Paul McCartney Electrifies New York’s 575-Capacity Bowery Ballroom With Career-Spanning Set: Concert Review

“Hey, that was a Beatles scream!” Paul McCartney said, responding to a female audience member’s shriek midway through his exuberant set at New York’s Bowery Ballroom on Tuesday night. “Okay girls, let’s get it over with: Let’s hear your Beatles screams.” A huge percentage of the audience complied, producing a credible impersonation of the shrieks that shook the world in 1964 while McCartney stood, nodded in mock appraisal, and then said, “OK that’s enough.” While some would have basked in the moment, Sir Paul has probably heard enough screaming in his 83 years to burst a thousand eardrums.

But for the lucky people in the room, it was a night worth screaming over: Seeing Paul McCartney and his ace band play a 575-capacity venue that later in the month is hosting shows by such artists as Bartees Strange, Willow Avalon and Jesse Welles. It was announced suddenly at noon, with no advance warning: In six-and-a-half hours, McCartney and band will take the stage at the Bowery, physical tickets only at the box office, first come first served (one colleague who bolted downtown was heartbreakingly shut out when he was third in line from the front). And at 6:44 p.m. on the nose, the band — led by McCartney — walked down the narrow stairs leading from the Bowery dressing room to the stage and launched straight into “A Hard Day’s Night,” soaring through a tight but relaxed set that featured lots of banter, much of it directly with audience members.

And there was plenty to shout about: Although McCartney said they’d had just one rehearsal the day before, this band — his four-piece of guitarists Rusty Anderson, guitarist-bassist Brian Ray, keyboardist Wix and powerhouse drummer Abe Laboriel, accompanied on some songs by a three-piece horn section — has been together for a dozen-plus years and has toured nearly every one of them, so it’s safe to say they’re tour-tight even after one rehearsal.

And the setlist, a tightened version of the two-plus hour set of McCartney’s last tour, spanned McCartney’s entire recorded career, from 1963 (“From Me to You”) to his 1970s solo hits and even last year’s “final” Beatles song, “Now and Then.” In between, of course, was nearly every song you’d need to hear: a big crowd singalong on “Obladi-Oblada,” blazing romps through “Get Back,” “Jet,” TK and TK; deeper cuts like “Letting Go,” “Let Me Roll It” and “Mrs. Vandebilt”; acoustic songs like “I’ve Just Seen a Face” and a solo “Blackbird.” To his credit, McCartney has switched up the set on nearly every tour he’s done in recent years, and the band has a vast repertoire at its fingertips. As always, McCartney switched between bass, guitar and piano, and he was in strong voice, hitting essential high notes with ease but without overdoing it. While all of the bandmembers are strong musicians, Laboriel is the most interesting: a bruising drummer who makes the most of his very small kit, he has been allowed much more room to roam than most of McCartney’s accompanists, dropping complicated fills in between the beats but always holding it down.

But the most remarkable thing about the show — well, apart from Paul McCartney performing 15 feet in front of you — was the banter. McCartney is usually quite chatty during his shows, but everyone knows his jocular comments in arenas aren’t actually directed at any one person even if he makes it seem that way. Here, he was responding directly to fans’ shouts.  McCartney often talks a lot during his sets, but this time he could actually hear what the audience members were shouting to him, which was usually “We love you!” or calls for relatively obscure songs. After one man shouted loudly for his flop 1980 single, “‘Temporary Secretary,” McCartney chuckled and said to the band, “Can we work that one in?”; after another shouted “Yeah!” to a mundane comment, he replied, “You’ll say ‘Yeah!’ to anything!”

After a rousing finale of “Lady Madonna,” “Let It Be” and a massive “Hey Jude,” McCartney and the band bowed and exited the stage precisely 90 minutes after they’d walked onto it (probably by accident, but they’re such a well-oiled machine that it wouldn’t be surprising if it was intentional). But of course, they were back for an encore after just a couple of minutes: The “Golden Slumbers-The End” finale of “Abbey Road,” which saw McCartney, Anderson and TK trading off the famous guitar solos while Wix held down the bass on keyboards. It’s an impossible song to follow (except with “Her Majesty,” which he didn’t) and the band took another bow and walked off.

“This has been a blast — we’ve looved it,” McCartney said, speaking for seemingly every person lucky enough to be in the room. And as much as it felt like a once-in-a-lifetime moment, we couldn’t help but notice that both of the Max McNown concerts originally scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday at the Bowery have been moved to the Irving Plaza. Hmmmmm…..