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Friday, June 28, 2019

Las Vegas

Concert • By Paul McCartney • Part of the 2nd North America leg of the Freshen Up Tour

Last updated on July 8, 2019


Details

  • Country: USA
  • City: Las Vegas
  • Location: T Mobile Arena
  • Attendance: 29,822 / 29,822 (for the 2 dates in Las Vegas)
  • Revenue: $7,202,945 (for the 2 dates in Las Vegas)

Location

  • Location: T Mobile Arena

Timeline

Band members

Line-up Discover Backing band 2019-Present

Some songs from this concert appear on:

From paulmccartney.com, March 11, 2019:

Due to overwhelming demand for tickets to his previously announced 29th June show at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Paul has confirmed a second night at the arena to take place Friday 28th June. 

From Las Vegas Weekly, June 28, 2019:

Nearing the end of his Freshen Up world tour, the legendary Paul McCartney kicked off back-to-back Vegas shows Friday at T-Mobile Arena with energy and gusto typically reserved for folks half his age. Given that the 77-year-old former Beatle has been on road—on and off—since September 2018, McCartney’s three-hour performance, which included a surprise cameo at the end, felt even more awe-inspiring.

[…] One of the newer songs, “Come on to Me,” was as cringe-worthy as if your own wacky grandpa delivered its lyrics about shagging. As per usual, McCartney is his best when he isn’t attempting to keep up with the times or write another “I Want to Hold Your Hand” some 50 years later.

[…] And while the setlists have largely remained the same throughout the Freshen Up tour, Vegas got something no one else has: a surprise cameo by Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler—a Park MGM resident performer—during encore cut “Helter Skelter.” Everything’s over the top in Vegas, even Paul McCartney.

The evening’s most memorable show of solidarity also came during the encore, when McCartney and his bandmates arrived onstage waving giant flags, including the LGBT Pride flag.

From RollingStone, June 29, 2019:

Aerosmith – who are currently in the midst of their Deuces Are Wild Las Vegas residency – often covered the “White Album” classic during their concerts in the late Seventies and, after a decades-long hiatus, resumed performing “Helter Skelter” at their early 2000s shows; Tyler and company last played the track live in 2006. A studio version of the Aerosmith’s cover, recorded during the Toys in the Attic session, appeared on the Pandora’s Box compilation in 1991.

From Twitter#Maccasmith #FreshenUpTour

From paulmccartney.com, July 8, 2019:

Here we go… Two nights in the City of Lights…

The Beatles and Las Vegas go back, I mean way back; all the way back to August 1964 at the Convention Hall. And the, ahem, LOVE is ever-present in the physical form of ‘The Beatles LOVE by Cirque du Soleil’ show, which has been packing them in at The Mirage since 2006. That’s 13 years–and two-anniversary celebrations, 5 years in 2011 and 10 years in 2016, attended by Paul and Ringo and the extended Beatles family.

Paul’s post-Beatles relationship with Las Vegas has deep roots as well: In April 1993, he opened the U.S. leg of ‘The New World Tour’ at the Sam Boyd Silver Bowl, technically in East Las Vegas, since renamed Whitney, Nevada. 2002 saw Paul play the MGM Grand Arena three times, twice on the Driving USA Tour and once on Back in the U.S., with repeat visits to the same venue including the U.S. Tour in 2005 and Up and Coming in 2011. Between those two visits, Paul played a truly historic intimate show as part of The (new) Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel’s 2009 (opening series—a magical evening not one of the lucky 4000 who managed to score tickets will ever forget).

Which brings us to Paul’s 2019 doubleheader at the relatively new T-Mobile Arena (opened in 2016). Paul’s first-ever shows at the T-Mobile Arena would actually end an uncharacteristically long absence from Sin City—a full six years since Paul’s surprise mini-set at the 2013 iHeartRadio Music Festival.

So here we were, new venue, new tour, new songs from Egypt Station to be played for the first time before a Vegas audience… and it was, as the LAS VEGAS WEEKLY described it, “awe-inspiring.” A particularly loud crowd was intent on belting out every lyric, from Beatles and Wings mainstays to ‘Who Cares’ and ‘Queenie Eye’, taking breaks only when they knew they had no chance of hitting certain notes, like the evening’s show-stopping rendition of ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ during which “McCartney has rarely sounded better” (LAS VEGAS WEEKLY) or a “gut-wrenching” (the WEEKLY again) ‘Here Today’.

Just when it seemed the energy levels couldn’t be ratcheted any higher than a truly deafening ‘Hey Jude’ singalong, a once in a lifetime cameo threatened to convert the T-Mobile Arena to an open-air venue:

“Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Steven Tyler!”

And there, fresh from his band’s residency at the nearby Park MGM, was the Aerosmith frontman himself, resplendent in pinstripe stage gear and ready to vocally spar with Paul on the same Beatles proto-metal classic covered by Aerosmith as early as 1975, ‘Helter Skelter’. Ears ringing and minds blown, a stunned grateful throng bellowed its agreement as Paul joked “The kid is good, isn’t he?” and within minutes the hashtag #MaccaSmith was propagating. […]

Steve Martin, Paul’s publicist

T Mobile Arena

This was the 1st concert played at T Mobile Arena.

A total of 2 concerts have been played there • 2019Jun 28thJun 29th

Highlights

Setlist for the concert

  1. Medley

  2. Blackbird

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

  3. Let It Be

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

  4. Hey Jude

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

  5. Encore

    1. Birthday

      Written by Lennon - McCartney

    2. The End

      Written by Lennon - McCartney

See song statistics for “Freshen Up Tour”

Paul McCartney writing

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