What a night!

 I know I forwarded this article after our concert in Syracuse but I wanted to make sure I saved a copy and this seems like the perfect place to put it! (no, I didn't write it, but it pretty much sums it all up!)

Paul McCartney leads Syracuse to the fabulous fountain of youth (concert review, photos)

June 5, 2022

Either Sir Paul McCartney is lying about his age or he discovered the fountain of youth at some point.

The Beatles legend performed 36 songs during a nearly three-hour concert at the JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse on Saturday, mixing Fab Four classics like “Can’t Buy Me Love” and “Get Back” with his solo catalogs and Wings. It was his first show at Syracuse University Stadium since 2017 and the only stop in upstate New York on his 2022 “Got Back” tour dates.

“Welcome to Syracuse, Paul,” read several signs at the Dome.

“It’s good to be back,” McCartney told the crowd of some 35,000 fans at the start of the concert.

McCartney turns 80 later this month, but he still has the boyish charm of a mop singer who performed on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1964. He is one of the greatest songwriters in all-time, two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, won 18 Grammys and an Academy Award, and was a member of one of the most influential bands in music history.

Yet he’s still a humble, polite boy from Liverpool, thanking people for the signs they made – kudos to the guy who said he was attending his 127th McCartney show – or when they turn on their mobile phones for torch songs like “Let It Be”. He paid tribute to “the best team on the planet” for the amps and showmanship brought by 19 semis, acknowledging the roadies in a way lesser artists almost never do.

McCartney played with the crowd, smiling as he threatened to jump off the stage and crowd-surf, or joking about pyrotechnics during “Live and Let Die” being too old. (If it’s too loud, you’re too old, but we don’t believe you, Paul.) He also feigned modesty when the ladies shouted as they took off his coat.

“What? It’s just a jacket,” he said.

At one point, I swear to you he even pulled a Benjamin Button during “Hey Jude” and looked like he was 26 again, trying to cheer up John Lennon’s son by taking a sad song and making it better. 

McCartney was happy to share his youth with the entire audience, who jumped for joy during “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da”, danced to “Band on the Run” and acted like it was their 12th birthday during “Birthday Date.” The crowd ranged in age from grandparents and great grandparents to young adults and small children, but we were all drinking from Macca’s fountain of youth.

The only clues that McCartney himself is a 79-year-old “grandude” were his thin white beard and a voice that isn’t always as powerful as it was 60 years ago. His lively backing band and the crowd’s knowledge of nearly every lyric helped with the latter, however, and he showed his guitar skills are still top-notch during a “Foxy Lady” tribute to the late great. Jimi Hendrix.

Besides being forever young, McCartney’s greatest talent is storytelling. He revisited everyone we’ve heard before, like the formation of The Quarrymen and how George Martin helped the Beatles reach bigger stages. He held a ukulele and spoke wistfully of George Harrison before a rendition of “Something” by the Beatles.

This was the first event at the new JMA Wireless Dome, previously known as the Carrier Dome for 42 years. Signs inside and outside the stadium referred to it simply as the “JMA Dome”.

The running joke of the Carrier Dome was that it was named after an air conditioning company, but the building itself had no air conditioning – until last year. Now it’s sunny and cool even on a hot June night, although the irony reigns as it’s still difficult to get a wireless signal on your phone despite the Dome now being named after a company local wireless. (JMA Wireless is working on this.)

The stage setup for the show was fantastic, including 100ft high screens to help everyone in the back of the Dome see everything. The stage lifted McCartney to a platform during the solo acoustic songs “Blackbird” and “Here Today,” a moving letter to John Lennon that echoed through the stadium. Video visuals also complemented performances, such as psychedelic cartoons during “Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite” and footage of Lennon performing on a rooftop from Peter Jackson’s documentary “Get Back” for a virtual duet on ” I’ve Got a Feeling”.

Everything was well choreographed with no breaks. McCartney left the stage only briefly for a minute before the encore, quickly returning with flags for the UK, USA, Ukraine, Pride Month and New York State.

But the best moments were the unexpected moments, like McCartney’s drummer channeling Ringo Starr’s awkwardness during an accordion version of “Dance Tonight.” (He chose to dance the “Macarena” tonight, by the way.)

DJ Chris Holmes opened for it, playing remixes of Beatles songs like “Twist & Shout”, “Back in the USSR”, “Come Together”, “Why Don’t We Do It in the Road?” and “Revolution”. Almost none of the songs overlapped McCartney’s set list and allowed the biggest Beatlemaniacs to hear as many of their favorite songs as possible.

It’s wonderful to hear songs that make people happy, and it’s magical how young they make us feel. Let’s hope McCartney returns to Syracuse so we can all “come back” to that fountain of youth.

Paul McCartney performs at Syracuse University’s JMA Wireless Dome, Syracuse, NY on Saturday, June 4, 2022. 

Paul McCartney’s set list for June 4, 2022

At the JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse, NY

Can’t Buy Me Love (Beatles song)

Junior’s Farm (wings song)

Letting Go (Song of the Wings)

Got to Get You Into My Life (Beatles song)

To come to me

Let Me Roll It (Wings song) with Foxy Lady jam

Get better (Beatles song)

Let Them In (wing song)

My Valentine

Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five (wing song)

Maybe I'm amazed

I just saw a face (Beatles song)

In spite of all the danger (The Quarrymen song)

Love Me Do (Beatles song)

Dance tonight

Blackbird (Beatles song)

Here Today (tribute to John Lennon)

New

Lady Madonna (Beatles song)

Fuh you

To Benefit Mr. Kite (Beatles Song)

Something (Beatles song)

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (Beatles song)

You Never Give Me Your Money (Beatles Song)

She Came In Through The Bathroom Window (Beatles Song)

Get Back (Beatles song)

Band on the Run (Wings song)

Let It Be (Beatles song)

Live and Let Die (Song of the Wings)

Hey Jude (Beatles song)

Encore:

I’ve Got a Feeling (virtual duet with John Lennon’s rooftop performance video from the “Get Back” documentary)

Birthday (Beatles song)

Helter Skelter (Beatles song)

Golden Slumbers (Beatles song)

Carry That Weight (Beatles song)

The End (Beatles song)

Paul McCartney at Syracuse University’s JMA Wireless Dome, Syracuse, NY on Saturday, June 4, 2022.