It was a “you needed to be there” second, and for about 4,000 fortunate lottery ticket holders on the Santa Barbara Bowl on Friday night time, they have been. The event was a shock, one-off efficiency by Sir Paul McCartney and his longtime touring band, a gown rehearsal for the Beatle’s 2025 Acquired Again tour, formally kicking off in Palm Springs’ Acrisure Enviornment on Monday night time.
As such it was a possibility to witness McCartney, 83, interpret his hits in about as intimate a venue as conceivable, an outside amphitheater carved right into a hillside of the coastal city. So quaint was the setting, parking was positioned on the close by highschool.
The outcome was one thing of a quasi-religious expertise for all in attendance, a rock ‘n’ roll revival with nothing lower than fashionable music’s God on the pulpit. Spied among the many crowd: Adam Levine and spouse Behati Prinsloo with their three younger kids in tow.
There have been moments all through the night of pinch-me-this-can’t-be-happening pleasure and shock, they usually started on the very prime, when McCartney — trying 20 years youthful than his pure age, and in astoundingly good voice, regardless of what on-line nitpickers and naysayers may declare — launched into the Beatles‘ “Assist!,” what’s usually thought of a John Lennon track that McCartney has by no means earlier than performed in full.
That it was a no-phones efficiency, requiring company to lock away units in Yondr pouches as they wound their manner as much as the sector, solely added to the bottled-lightning pleasure of the present. Scanning the group a number of instances all through the night, the one issues glowing have been the beaming faces of the 1000’s of starry-eyed McCartney-ites in attendance. “No one’s obtained a telephone tonight,” McCartney famous at one level after which nodded approvingly. “It’s higher.”
There have been love letters a-plenty that night time, together with a dedication of his 2012 solo track “My Valentine” to McCartney’s third and present spouse, Nancy Shivell; the tune got here to him throughout an early courtship date in Morocco.
Whereas promoters careworn that the present didn’t function the full-scale manufacturing of the approaching area tour, it did function a great deal of laser lighting and projection, together with, reasonably inexplicably, some pre-recorded video of Johnny Depp and Natalie Portman decoding lyrics with signal language, or some variation thereof. Depp then picked up a guitar and strummed alongside to McCartney’s stay guitar solo.
The creative selection of that includes Depp was the only real head-scratcher of the night — however McCartney’s loyalty to the Pirates of the Caribbean star although his varied authorized and reputational travails seems to be as strong as Norwegian wooden.
Later, the love letters have been directed at Beatles bandmates and inventive collaborators. To listen to McCartney inform Beatles tales earlier than launching into a few of the most beloved and acquainted melodies ever written is a present, and the fortunate few in attendance held on his each phrase.
“We’re gonna take you again in time,” McCartney supplied at one level. “To a bit of city in Northern England referred to as Liverpool, the place 4 younger males fashioned a gaggle.
“And did reasonably effectively,” McCartney added with attribute understatement.
That led to a salute to producer George Martin — “a sensible, humorous man,” McCartney recalled — and a rendition of the Beatles’ debut single, 1962’s “Love Me Do,” which reached No. 1 within the U.S. two years later. Lennon’s acquainted harmonica line was replicated by Paul “Wix” Wickens, McCartney’s keyboardist and musical director since 1989.
Alongside Wickens, McCartney was backed by the Sizzling Metropolis Horns brass part and his venerable band, together with guitarist Rusty Anderson, guitarist-bassist Brian Ray, and drummer Abe Laboriel Jr., the final of whom carried out a pleasant rendition of the Macarena on “Dance Tonight,” a 2007 single from McCartney’s Reminiscence Virtually Full solo album.
“That’s all of the choreography within the present tonight,” McCartney joked.
However McCartney is a one-man-band in his personal proper, and would play the upright piano, the grand piano, the mandolin, the electrical and acoustic guitars and his trademark Hofner bass earlier than the night time was by means of.
