Big Bad Concert Rankings: Nos. 3 & 2
It really shouldn’t take over a year to finish this list, but I didn’t really have any timetable or deadline in my mind when I started. In reality, this list was always meant to be fluid. And now that there are no shows on the horizon, I feel likeI have to expand on each as we reach the top spot.
But that changes with this post, slightly. I created each show playlist in just under an hour. Partly because I was enjoying each setlist too much to focus. I also re-created the set lists over a month ago. Whoops! Time does fly when you’re doing nothing but reminiscing on the past.
The countdown ramps up two spots in large part due to them representing the same artist, in the same state, a few years apart. I could easily do these shows at 2A and 2B, but I didn’t spend 14 months on this list to cheapen it at the last minute.
3. Paul McCartney at Summerfest
Much to the dismay of my aunt Kerry, I think the Beatles are better as separate entities. Well, maybe not Ringo, but for the most part Paul McCartney shows work because they aren’t as reliant on Beatles songs as say, other solo artists who tried to play off their name and previous work. Sure, the Beatles were causing mass chaos in the 1960s, but solo/Wings McCartney was responsible for Live and Let Die, Band on the Run, and Maybe I’m Amazed, John Lennon had Imagine, and George Harrison had Got My Mind Set On You and was in the Traveling Wilbury’s. I guess the point I’m trying to make on this is that I’m not a huge fan of the Beatles but that doesn’t distract me from placing a 33-song setlist (with some medleys) by their most famous member at No. 3 on my list.
I feel like I might get a lot of heat because of this stance, so I should just leave it at I think they were artistically greater than the sum of their parts, which is saying something because the sum was, well, the Beatles.
Also, they were only a band for like, 8 years. Paul McCartney’s been touring for 60 years. He’s pretty good at performing non-Beatles songs to the rate that they can stand above the more sing-along classics of black and white era.
Some background of this show at Summerfest in 2016:
I was working at a sports card store when the tickets were coming online. I was sitting at my station debit card in hand, refreshing the screen like mad. My window of opportunity was roughly 5 minutes based on previous show sellouts and I was in and out in a flash with the most expensive ticket I had ever paid for. (My mom later reimbursed me as a birthday present)
Three aunts on both sides of my family were at this show. Karen, my main musical influencer, was near the front fo the stage. Kerry, the biggest Beatles fan this side of the Prime Meridian, was a couple sections over with her friends. My other aunt, Lisa, who is primarily responsible for me liking penguins, was way back at the top of the lawn section, where I used to patrol when I worked for the festival.
There was a man three rows in front of me talking to others in the row. He was amazed that it was their first Macca show, noting that this was his 19th.
That set a pretty high bar. I rarely see shows twice, and rarely do those succeeding shows fare better than the first. But 19? That’s a well you go back to like no other. A very, very, very, very expensive well.
The show started off strong with A Hard Day’s Night, yet Beatles did not influence the first 10 songs of the setlist too dramatically. There was a lot of the NEW (album name) stuff mixed with some B-sides and Wings. Can’t Buy Me Love was third, and Maybe I’m Amazed 10th.
A Beatles blitz followed and before you knew it, the lights turned real low and the center stage was rising for Blackbird.
We slid into a medley of some old, some more NEW, and a dash of that Rihanna/Kanye collab. We entered the Across the Universe section with Eleanor Rigby, Being fo the Benefit of Mr. Kite, and Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da. Then things started to go from good tier to God tier.
Band on the Run
Back in the USSR
Let it Be
Live and Let Die
Hey Jude
Yesterday
What?
You can’t play with people’s emotions like that. First off, Band on the Run is a sensational song that already has three tonal shifts and I’m pretty sure Back in the USSR was just filler so the pyro guy could double-check the gas lines for Live and Let Die’s big finish. Karen said she could feel the fire from the stage.
Yeah, so could I. And I was sitting 50 yards behind her.
Hey Jude obviously lifted everyone’s spirits. That’s not news to anyone who’s ever heard it. From the Super Bowl to the Olympics, it’s a classic unity sing along with lighters and cell phone flashes.
Was it the best song of the setlist? No. Was it the best song I had ever heard live up until that point? No, but it was close. The previous top songs were fuckin’ Live and Let Die, Let it Be and Band on the Run.
