Sir Paul McCartney in Milwaukee!

The second leg of Paul McCartney's  "Back in the US" Tour opened Saturday,  September 21, 2002 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee.  And we were there!  After enjoying a delicious dinner of chunk beef enchiladas at our favorite Mexican restaurant, The Acapulco, we headed to the Bradley Center to witness a nearly surreal experience.

Having purchased our $120 tickets (yes $120 - and they were relatively cheap seats!) on eBay only days earlier, we had only a couple of days to anticipate the show.  But we were nevertheless quite excited as we made the 90-minute drive to Milwaukee, playing Wings CD's all the way.  Little did we know that Beatles songs would dominate the evening.

The night amounted to about 2 hours and 40 minutes of a massive walk through the Beatles songbook with such favorites as: "Eleanor Rigby," "Lady Madonna," "Let It Be," "Can't Buy Me Love," "All My Loving," "I Saw Her Standing There," "Fool On the Hill," "We Can Work It Out, and "Back in the U.S.S.R.," to name just a few.  We would have never guessed that Paul would open with "Hello Goodbye," as all bets were on newer material.

And Sir Paul didn't forget about Wings fans either.   All the '70s hits were there: "My Love," "Let Me Roll It," "Jet," "Let 'em In," "Band on the Run," and "Maybe I'm Amazed," among others.  "Live and Let Die" was particularly enjoyable, with lots of flash pots and fireworks.  He also sang 3 or 4 songs from his new album, unfortunately none of which was memorable.  But not all of his new material is nondescript - he sang "Freedom" first performed at the 9/11 Concert for New York, which is a great song.

McCartney sang solo for probably almost an hour during the middle of the show, singing songs like "Yesterday" and "Blackbird."  He explained that "bird" was slang to say "girl" in Liverpool, and that the song had been inspired by the 1960's civil rights movement in the U.S.  He also did tributes to John Lennon (a song off his new album?) and to George Harrison.  He told a sweet story about how George loved ukuleles, and he played "Something" in his honor on the ukulele - it was very cool.

Paul's renditions of "Here, There and Everywhere" and "Michele" were particularly nice, with the latter including accordion accompaniment to a backdrop of various Paris scenes.  Two unexpected surprises were hearing "It's Getting Better" and "She's Leaving Home" from the "Sergeant Pepper" album.  Indeed, this was the VERY first time he'd ever performed "She's Leaving Home" in concert.

Paul McCartney seemed to be a very nice man, spending plenty of time (but not too much) telling short stories to the audience.  People obviously cherish him, and he accepts their affection in an unassuming, non-egotistic way.

McCartney and his band concluded the set with "Hey Jude," inviting the audience to join in - so now we can honestly say that we have sung with Paul McCartney!  The evening ended with two encores, with the crowd still begging for more.  The last songs of the night were the "Sergeant Pepper Reprise" and "The End" concluding with the apropos lyrics, "and in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make."

And in the end, we felt that we had practically witnessed a Beatles concert.  At times, It was nearly overwhelming to think that the man who actually wrote all of those wonderful songs was right there singing them for us!  It was a magical show that we will never forget.

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Here's the Set List from the Show!