Say that 3 times fast!
A cover of Untrust Us by Crystal Castles
This is stunning. It's takes about a minute to get to the awesomeness. Its quite beautiful and worth the build up.
The Postal Service - Some Idealistic Future (Documentary)
This is a short, concise, 15 minute documentary about The Postal Service. It marks the 10 year anniversary of Give Up and the related tour.
Its pretty cool. I find it interesting because I saw that set when they kicked off the US portion of the 2013 'reunion' tour at this year's Sasquatch Music Festival, which is (kinda) Gibbard's "home turf". Its also interesting to hear them reminisce about the creation of the album, and to hear Gibbard discuss living in Capitol Hill Seattle, and only caring about indie pop.
Its pretty cool. I find it interesting because I saw that set when they kicked off the US portion of the 2013 'reunion' tour at this year's Sasquatch Music Festival, which is (kinda) Gibbard's "home turf". Its also interesting to hear them reminisce about the creation of the album, and to hear Gibbard discuss living in Capitol Hill Seattle, and only caring about indie pop.
Macca takes the stage in Grunge Mecca, epic Nirvana collaboration ensues!!
Paul McCartney is a surprisingly spry 71 year old and although his vocal chords are vintage you could barely notice anything but perfection during his Seattle performance of the Out There Tour. As you would expect, he put on a fantastic show. Macca can still rock and it was a pleasure and a thrill to see him perform.
The concert was an epic 39 song, three hour set of
classics from The Beatles,
Wings, and his solo
career, to a sold-out crowd of 45,000. It was a night of milestones and epic
surprises. Most notably…. Fucking Nirvana
joined the stage for the encores! I mean… COME ON! You do not get a better
surprise than that! Not only was it the first public concert at Safeco Field, it was (I
believe) the first time Nirvana
has played together in Seattle in almost 20 years!
Needless to say, seeing a reunion of Nirvana, in Seattle, at
the first concert at Safeco Field, playing “Helter Skelter”, jamming with Paul fucking McCartney, was the absolute apex
of my concert-going career. How can I top Grunge legends jamming with rock
gods? I don’t know, (but I’ll do my best to try).
When I originally heard that McCartney was touring through
Seattle, my original thought as a longtime huge Beatles fan was I am obligated
to buy tickets. Since classic rock doesn’t come cheap these days, I (almost
grudgingly) purchased the tickets. As the classic rockers age, the pressure is
ratcheted up to see them while you can. So I passed on the multi-thousand dollar
pit seats, and got cheap seats 3 rows from the top-top. But due to the Safeco Field’s
baseball-diamond shape, everyone has at
least decent seats, and I couldn't be more pleased with our vantage point. Personally,
had I passed up the opportunity to see this concert (especially in retrospect,
given the surprise cameos) I would be in a major depression right now.
There were many Beatles and Wings favorites. I thoroughly
enjoyed the Wings selections, as I have only recently gotten into the
post-Beatles McCartney discography. It
was just a completely awesome set, only
topped by the encores!
I’ll add some brief notes and discussion for each song. ALL of the videos are from the very comprehensive video coverage of the show thanks to YouTubers!
Eight
Days a Week (The Beatles song)
Excellent opener.
I would have picked just about any other song.
All My
Loving (The
Beatles song)
An oldie but a goodie.
Good song. Great performance. The horns were all done with some
electronic wizardry.
I LOVE THIS SONG! It is my recent favorite song, and seeing it
performed live was fantastic.
Foxy Lady (Jimi Hendrix cover)
As a tribute to Seattle, Paul did an homage to Seattle’s Jimi Hendrix by rocking this guitar cover! It was really cool. Paul then discusses the honor of Hendrix covering Sgt. Pepper 2 days after it's release. (see the 1:09 timestamp of the video for the discussion).
Paperback Writer (The Beatles song)
As a tribute to Seattle, Paul did an homage to Seattle’s Jimi Hendrix by rocking this guitar cover! It was really cool. Paul then discusses the honor of Hendrix covering Sgt. Pepper 2 days after it's release. (see the 1:09 timestamp of the video for the discussion).
Paperback Writer (The Beatles song)
Beautiful. Melodies were nicely done. Very glad this made the
setlist.
This song, written
as a wedding song for Nancy, is one of Paul’s new singles. Although it has
a very lounge-singer type vibe, it is quite beautiful. Paul said that Nancy was
at the show.
This was an excellent Wings selection. I like it a lot. It is
fun, and got people groovin’.
The
Long and Winding Road (The Beatles song)
I hate to say this, but I wasn’t feeling this song. Not that he
did a bad job with it… It a great song and it had to be played, but I just wasn’t
feeling it.
I was quite pleased to see this great song, which was written by Paul to Linda
during the break-up of the Beatles.
Its an ok song, but I would have picked from a plethora of better ones.
“Life is very short, and there's no time, For fussing and
fighting, my friend.”
I would have picked just about any other song. I dislike the
majority of this song.
And I
Love Her (The
Beatles song)
A nice selection.
