(Concert Review): My Encounter with Las Vegas and Paul McCartney! 06-10-2011…..

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Paul McCartney Las Vegas Concert Review June 10, 2011 Live @ The MGM Grand!

(These are actual pictures taken of Paul McCartney @ The MGM Grand In Las Vegas Concert Review June 10, 2011 Live !)

My Encounter with Las Vegas and Paul McCartney! 06-10-2011

By Eric Turnbow   (Yes, of course  is My actual Ticket Silly)!

                       (Yes, of course  is My actual Ticket Silly)!

So first off let Me thanks our good friends Rene and Carole Emondt for generously giving Us two great tickets to see the Legend Paul McCartney. We were at another concert in Seattle one drizzly evening on  April 23, 2011 to see  Stevie Nicks and Rod Stewart perform  over at The Key Arena.  They  made this generous offer during a Classic Rock Dance-athon at a bar across the street from the show.  all they really  said was  “Make it happen, get yourself there to Las Vegas  and the tickets are Yours)! So what could we say to that? The tickets were about $200 apiece!

So Thanks again have to also out go to My Stop Mom Vikki Turnbow, who purchased our plane tickets and Hotel rooms as a special Birthday present for Me that year! This was a generous and well appreciated move that actually made the trip possible!  This entire 4 day vacation ended up only costing Me just under $200 and most of that was for food, very few souvenirs,  parking and and airport shuttle fees! But the entire thing added up was more like $1150!

         (Just departing Seattle on a trip to see Sir Paul in Las Vegas)!

WE left Olympia for Sea Tac Airport @ 2:15. we were on the plane and off by 4pm. WE flew to Long Beach and had to stay overnight because  we missed the connecting flight. They actually comped Us a room, and shuttle to the plane in the morning, but it cost Us a day in Vegas! WE ended up arriving in Las Vegas on the morning of the show at 8:40am.

                   (Here we are landing in Las Vegas on June 10, 2011)

We had to get settled in Our Hotel after a Shuttle Bus took Us there for $24 round trip and a few dollars in tips. WE were just blocks away from the MGM Grand because we planned it that way! It was the day of the show so we had to get right down to business!

We went on vacation to Las Vegas to see Paul McCartney at the MGM Grand on 06-10-2011 Watch cool video of the event! http://youtu.be/UR9P7ZuVgB4

The concert opened with a really cool slide show of all kinds of Images from Paul’s brilliant career. There was a DJ in a white Tux playing obscure Re-Mixes of the classic, as We watched the enormous screen roll through the classic poses.  It was sweet! After about a half hour of this, just past 8pm Paul strolled out on stage and we all jumped to our feet at Attention!  He was wearing a black sports coat and looking highly fashionable! He opened with “Magical Mystery Tour” which was fine by Me! The show included a few surprises for Me, perhaps when He played “1985″, and “Juniors Farm” 2 old Wings classics. I did not expect this! Another delight for me was when He played the ukulele on “Everybody’s Gonna’ Dance Tonight”. The drummer Abe, was doing the silly dances, including the macarena and putting on a real show in the back during this piece. He did not play that song when He saw him the last time in 2005!

Paul had played a Private Corporate party just the night before right  here in this very venue. So He had back to back shows and brought in Millions of Buckaroos!  The set lists were similar, with just a few song changes here and there between the evenings.  The show was a good 3 hours plus the slide show! Killer! That set list is posted at the bottom of this Review!

What was a VERY COOL moment at The Paul McCartney “Up and Coming Tour 2011″ in Las Vegas Nevada June 10, 2011? There was “Beatles Royalty” in the house! In about the third row, as you will see in this clip that Tributes the great John Lennon, look closely and you will see Yoko Ono and Her son Sean Lennon, and Olivia Harrison (George’s widow) , and Her son Dhanni.

                 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UR9P7ZuVgB4   There’s Sean and Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison at the show! Lots of celebrities this night! video http://youtu.be/oybV_feO4TQ

 

At the end of the show and everyone was exciting, the entire mob started singing “Hey Jude” at the top of their lungs and they pushed and shoved, herded just like cattle out of the venue and back into the Hotel. It was surreal, and yes, I had to join in on the fun! Of course! Paul has millions of loyal fans! Or is it Billions perhaps?

                      

You know that Rene is excited to see Paul!

