Paul McCartney took the stage at Columbus’ Nationwide Arena on Nov. 8 and turned a monumental two-hour-and-45-minute set into an unforgettable memory for nearly 20,000 fans.
McCartney and his longtime band performed a career-spanning set for his stop on the “Got Back Tour,” moving seamlessly between classics from different periods of the Beatles, Wings and his solo work.
The scale of the stage and production match the catalog and music they help present. Leading up to the show, the two floor-to-ceiling arena screens on both sides of the stage show a scroll of artwork interwoven with photos of McCartney’s larger-than-life past and present, like a surreal timeline leading up to showtime. Once the scroll of images comes to an end with McCartney’s iconic Hofner bass as the final image, the lights go down. The crowd fills the arena with cheers as McCartney leads the band onto the dimly-lit stage with the same Hofner bass in hand.
They opened with Beatles classic “Help,” before launching into the effervescent 1980 disco-funk solo hit, “Coming Up,” which incorporates the stage-length, ceiling-high screen behind the stage for the first time that night, with the song’s iconic video blending perfectly into the performance onstage.
The band is spread across the large plane of the stage with McCartney’s grand piano at the top right, opposite a backlit trio of horn players, the Hot City Horns, dancing in unison between brass sections of Beatles classics like “Got to Get You Into My Life” and the high-drama Wings barn burner “Letting Go.”
There are certain things you notice seeing someone like Paul McCartney, from the obvious, like the immediately identifiable, fun-loving smile on his face, to more minute details, like gestures, movements and stances that call back to footage of The Beatles at the height of Beatlemania, when McCartney’s knees go together at one point when he’s really digging into a song or even how his tailored pants fit the same. They could be the ones he wore on Ed Sullivan or in the promo video for “Paperback Writer.” During Wings hits like “Let Me Roll It” and “Jet,” you’re reminded of the band’s arena shows that helped define the rock and roll show at that level.
The production is as grand as any on the road now while maintaining a certain refinement, serving the performance and music almost perfectly. The two crane cameras that provide sweeping cinematic shots of the stage and crowd at key moments catch fans dressed as McCartney in different eras, adding to the fun. You also notice the range of ages in the arena. There’s a mix of old and young in the audience and even some very young fans, like the little boy dancing and shaking his head the whole night just across the aisle from me.
After giving the crowd a taste of the classics they were in for, McCartney pivoted to the 2018 single “Come On to Me,” showing his still-more-than-impressive range on the microphone. He moves to electric guitar to play the incendiary riff for Wings hit “Let Me Roll It” and he and the band soar in the chorus.
There’s an emotional weight to seeing McCartney perform. This guy met Elvis, played shows with Little Richard and is an influence on nearly every musician that has come after him. He’s one of the most identifiable people on the planet — the voice and mind behind some of the most timeless, beautiful music of the modern era. To get to be there and have the opportunity to see him demonstrate song by song just why means so much.
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band classic “Getting Better” elevates the arena even higher with visuals and music working hand in hand. The large screen on stage shows flowers sprouting from the ground in scenes of ruins and, later, a zoomed-in time-lapse video of vibrant, technicolor budding flowers that recall the vibrancy of the record cover for the “getting better all the time” chorus.
McCartney then moved to the grand piano for a string of dynamic performances, including one of the most gritty versions of Band on the Run track “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five” I’ve seen, with laser light driving the building crescendo and emotion higher and higher. The audience gets just enough time to catch its breath before McCartney plays the immediately recognizable piano intro to one of his biggest solo releases, ”Maybe I’m Amazed” — a performance that’s so powerful and perfect that it’s overwhelming, in the best way. It’s one of the greatest performances I’ve seen with his voice still filled with so much emotion, passion and grit at 83, and the band pulling off every turn and highlight of the radio classic to perfection.
Then, McCartney moves back down front, this time on acoustic guitar, and leads the band through “I’ve Just Seen a Face,” off Help, with what seems like the whole building singing along, unprompted, creating another poignant moment.
After the song, McCartney points out some of the many signs in the crowd, including one that says it’s their 143rd time seeing him. When the camera catches the person next to him whose sign says it’s their first time seeing McCartney, there’s a wave of laughter in the crowd. He adds levity at times throughout the show as he has since the beginning when the four Beatles would goof around onstage. The sense of fun, alongside the beauty of the songs and weight of the moment, brings another thought to mind that this might be the biggest gathering of people experiencing joy I’ve ever seen.
