McCartney in DC

My 20-year-old son & I drove down from Pittsburgh to Washington, DC to see McCartney this weekend at FedEx Field, and it was the best decision I've ever made as far as choosing a concert. We had seats about 50 rows back, but two rows up on the side of the field, which neatly allowed us to stay seated through the entire show while those who had paid $200 more per ticket for field seats stood the entire time.

The sound was the best I've heard at any concert -- absolutely pristine. Plenty of bass, and that Hofner sounded great. Paul's still using Mesa Boogie amps. Brian Ray played an EB3 through Ashdown amps, and it also sounded great. Abe Laboriel is excellent on drums. It's hard to believe that five guys put out so much sound.

I heard Macca in 1992 in Pittsburgh with the "Flowers in the Dirt Band," and this band smokes 'em. Paul's voice was fine -- no hint of roughness, and he shouts those rockers better than any 67-year-old has a right to: "I'm Down," Helter Skelter," and "Only Mama Knows" were in the set. When I heard him in '92, his voice was shredded. Now, with more time between gigs, he apparently has time to rest. OK -- he doesn't sound like he did at 27, or even 47. But I'll take his current voice over the voice I've had all my life!

There are only a few dates left on this part of the tour, and I haven't heard when it will continue. If you're near Boston, Atlanta, Tulsa or Dallas, make the drive -- you won't regret it.

 

We went down on Thursday and arrived at the concert from our motel at 5:45 p.m. Gates opened at bit after 6. The only glitch we experienced was that very few of the temp "ushers" hired for the event had any clue where our seats were. We literally were two rows off the playing surface, but several of them told us our tickets were on level 3. I persisted and found someone to verify that I knew where our seats were. The show started at 7:30 but Macca didn't get on till just after 9 p.m. Seats weren't filled until just about 9, so I guess many people had problems getting there. I blame them -- if you know 60,000 people are going to converge on a venue, why wait til the last minute to arrive? I've waited longer for lesser acts to go on, so no problems there. After the show, we found our car easily and sat in traffic for about an hour to go 1.9 miles back to the motel. In Pittsburgh, this is average traffic time for any event at any of the stadiums because the traffic patterns around to the stadiums suck and you can't go anywhere except north without crossing a river on bridges that were built in the 1950s or before. Most of the access is via two-lane city streets. At least they had the foresight to build adequate access roads to FedEx. I'd go again.