 

                    

  Paul McCartney Las Vegas June 10, 2011 Set List! MGM Grand

                    (We were seated Row 218 Row H Seats 1 and 2)

                    

                                              (Las Vegas Map)

We went on vacation to Las Vegas to see Paul McCartney at the MGM Grand on 06-10-2011 Watch cool video of the event!
Some Facebook Feed back came in about The She!

Eric Turnbow  Bummer Barb. We did not eat there! We ate at Coco’s by the hoitel, and at the rainforest’s lounge in the MGM Grand. So I have happy memories. I went to the Hard rock in London!

  • Janet J. Jo Reed Hey, I’ve been to Hard Rock Detroit. Don’t be jealous.

  • Eric Turnbow  Never jealous Jo Jo! I hope it was fun for You!

  • Eric Turnbow  Barb…. I took most of these pictures myself! About 95 percent of them! Can I help it if I an that Good? HA! Nothing worth deleting over. But I will remove any shots people do not like without hesitation. Plus I an not profiting by my memories you know. It is all good…..

  • Eric TurnbowI clicked the box in settings and made it so that I own my pictures. You can do that. I take down anything anyone asks me to. No problems for years….

  • Eric TurnbowYes… It is a comforting thought Garth. He just added a bunch of dates to His “Up and coming Tour 2011″…. The same one we just saw!

    • Lisa BellDonnie and I have a favorite band….Yes of course it’s The Beatles…..I’m saying that with an English accent. ;)

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    • Mary Micale- Fosmark  Eric this was awesome , Glad you got to have fun …You have amazing friend’s to give you those ticket’s !!!

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    • Eric Turnbow Good choice Lisa! My favourite as well!

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    • Eric TurnbowThanks Mary! You bet! Great friends looking after Me that is for sure. This was a fun vacation, and a trip of the ages. After all we got to see Paul live did we not?

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THE HOTEL in Las Vegas  was Not great. The remote did not work. There was a burned out light in the bathroom. There was no coffee in the room. It was hot and humid and the air conditioner was not working at optimum levels.

I would have been satisfied with the overall price if we stuck to the Itinerary and did not miss a night in Vegas. We had to change our plans and get up early and pray for a standby flight! We could have missed the Paul McCartney show! (But we did not thankfully)!

We flew flight 293 from Seatac to Long beach on Thursday June 09, 2011. Our flight was delayed due to “Mechanical Problems” by almost 2 hours. The problem is that because of the delay we missed out connecting flight to Las Vegas. WE had to stay in Long Beach and miss an entire day of Vegas, as well as lose the Hotel reservation we had in Vegas. Had we flown on the day of The McCartney show we would have had to MISS the concert because of this mis-step.

We paid close top a grand for the tickets, airfare, and hotels. I would have been pissed if we missed the show, but lucky for Us we planned to arrive one night early. We did appreciate the comped hotel at Holiday Inn which turned our to be much much nicer than our Vegas flat. So thanks for that. But missing a night in Vegas was traumatic and unfair to us. We had such a short stay, this inconvenience was not good. All said, we did make the show and had a great time. But there should be an alternative travel plan like stitching to another airline just for that portion of the flight so we can arrive on the right day in accordance to our paid reservation and prior plans to hook up for dinner with the friends that generously GAVE us the tickets! That did not happen because we were in Californian and not Nevada! The full confirmation  number for the trip was 964E5880215……

After the incredible vacation we arrived back at Seatac Airport in Seattle at 9:10 pm putting Us at Home in Olympia By Midnight!

(Home sweet Home! Olympia Washington, Planet Earth)!

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Here is a few articles written by the Press for this occasion! History recorded from another’s point of view!  ENJOY!

Paul McCartney Live in Las Vegas June 10, 2011 MGM Grand

Paul McCartney and his current touring live band made a tour stop at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas , Nevada on June 10, 2011 as part of his Up And Coming tour. The crowd consisted of every age demographic from children to great-grandparents. McCartney’s appeal is universal as his music spans 4 decades with hits all along the way.

