Paul McCartney Recites Shakespeare, Delivers 'A Show for the Ages' in San Antonio: Concert Review
Given that Sir Paul McCartney regularly sells out arenas that seat 50,000 people, it was anyone’s guess what his production — usually filled out by giant graphics screens, pyrotechnics and plenty of moving parts — would look like in San Antonio’s 1,750-capacity H-E-B Performance Hall at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, where he played a gig to benefit the newly renovated venue Wednesday night. Amazingly, it was nearly the same setup but on a smaller scale. For those familiar with his recent Out There tour, which has been moving full-steam ahead since just before McCartney released sixteenth studio album New in late 2013, the only things really missing were side-stage jumbotrons, the rising platform during his tear-jerking solo acoustic run of “Blackbird” and about a dozen tunes, which cut his set down from the typical 40 to 28 and shortened it by nearly an hour. They even managed to light off enormous plumes of pyro during Wings mainstay “Live and Let Die” without torching the ceiling (though not without making more than a handful fans nearly leap out of their seats in fright).
While audience members, who paid anywhere from $200 to $3500 for tickets, were loath to stand up and participate in any way for the bulk of the night, the massive impact of those elements — combined with the 72-year-old Beatle’s still unyielding on-stage charisma — finally took effect around song 20, “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” which injected enough adrenaline via massive handclaps and sing-alongs to keep the people on their feet for the remainder of the night. Macca, however, was feeling the momentousness of a show in such an intimate space much earlier on.