Blackbird (The Beatles song)
He discussed how he wrote this song for African Americans
during the civil rights movement. It’s a great song and a it was a great performance.
This is an incredibly touching letter in the form of a song that Paul wrote
to John following his death.
I love this song. So great to see it live.
Lady
Madonna (The Beatles song)
Fun. “See how they RUN!”
All
Together Now (The Beatles song)
This was just absolutely silly. This song is just dumb, and the
graphics on the screen were stupid gelatinous blobs bouncing around, but I’ll
be damned if it wasn’t a crowd-pleaser. I don’t know why.
Lovely
Rita (The Beatles song)
This is a really fun song that got people moving.
Eleanor
Rigby (The
Beatles song)
Hauntingly beautiful. Probably of the more important songs for
me to have seen live.
Being
for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! (The
Beatles song)
This was the song he borrowed from John. It was very nicely
done. He then got the crowd to applaud John: “Let’s hear it for John!?”
Something (The Beatles song)
This was the song he borrowed from George. He began with an
anecdote about playing the ukulele with George, then he started it off with a ukulele
intro then they went fully into the song. This
song is so beautiful. He then got the crowd to applaud George: “Let’s hear it for George!?”
Ob-La-Di,
Ob-La-Da (The
Beatles song)
Fun.
It was great!
Back in
the U.S.S.R. (The Beatles song)
This is rocking Beatles song, which isn’t really my favorite,
but I loved it live.
Let It
Be (The Beatles song)
This speaks for itself. I mean what do you expect other than a
beautiful song.
Awesome. Pulled-out-all-the-stops Fireworks! PYROTECHNICS!!!! A pyromaniac’s fantasy. An epileptics’
nightmare.
and here is a wide view for the pyro's out there!
Perfect. Very moving.
Encore
1:
Day
Tripper (The
Beatles song)
Awesome.
Cut Me Some Slack
(the song by Sir Paul McCartney and Nirvana aka: “Sirvana”)
This is where he invited the Nirvana members onstage and everyone shat their pants.This song is pretty good upon further investigation. It was
written by McCartney and Nirvana during the making of the Sound City documentary on the
recording of the related, Sound City:
Real to Reel album.
This is a great underrated Beatles song and seeing it with
Nirvana, was just awesome.
This got everyone to their feet and twisting. Paul and Nirvana
had played it together when hanging out for Sound City. It was a fun addition
to the set.
Encore
2:
Yesterday (The Beatles song)
What do you expect other than a beautiful song.
Helter
Skelter (The Beatles song)
So. Fucking. Epic. Seriously, so ridiculous.
This deserves another video. Here is an interesting black and white effect.
Golden
Slumbers (The
Beatles song)
This was the beginning of the perfect beautiful 3-song ending
of the show. These songs are perfect, especially when played together as
written! Even more so when Nirvana joins
and jams!
Carry
That Weight (The Beatles song)
Love it.
"Boy.., you're gonna carry that weight, Carry that weight a long time"
The
End (The Beatles song)
"And in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love you make"
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Can I see it all again please?
Sirvana
For the encores, McCartney was joined onstage by original, surviving Nirvana members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic (along with Pat Smear) for several songs.
For those of you thinking this is an odd match-up, remember
that Paul and the Nirvana members paired up for Hurricane Sandy Relief,
and did an SNL set. The collaboration initiated when Grohl put
together a documentary on the recording studio, Sound City, where many great records
were made including, Nirvana’s Nevermind.
I must mention my annoyance at McCartney’s comment when Dave
contacted him about the project: "I didn't really know who they were. They
are saying how good it is to be back together. I said, 'Whoa? You guys haven't
played together for all that time?’ And somebody whispered to me, 'That's
Nirvana. You're Kurt.' I couldn't believe it." I mean just step down off
your high horse and admit you know who Nirvana is already, Paul!
To the naysayers talking about the sacrilege of Paul
“fronting Nirvana”. This doesn’t have anything to do with Kurt or John, etc. Kurt is
dead. Its unfortunate, but it’s a fact, so let’s move on. Let’s allow a bunch of
rockstars to play an epic set with other rockstars, (all of which are from
bands who are missing some original members). Nirvana is simply jumping at the
chance to play with their biggest idol and the person who inspired them to get
into music. See Sound City for
Grohl’s discussion about how the Beatles influenced Nirvana. It was an awesome
collaboration and for those of us lucky enough to see
it, there is no denying how amazing it was. Of course I would have loved to see
Nirvana in their element with Cobain
at a basement-show in Aberdeen, but I’ll
take Grunge legends jamming
with rock gods any damn day of the week!
Seeing the members of Nirvana also marks my most
“Seattle”-moment since living here (for about 2 years). It was quite cool.
There was a girl behind us talking about just moving to Seattle. After Nirvana
rocked out, I turned around and exclaimed, “Welcome to fucking Seattle!” I
mean, this was her introduction to Seattle!?!
She must be thinking that music collaborations of epic proportions
happen at concerts in Seattle every day. Haha. I wish this kind of thing happened more often.
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