072611 Sir Paul McCartney, Montreal, QC

On July 26th, 2011 I made the trek to Montreal to see the astounding Sir Paul McCartney; née Paul Ramone, Quarryman, Wing-leader and one of the top-three Beatles.  I had made the same drive to see the same band in the same venue less than a year before but that matters not.

Dude was a Beatle fer cryin’ out loud, and like I say, one of the good ones.

McCartney plays long setlists and he has a staggering amount of material of the highest calibre to choose from, and though his set on this night was hit after world-changing hit it was at least 50% different from the last time I saw him at the Bell Centre, which was another night of hit after unforgettable hit.

Aside from that the shows were the same.  That is, they both featured the same great band that seemed to love their jobs, they both had fans shaking their heads at how good McCartney still is, and they both saw Sir Paul pull the same girl up out of the crowd and invite her onstage.

At the last Montreal McCartney show a girl in the audience had been holding a sign saying she wanted Sir Paul to sign her arm so she could have the signature permanently tattooed.  Well there she was again holding another sign saying she wanted to show McCartney her new(ish) tat, and so he hauled her onstage again, this time with her mother in tow.  The girl pulled up her sleeve to display Paul’s large, beautifully scrawled John Hancock and the crowd roared in appreciation.

(I’m not much of a tattoo guy but I gotta say, that one is pretty interesting.)

At the end was The End, an incredibly fitting way to finish an encore and just like that my third Sir Paul McCartney concert was in the books.  I hope he never stops; I’ll keep going as long as he does.