“Once we first obtained [to America],” McCartney later famous, “you couldn’t hear our music for the women’ screams. Give me a Beatles scream!” The viewers responded — although one sensed that regardless of the Santa Barbara Bowl’s enthusiasm, nothing would ever examine to the ear-piercing decibels of peak Beatlemania. “Think about attempting to play by means of that!” McCartney added, nonetheless visibly amused and a bit shell-shocked at their Ed Sullivan Present-era American reception.
By the point McCartney took middle stage alone to carry out “Blackbird” with a guitar (he later admitted aid at having not “messed it up … it’s obtained a number of modifications!”), the momentousness of the event had totally set in. And he hadn’t even but performed “Let It Be,” which he defined got here to him in a dream wherein his departed mom informed him no to fret about struggles he’d been having with alcohol; led the group in a rousing sing-along of “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” that would have felt simply as simply at dwelling in a crowded Liverpudlian public home; or blown the roof off the roofless joint with an explosive rendition of “Stay and Let Die,” his 1973 James Bond mega-banger.
There was additionally “Now and Then,” the “new” Beatles track that got here collectively by means of A.I. know-how and was accompanied by a (presumably A.I.-assisted?) psychedelic animation that introduced collectively younger Beatles, growing old Beatles, deceased Beatles, dwelling Beatles, all as if to say, “We’re nonetheless collectively, wherever we’re, and we’ll by no means be aside.” The sentiment supplied an efficient emotional punch. “Thanks, John, for writing that lovely track,” McCartney stated.
Even at 83, McCartney’s vocals come totally alive when he’s belting, as evidenced in a six-song encore that included “Helter Skelter” and the “Golden Slumbers”/”Carry That Weight”/”The Finish” suite that closes Abbey Street. Fittingly, “The Finish” was the final track ever recorded by all 4 Beatles, and the songs have been accompanied by band members waving big flags: a Stars and Stripes, a Union Jack and — take notice, America — a LGBTQ+ rainbow flag.
“And in the long run the love you’re taking is the same as the love you make,” McCartney sang, in what would turn into one in every of his most indelible lyrics. If that’s the case, he’s entitled to all of it.
Setlist for Paul McCartney on the Santa Barbara Bowl, Sept. 26, 2025:
Assist!
Coming Up
Acquired to Get You Into My Life
Let Me Roll It/Cunning Girl
Getting Higher
Let ‘Em In
My Valentine
Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-5
I’ve Simply Seen a Face
Love Me Do
Dance Tonight
Blackbird
Now and Then
Girl Madonna
Jet
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
Get Again
Let It Be
Stay and Let Die
Hey Jude
Encore:
I’ve Acquired a Feeling
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Membership Band (Reprise)
Helter Skelter
Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The Finish
“Acquired Again” tour dates for 2025:
September 29 — Palm Desert, CA — Acrisure Enviornment
October 4 — Las Vegas, NV — Allegiant Stadium
October 7 — Albuquerque, NM — Isleta Amphitheater
October 11 — Denver, CO — Coors Discipline
October 14 — Des Moines, IA — Casey’s Heart
October 17 — Minneapolis, MN — U.S. Financial institution Stadium
October 22 — Tulsa, OK — BOK Heart
October 29 — New Orleans, LA — Smoothie King Heart
November 2 — Atlanta, GA — State Farm Enviornment
November 3 — Atlanta, GA — State Farm Enviornment
November 6 — Nashville, TN — The Pinnacle
November 8 — Columbus, OH — Nationwide Enviornment
November 11 — Pittsburgh, PA — PPG Paints Enviornment
November 14 — Buffalo, NY — KeyBank Heart
November 17 — Montreal, QC — Bell Centre
November 18 — Montreal, QC — Bell Centre
November 21 — Hamilton, ON — TD Coliseum
November 24 — Chicago, IL — United Heart
November 25 — Chicago, IL — United Heart