Reviewed July 25, 2008
Paul McCartney 400th anniversary of Quebec City
by Ron Hollywood

photo by Ron Hollywood

Over 200,000 people ready to celebrate Quebec City’s 400th anniversary with living legend, Sir Paul McCartney. One could not ask for a better night of celebration with 41 songs performed in 2 and a half hours, perfect weather, good vibes all around, and excellent music all set on a historic landmark like the Plains of Abraham. Paul and band opened with Jet. It was impressive to have a crowd of this size singing along to the chorus of “oo-oo-oo-oo-oo”. Sir paul quickly acknowledged being in the heart of Quebec with a “Bonsoir les Quebecois! Bonsoir toute le gang!” Then came the first of many Beatles songs with a rocking Drive My Car.

Paul has a good sense of humour and used it in his many in between song comments such as “Je parle seulement un petit peu francais… so I will be speaking english.” Later on in the night he would adapt his sense of humour in the ending of Good day Sunshine by constantly repeating it over and over and just when you thought that was it he’d come back to the mike and sing again.

It’s also nice to see him switch from playing bass, piano and guitar. His guitar playing shone on Let Me Roll It which included an instrumental guitar outro of Jimi Hendrix’s Foxy Lady. The tributes would continue throughout with a dedication to Linda McCartney on My Love, a ukele reworking of Something for George Harrison, and A Day In The Life for John Lennon that included a medley of Lennon’s Give Peace A Chance, which lead into one of many enthusiastic singalongs. It was only fitting he dedicated Birthday to Quebec City’s 400th anniversary.

While Paul played songs from his career in Wings like Band On The Run the material relied heavily on The Beatles songs like Penny Lane, Back In The U.S.S.R. or the rare I Got a Feeling. He also played solo songs from his more recent releases without much success. After singing My Love he asked the crowd if “they were having a good time.” After a hearty cheer he said “yeah well I’m about to change that.” Truer words could not have been spoken as he played A Fine Line from his Chaos and Creation album. The entire mood just died since almost no one is too aware of Paul’s more recent material. This happened again on Calico Skies or Only Mama Knows songs that no one knew are cared too much about. The only recent material that got a good reaction was his latest single from Memory Almost Full called Dance Tonight. Playing the mandolin the upbeat catchiness of Paul singing “Everyone gonna dance tonight” had everyone clapping and dancing along. Oddly enough he played Coming Up at soundcheck but for whatever reason it was not payed during the show. It’s a hit and would have worked very well.

Speaking of working well I cannot write this review without mention of the impressive opening from Montreal rocker’s The Stills. They have all the right elements to become ‘the next big thing’ in their songs, talent, stage presence and opening for McCartney adds an extra boost of credibility. They even had an interesting lineup of masked drummers come out and beat away. We at 10scalereviews look forward to giving them some support as their new Cd Oceans Will Rise comes out in August. Pascale Picard band was the second opener and fell somewhere in between a musical cross of vinatge K.D. Lang and Sarah McLachlan. Unlike The Stills, I was left unimpressed.

The major highlights came at the end with shooting flames and fireworks display during Live And Let Die. There was the singalong “Na na na na” on an excellent version of Hey Jude. Paul came out waving a fleur des lys flag for the first of two encores all consisting of Beatles songs like Get Back,or I Saw Her Standing There. One the second encore he wore a Quebec jacket and sang a peaceful Yesterday. He finished the night with Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band that had Paul and his two guitarists trading solo lick after lick and finally throwing in the coda of The End featuring the lyrics “And in the end, the love you get is equal to the love you give.” This was truly felt on a perfect night between Paul Mcartney and 200,000 people for Quebec’s 400th anniversary.

Jet
Drive My Car
Only Mama Knows
All My Loving
Flaming Pie
Got To Get You Into My Life
Let Me Roll It / Foxy lady
C Moon
My Love
Let Em In
Fine Line
The Long And Winding Road
Dance Tonight
Blackbird
Calico Skies
Follow The Sun
Michelle
Mrs Vanderbilt
Eleanor Rigby
Something
A Day In A Life / Give Peace a Chance
Good Day Sunshine
Too Many People / Bathroom Window
Penny Lane
Band On The Run
Birthday
Back In The USSR
I Got A Feeling
Live And Let Die
Let It Be
Hey Jude

encore
Lady Madonna
Get Back
I Saw Her Standing There

2nd encore
Yesterday
Sgt. Peppers / The End

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