This stop’s timing made for a lot of interesting possibilities on this night as The Beatles Love  show in Las Vegas is celebrating its 5th anniversary of performances. McCartney recently released re-mastered versions of his McCartney and McCartney II albums. Right before the show started there was a buzz in the crowd near the stage and everyone near the front stood and started taking pictures and cheering. Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon, Olivia Harrison, George Martin and Giles Martin had arrived and taken their seats to enjoy this stop on Paul McCartney’  tour. It added a nice level of excitement to know that John Lennon’s Son and Widow were in the audience along with the  other members of The Beatles family. They were all in town to attend the Anniversary of The Beatles – Love show. The only member of the living Beatles family that was missing was Ringo.
The show was scheduled to start a 7:30 PM and Paul and his band took the stage promptly at 8:00. It was a fashionably late start to give the arena time to fill to capacity. Paul walked on stage wearing his Hofner bass guitar and a cool looking jacket. He started off the show with a rocking rendition of The Beatles song Magical Mystery Tour. The band then quickly launched into the Wings hit Junior’s Farm followed by All My Loving and Jet. It was a great high energy way to kick off the show.The stage was flanked by two large projection screens with a wide projection screen that stretched the width of the stage behind the stage as well. The screen behind the band flashed images, graphics and video clips that went along with the songs. The graphics to Jet were particularly nice with jet airplanes spelling out  the word “Jet” in contrails as the song played.McCartney paused at this point to thank the audience for coming and to give a shout out to Las Vegas jokingly calling it “Lost Wages”. He said he was going to take a second to drink it all in and crossed his arms on his bass and let the cheers and adulation of the crowd flow over him.
He then launched into Got To Get You Into My Life followed by Sing The Changes which is an excellent track from The Fireman project.The crowd’s energy was really picking up and Paul McCartney paused to take off his jacket and Hofner bass. He commented “Well, that’s the major wardrobe change for the evening barring a malfunction.” Paul, now dressed in a blue button up shirt with white collar, suspenders and black trousers strapped on a Gibson Les Paul and played the rocking Let Me Roll It. I thought that was an interesting choice as John Lennon hated that song and Yoko was in the audience but it still rocked hard and the band played it well.
At the end of Let Me Roll It McCartney and the band launched into the Jimi Hendrix riff from Foxy Lady and Paul did some fiery lead guitar work. Paul’s guitar skills are excellent and he really fired off some nice leads on this song. Paul then said “That was a tribute to the great Jimi Hendrix” and he told the story of meeting Hendrix in England. Paul told how he had gone to see Jimi Hendrix play two days after the release of the Sgt. Pepper’s album and Hendrix covered the song Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band at the show. McCartney told how Jimi had done some heavy whammy-bar tricks during the song and had knocked his Stratocaster wildly out of tune. Hendrix then called out to Eric Clapton who was in the audience as well and asked Eric to come up and tune his guitar. McCartney jokingly said that Clapton was trying to hide out in the audience! It was a great story for those of us that love the guitar.
      (Paul McCartney On stage Las Vegas June 10, 2011 MGM Grand )
McCartney then moved to the grand piano and played The Long And Winding Road followed by the Wings song Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five which was really excellent. He then sang Let ‘Em In followed by the excellent Maybe I’m Amazed from the album McCartney. Paul sang Maybe I’m Amazed especially well singing beautifully in tune with some excellent vocal improvisations.
The only thing revealing Paul’s age (68) was his voice being a little screechy on some of the falsetto notes but even then the man pours melody when he sings anything. I noticed that  the light show pretty much stopped during this song and at the end of it McCartney announced that the song wasn’t scheduled to be played and he sprung it on the road crew. He said it was funny to see the surprise on their faces when the band launched into Maybe I’m Amazed. It was definitely a high point in the show.
Paul then strapped on an acoustic guitar  and played I’m Looking Through You followed by a beautiful version of And I Love Her. He then talked about following the civil rights movement of the ‘60’s in the news while living in England and introduced the song Blackbird as a commentary on the civil rights movement. The lyrics of Blackbird are extremely relevant to the civil rights movement. Again, Paul’s guitar playing was perfection.Paul then talked about telling those that you care  about that you love and care about them before it becomes too late. He said “you just never know when you’ll see them again” and he introduced the song If You Were HereToday which he said he wrote about his good friend John Lennon. He shouted “Let’s hear it for John!” and the crowd stood and cheered for the great John Lennon. McCartney said the song was written from the point of view of sitting and having a conversation with John. There were some tears in the audience at this point. If you’ve ever wondered if Yoko had heard this beautiful song written for John Lennon  you can rest assured she has heard it now.
Paul then strapped on a mandolin and played his recent hit Dance Tonight whilst drummer Abe Laboriel Jr. did some sweet dance moves behind Macca including a bit of the Macarena.  McCartney then played Mrs. Vandebilt with the crowd singing the “Hey-Ho’s” at the top of their lungs. Paul then did a very excellent rendition of Eleanor Rigby with Paul Wickens playing all the string parts on the keyboard while Laboriel and guitarist Rusty Anderson sang backing vocals. The lighting was really cool during Eleanor Rigby with Anderson and Laboriel standing in shadows during the verses and stepping into the  light to sing the chorus.
Paul was handed a Ukulele’ and  proceeded to talk about the late great George Harrison. The crowd stood and roared their approval and voiced their love for the great George Harrison. Paul told how George was a great Ukulele’ player and had given Paul the Gibson Ukulele’ he was currently playing. He told how he visited George one evening and told him “I learned how to play one of your songs on the Ukulele’”. Paul then proceeded to play the Harrison classic song Something on the Ukulele’ with the band joining in for a lush and spectacular finish to the song. While the band played some excellent images of George and Paul together were put on the screen behind the stage bringing back memories of George’s vibrancy an youth.McCartney returned to his Hofner bass and the band played Band On The Run. Then McCartney asked the crowd to sing along with Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da commenting about  how the crowd the other night stopped singing when the band stopped playing. The crowd sang along at the top of their  lungs and as the camera panned the crowd and images were displayed on screen you could see the joy in the audience. The crowd really was enjoying this night! One of the cutest moments was when the camera zoomed in on a Father holding  his young child who was playing with a Paul McCartney doll. When the young man saw himself on screen his face lit up with  joy.
The band immediately launched into Back In The USSR and  nailed it.Macca then strapped on a sunburst Les Paul and played I’ve Got A Feeling with a sweet improvisational jam at the end with McCartney playing a wicked guitar solo. Paul then switched to an Epiphone Casino  guitar which he said was the same guitar played on theBeatles album. Paul commented “You may have noticed that we like to switch guitars a lot. That’s because we like to  show off! Just kidding.” The band played Paperback Writer to great applause. Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon, Olivia Harrison at Paul McCartney Concert Las Vegas June 10, 2011 Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon and Olivia Harrison Singing “Give Peace A Chance”

