Sir Paul rocks Missoula

I headed to Missoula earlier this week to check out Paul McCartney at Washington-Grizzly Stadium. Worth. Every. Penny.

Sir Paul still rocks. Sir Paul still puts on a great show. Sir Paul still impresses.

When your catalog is as deep as his, I can only imagine how difficult it would be to plan a set list that ticks every box with fans. Sure, there were a few tracks from his latest record, “New,” and they sounded pretty good. He hit the highlights of his Wings years with “Band on the Run,” “Listen to What the Man Said,” “Live and Let Die” and “Maybe I’m Amazed.” He touched upon a range of Beatles material, from “I Saw Her Standing There” to “Let It Be.” Things got fun with “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” and “All Together Now,” more subdued with “Blackbird” and yes, he did “Yesterday,” “The Long and Winding Road” and “Hey Jude,” too.

One of the highlights of the evening was a performance of the George Harrison song “Something,” from “Abbey Road,” which McCartney played on a ukulele given to him by his late friend and bandmate. It was a touching and lovely version of a classic song.

With a crowd of 25,000, the show on Tuesday has been called the largest ever held in the state of Montana. And it was clear the assembled masses loved every minute of the nearly three-hour show. The Missoulian newspaper devoted much of its front page to McCartney coverage (see above) and posted a photo gallery of images on its website. If McCartney ever comes this way again, I’d be hard pressed to let the chance to see him pass me by.

Only downside? Having to drive to a different time zone to see the show. Wouldn't it be great if Spokane had a venue large enough to host these big outdoor concerts?

There's already a lot of video clips from the show posted online, much of it not very good. This one's not too bad:

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