A pared-down version of the group then gathered centerstage, standing around McCartney, and performed a handful of songs with basic arrangements that acted as a refreshing and impressive segment of the varied show. They started with “In Spite of All the Danger,” the first song Lennon, McCartney and Harrison ever recorded when they were still The Quarrymen in 1958, still a few years before fellow Liverpool musician Ringo Starr joined. Another highlight is a performance of “Love Me Do” that this configuration of the group does picture-perfect to the Beatlemania-inducing record from 1963. McCartney introduced the song, referencing working in Abbey Road and with a tribute to George Martin, recalling him as a “beautiful individual” that they were “privileged to run into.”
This portion of the set ends with a late career standout track from 2007’s Memory Almost Full, the upbeat and kinetic “Dance Tonight.” Longtime drummer Abe Laboriel Jr.’s dancing is infectious, causing McCartney to crack a smile anytime he caught a glimpse. This was just as I caught my own glimpse of a beaming, bespectacled woman, close to McCartney’s age, dancing down the aisle beside me, her yellow sweater as bright as the look of joy on her face.
The band left the stage and McCartney stepped onto a platform at the front of the now bare stage before delivering a moving performance of “Blackbird,” as it lifted him slowly up into the air. Later, he defined the song’s intent to inspire those dealing with injustice during the ‘60s Civil Rights Movement.
Now high above the crowd, he paid tribute to Lennon with the song written after his death, “Here Today,” and recalled how he wanted to write a song that said the “I love you” featured in the song’s lyrics.
The tribute continued with McCartney, now on piano, backed by the band for the newest Beatles release “Now and Then,” finished in 2023 from a Lennon demo, for another emotional performance that McCartney concluded by saying, “Thank you, John, for writing that beautiful song.”
The pace then picks back up with the driving 1968 piano rocker “Lady Madonna,” before going into soaring Wings favorite, “Jet,” all followed by psychedelic masterpiece “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite.”
By the time McCarney reaches for his ukulele to pay tribute to Harrison, who he explains had given him the instrument, the feeling in the air is on another level.
He begins to play a simple solo version of the Harrison-penned “Something,” backed only by the roar of the audience singing along before the band gradually joins in and McCartney grabs a guitar for a full-scale rendition of one of the most covered songs of all time while images of McCartney and Harrison play onscreen.
The momentum is building even more now as they go into the White Album-era song “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” a well-documented song that the other Beatles didn’t love.
With applause still going, the iconic title track “Band on the Run” starts up. McCartney band veteran Paul “Wix” Wickens plays its recognizable synthesizer line that flows through the arena like a breeze. When they get around to the wash of the “As the rain exploded with a mighty crash and they fell into the sun/The first one said to the second there” bridge, McCartney gestures to the crowd as he sings the next line, “I hope you’re having fun,” as if he even had to ask.
“Get Back,” featuring newly-restored footage from the recent The Beatles: Get Back documentary, is followed by the tender and beautiful “Let It Be,” possibly the best pop song of all time, for another highlight of the night. This is a recurring theme, where a majority of the songs that make up the setlist could close out any other show on a high note, but because of his unprecedented catalog, things keep on going.
With McCartney still at the piano, the lights go down and guitar players Rusty Anderson and Brian Ray vamp on a riff before McCartney sings the opening line to 1973 hit “Live and Let Die.” An explosion of flames, fireworks and lights accent the unbridled energy of the song that is as cinematic as the 1973 Bond movie it was written for.
With confetti shaken loose from the rafters still floating in the air, McCartney moves to his piano facing the audience and sings the line, “Hey Jude,” the start of the timeless ballad. When he reaches the chorus, the people selling hot dogs and beer must be singing along because the crowd is louder than ever, with an atmosphere of pure joy floating in the air. The band takes a bow and walks off.
McCartney returns to the stage within seconds to introduce the next song, saying “it’s very special to me and you’ll see why” before launching into the seamless Lennon-McCartney collaboration, “I’ve Got a Feeling.” When Lennon’s part comes around, he appears crystal clear onscreen in footage from the legendary rooftop performance with his vocal coming through like he’s in the room. McCartney is turned, watching Lennon before stepping back to the microphone to blend their voices, in real time.
After a quick run through of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Reprise,” McCartney is inspiring in a sweltering performance of “Helter Skelter” that is juxtaposed by the beauty of pieces from the Abbey Road medley, “Golden Slumbers” and “Carry That Weight.”
As the night proves, McCartney has been carrying the weight of one of the biggest legacies in music history now for over 50 years with grace, while continually moving forward.
As Laboriel plays the lone drum solo Starr put on record, McCartney moves down to centerstage to trade guitar solos with Anderson and Ray just as he did with Harrison and Lennon in their final recording session together, followed by McCartney’s famous line, “And in the end/The Love you take/Is equal to the love you make.”