And we still had six songs to go.
Honestly, I was exhausted after the show. On paper, it’s a 2-hour setlist, but in practice, it was a 3-hour performance. Afterwards I had to find one of my aunts because they were my ride home. Although for the darnedest I can’t remember if it was Karen or Kerry. It may very well have been a tradeoff now that I think about it. Either way, what a night to spend with family, even if they are 50 yards away from you in Northern, Eastern and Southern directions.
2. Paul McCartney at Lambeau Field
The first Paul McCartney concert was a flawless performance. So, how do you make it better? Host it in Lambeau Field, of course.
Oh, there’s more?
Ride up to Green Bay on a coach bus replete with coolers of water, beer, White Claws and High Noons. To a tailgate-only house with buckets of water, beer, and White Claws. And a full liquor bar. And an all-you-cant eat grilling buffet station.
For $80 — also the cost of the concert ticket.
There was so much winning on this trip, I’m almost ashamed to put it at No. 2. Almost.
Riding up with my mom and her bestie was also pretty neat. They bought tickets a couple months before I did. I was on the fence before they told me about the clinching conversation about an all-inclusive bus ride and tailgate experience. We took a small tour of the new TitleTown entertainment zone around the stadium before finally heading inside, well fed and hydrated.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t get seats next to the two of them, or Karen, who drove up earlier and was sitting much, much closer on the field level.
My seat was nearly straight back from the stage, some minor light rigging within view, but well, see for yourself.
When I got to my seat I encountered a woman who just wasn’t happy I was partially in her husband’s seat. If you’re unfamiliar with Lambeau Field, it’s almost all wooden benches. I calmly, yet firmly, told her that I was bigger than almost everyone paid to play on the field, and that, like everyone, we’re just going to have to make it work when he gets here. Her husband arrived a short time later with two drinks in his hands. One for each shit he didn’t give about squeezing into a Lambeau Field bench seat.
With that crisis averted, it was onto the show!
The first hour was basically the same. A Hard Day’s Night to start, followed by some selections from his latest album, Egypt Station. A few songs later, Maybe I’m Amazed. It was at this time I decided to grab a Miller Lite and do some sightseeing. I knew what the next few songs were going to be before I had to get back into see Blackbird. The only highlight between them was Dance Tonight, which came out when I was in college and I burned to a CD. I wasn’t quite fast enough and entered my section at Lady Madonna/Eleanor Rigby medley.
Beer in hand and comfortable with my scenic shots of Green Bay at dusk, it was time for the long haul of hits.
If I may, for a second, interject with something political.
There is no fucking way Donald Trump had 57,000 people at his last Butler, Pennsylvania rally. I mean, it was already quoted at 10-15 thousand in the local newspaper that night, but 57,000?
The fan shots below are of 55,000 people, and I couldn’t even get them all and the stage in the same shot. I’m very happy he’ll no longer be president, if for nothing else he and his followers can stop blatantly lying about crowd sizes.
Back to the show.
A few more newer songs led up to Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da and Band on the Run. Both were better, as was just about everything, than Milwaukee’s show three years earlier.
Thirty thousand more screaming fans will do that.
Sure enough, Back in the USSR and Let it Be also preceded Live and Let Die.
There was just one, teensy-weensy, slight, subtle, change. Almost not even worth mentioning. Practically no different from one show to the next, I’m sure.
So, that’s why it’s No. 2. In a nutshell.
Hey Jude was nice and all, but it didn’t have anything on those fireworks.
Oh, who am I kidding, that was way better, too.
My favorite part of the night was coming up next. A total surprise.
I like looking up setlists to know what songs are going to be played. It’s a complicated balancing act for someone who both likes welcome, non-scary surprises and total control. Sandwiching the grandiosity of 55,000 strong nananana-ing were two hard rock moments from someone you don’t necessarily consider hard rock.
When I looked at previous setlists, Hey Jude went to a short break before the encore set of Birthday, Golden Slumbers, Carry that Weight, and The End. Same as Milwaukee. Same as the last week of lead-up shows to Green Bay.
So, when Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Band plays, it’s pretty darn cool to hear something both welcome, and new to the live experience.
The transition into Golden Slumbers should have been easy. Much easier than going back to the top of the slide.
I think that pretty much covers it, don’t you think?
