Cirque de Soleil’s “Love” at the Mirage

By |2020-09-10T10:58:03-07:00June 30, 2020|Beatle-inspired, Beatles tributes, concert, Covers, Covers, Live, Sgt. Pepper|

Back on March 7, my husband and I saw Cirque de Soleil's Beatles-themed show Love at the Mirage hotel and casino in Las Vegas. I've been meaning to write this post for a while now, but the way things snapped shut right after that trip due to covid-19 has made it hard to figure out what to say about the experience. Please bear with this somewhat rambling account. I'd wanted to see the show for quite a while, and my husband proposed that we finally just go to Las Vegas for a weekend. We could combine seeing Love with catching up with [...]

McCartney Talks Carpool Karaoke

By |2019-06-21T11:14:32-07:00June 21, 2019|Interviews, Live, Liverpool, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Television, Uncategorized|

The Paul McCartney episode of Carpool Karaoke has been so wildly popular (about 130 million people have watched it on YouTube or Facebook, and it spawned an extended version as well) that it's hard to imagine that the show almost didn't happen. But it's true. McCartney and Corden in the car. I saw McCartney play at Globe Life Park in Arlington, TX on June 14 (another three-hour marathon, featuring 38 songs), and the tour program includes a lengthy interview with the following exchange: You made even more headlines when your appearance on Carpool Karaoke went globally viral, generating millions of views. And [...]

McCartney Opens Sacramento Stadium with a Bang

By |2016-10-11T17:31:36-07:00October 11, 2016|"New" album, concert, Live, McCartney: Man of the People, Paul McCartney, Uncategorized|

My view from the cheap(ish) seats. Paul McCartney opened Sacramento’s Golden 1 Center on October 4 the same way he closed down Candlestick Park two years ago – with a nonstop volley of songs. The opening chord of “A Hard Day’s Night” sounded, and tens of thousands of fans started screaming. The overall mood, though decidedly more decorous than the heyday of Beatlemania, was reminiscent of it. And as has become usual during the past few years, McCartney basked in it, drew energy from it, and played a nearly 3-hour set that included 38 songs. Most of the songs and anecdotes [...]

Eight Days A Week: 5 Great Things About Ron Howard’s Documentary

By |2022-08-25T17:28:11-07:00September 26, 2016|1963, 1964, 1965, Beatle History, Beatlemania, concert, Live, Movies, Uncategorized|

Getting ready to perform, during the suit-and-tie era. Ron Howard's Eight Days A Week documentary of the Beatles' touring years is excellent. Not perfect, not a definitive look at the totality of the Beatles' career, but very good at doing what it sets out to do. Howard does shy away from the unseemly elements of the Beatles' life on the road, most obviously the rampant sex. And he doesn't delve into the disenchantment that Lennon and Harrison later expressed about the experience of being Beatles. But Howard is aiming to show us what being on public display felt like for [...]

McCartney shakes it in St Louis

By |2016-08-16T12:02:38-07:00August 16, 2016|concert, Live, Paul McCartney, solo, Wings|

Waiting to sit in the stands of the sports arena. Paul McCartney proved he could still play, sing, and shake it at his show in St Louis last Saturday night. Looking loose and sounding in fine voice, McCartney was clearly having a capital time with the capacity crowd at Busch Stadium. And–almost unbelievably, given the high winds, lightning, and sheets of rain of the preceding night–it didn't even sprinkle. In most respects the 38-song setlist reflected the kind of Beatles-heavy mix McCartney has favored in recent years. It included 23 Beatles songs, 5 Wings songs, and 6 solo songs. But [...]

Fest for Beatles Fans Chicago 2015

By |2015-10-08T11:11:13-07:00September 29, 2015|Covers, Harrison family, Live, The Fest for Beatles Fans|

In the "better late than never" department, herewith some notes about attending a day of #ChiFest15 -- the first such I'd ever been to. My 16-year-old daughter accompanied me, and we met up with fellow Dullblogger Michael for part of the day. -- Nancy Carr Two Fest helpers -- the one in the white hat and sunglasses looked unnervingly like Yoko from some angles Events:  A lot, and quite varied. Most fell into one of the following categories: authors talking about their books, people with some affiliation with the Beatles talking (often about their books), and a grab bag of alternatives (sing along contests, a FABratory of Beatles-related science, [...]

McCartney in Dallas: A World-Class Balancing Act

By |2014-10-16T14:02:28-07:00October 16, 2014|"New" album, Live, Paul McCartney, solo, Wings|

NANCY CARR • My favorite moment of Paul McCartney's October 13 show in Dallas was a visual grace note. At the end of a song, as a stagehand came forward to take McCartney's Hofner bass and give him a guitar, McCartney held the vintage instrument up and balanced it one-handed, headstock down, body up. He looked at it, and the audience, teasingly, as if he might really let it fall. Seeing him let that elegantly long-necked bass—the same one he was playing 50 years ago in A Hard Day's Night—sway in the air was an astonishment. After a breathless second, the Hofner [...]

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