Let It Be

Sunday, August 7, 2011

We saw a Beatle! No, not a yucky little bug. One of THE Beatles! SIR PAUL MCCARTNEY came to Cincinnati and performed at the Great American Ball Park (Red’s Stadium) and WE saw him!!!

Let me begin this story at… well, the beginning.

So the week before Father’s Day, Mom, Nick and I were trying to figure out what to get dad. We figured a surprise family trip to a Red’s game would be a nice gift. Plus some extra spoiling of course. Well, the next day, right smack on the front page of the paper is the announcement of Paul (we’re on a first name basis) coming for a concert here in Cincy. What a great idea!

However, I like surprises. Like, a lot.

Dad knew we had been trying to figure out what to do for him for Father’s Day. And Dad reads the paper every  morning before heading to work. So CLEARLY, Dad knows what’s up. The rest of the week, we don’t talk about Paul and Dad never mentions Paul- so he OBVIOUSLY knows about Paul.

Morning of Father’s Day we wake up, make him breakfast and blast some Beatle’s, Wings, and McCartney songs. Then reveal some tickets… Red’s tickets for that afternoon. You could totally see his split second ‘ohhh, thought I was getting something else’ look on his face. But he knew it would be fun either way!

Entering into Red’s stadium is a HUGE wall banner announcing Paul’s concert. So I say, “Oh wow! Paul McCartney’s coming here?!” And Dad replies with a “Yeah, it’s been all over the radio and the paper this week (DUH)”  So we continue the conversation with some “huh, that would maybe be cool” “I doubt he’d be that good, now that he’s so much older” “He’s got great songs though” “I bet there’s gonna be a ton of old people” and random plus-es and minus-es. You could just see just how hard Dad was trying to not geek out over it, and just play it cool. Like seeing a legend live would be not EPIC.

Anyways, we head up to our seats, watch the game, get some peanuts and pops. Then there’s finally a huge announcement throughout the park about how Sir Paul McCartney is coming to perform at the GAB in August, and I pull an envelope out of my purse, hand it to dad- “Oh yeah, we forgot to tell you about these.” And when he pulled out the tickets, his face lit up like a kid at Christmas. He definitely didn’t see Paul tickets coming after all our talk.

ONTO THE CONCERT

Sir Paul McCartney is every bit of a legend and superstar that we could have pictured. He played straight jams for over 3 hours! The man is 69! (Throughout the night, his age ranged from 60s to mid 70s, but he is officially 69 YEARS OLD!)

His voice is still pitch perfect with some power in it. He rocks his many different guitars and the piano. He bopped around the stage during songs, and was a total little kid talking to the audience. Nick and I believed it to be nerd swag. Maybe it’s old, nerd, brit swag. But he’s got it, whatever it is.

He played a ton of Beatles jams, some Wings stuff, and a few of his solo songs. It was so amazing to see such a wide range of ages and types of people just loving every minute of it. And personally, it was SO cool to share this night with my dad. My dad LOVES the Beatles, and he’s lead my brother and I to love them as well. So being able to sing and dance to all the songs together was so special. (And for once Dad knew most of the words to the songs).

It’s hard to pick out my favorite songs and moments, because everything was just that good. But I’ll admit I’m partial to Something. And he did a beautiful rendition, starting it just on the ukelele and growing it to a full band, rocking out performance. Live and Let Die was another KILLER performance. With fireworks and explosions and everything it was just a crazy, ‘holy moly’ few minutes.

I could keep writing and writing about how amazing this night and concert was but this entry is already way too long. Bottom Line: Sir Paul McCartney is a G. And sharing this magical night with my Dad and Brother is one memory that I will cherish for the rest of my life.