. Back at the piano he played the new song, Now and Then, and Lady Madonna. 

One of the huge highlights came next when they played a really rocking version of Jet, with Paul on bass. He kept the bass and sang John’s Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite. 

This section was sort of a tribute, so he took out the ukelele George had given him and played Something, which went from a Hawaiian style solo to a massive ripping guitar song by the end. After that it was almost all Beatles stuff. He did O-bla-di, Band on the Run, and Get Back. 

Blackbird was cool.

Paul played two pianos.

This one was so colorful and the other was a grand piano.

The best pic we got of him on the stage.

It was fun to see all the instruments he played.

Then he moved back to the piano and did our favorite stuff: Let it Be, and then Live and Let Die. This was full of pyrotechnics, with flames, lasers, fireworks, and explosions. We were pretty shocked when Paul stood up from the piano and covered his ears and head for the final explosion. Then he played Hey, Jude. That was the last number, and it was pretty sweet with 35,000 people singing along.

Of course, after enough clapping, they came out for an encore. They started with I’ve Got a Feeling, Dad's absolute favorite song. It was so cool, because after he sang the first part, John was up on the screens, singing his part through (Taken from Peter Jackson’s film). When they sang together, we love, love, loved it! There was a little jazz remix of this song at the end, too. They did the Sgt. Pepper Reprise, and then a totally ear-ripping, face-melting scream through Helter Skelter. Finally, and fittingly, they ended with the last of Abbey Road’s Long One: Golden Slumbers, Carry that Weight, and The End. He was on stage for 2 hours and 45 minutes, performing 37 songs without a single break. Not bad for 83 years old. The only time he seemed a little old was trying to hit those high notes on Blackbird with just him and the acoustic guitar. Other than that, he seemed like a kid again, telling stories and talking about his bandmates and their time together. 

Surprisingly, we got out of that concert and parking lot pretty quickly (it was sort of an older, slow moving mass of people). We made it back to Tiff’s by about 11:40. I was tired, sung-out, and thoroughly happy. 

On Sunday, we watched the morning session of Conference, and then made the long drive home.

Dad was so happy!!