Las Vegas Paul McCartney Vacation 06-10-2011


Paul McCartney – A Day In The Life/Give Peace A Chance – MGM Grand Garden Arena Las Vegas 2011

Paul donned the Hofner bass and said it was a special night with special guests in the audience. He then introduced Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon, Olivia Harrison and the Martin’s in the audience and put them up on the big screen. The crowd roared their approval. Paul then played the beautiful Lennon/McCartney song A Day In The Life. Paul stopped singing it after the middle section and went into the Lennon song Give Peace A Chance with the crowd singing along at the top of their lungs. It’s a message that’s still relevant today and Yoko looked quite pleased as she  stood and sang along. I’m sure she was happy that McCartney was up there spreading the message on this night.

Paul then went back to the grand piano and played Let It Be. Then Paul pulled out all the stops and played the hard rocking Live And Let Die with some extremely awesome pyrotechnics and explosions. Live And Let Die was definitely a high point for the stage production. It was a bit awkward being placed so close to Give Peace A Chance and  Let It Be. Paul ended the main set playing an upright piano painted with a psychedelic design and performed the song Hey Jude.

The crowd cheered for an encore and McCartney and the band delivered Day Tripper and Get Back with Paul playing the Hofner bass. The band left the stage again and the crowd roared for more.For the 2nd encore McCartney came onstage with an acoustic guitar and played the Beatles classic Yesterday. He then strapped the Hofner bass back on and stepped it up big time by playing the song Helter Skelter  with McCartney again nailing the vocal parts.
To close the show Paul McCartney strapped  on his Gibson Les Paul and informed the crowd it was time to  go. He then launched into Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) followed by The End from the album Abbey Road. The End featured some flaming guitar duels between McCartney  and guitarists Rusty Anderson and Brian Ray. It was a fantastic one-two punch to close the show.
McCartney and his band were in fine form this night in Las Vegas. It was really a fantastic show although I’m surprised Paul didn’t play the song Coming  Up from McCartney II with it being re-released and the tour being named after that song. Still, I feel very luck to have seen this show and the great Paul McCartney performing live. You never know when these guys are going to be gone so if  you get a chance to catch Paul McCartney performing live, don’t miss it!
                      (This the actual Ticket for the Big Show!)
Here is the Set List from the Corporate Private Party Show the night before!

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