Winston-Salem • Saturday, May 21, 2022

About

This was the eighth date of the “Got Back” tour.

From WSOC TV, May 21, 2022

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Sir Paul McCartney doesn’t tour very often, so fans who attended the show on Saturday night in Winston-Salem were in for a real treat. The ones who made it through the bad weather, traffic and long entrance lines to make it inside Truist Field before the concert started, were among the thousands of lucky concertgoers. Others weren’t as lucky and missed some of the show due to the traffic and parking issues.

McCartney, who turns 80 in June, put on a great performance, which spanned nearly three hours playing 36 songs. The setlist covered multiple decades of music with songs from The Beatles, Wings, The Quarrymen, and his solo work.

Throughout the show, fans were treated to his versatility in playing multiple instruments on different songs, including bass, piano, guitar and ukulele. When he wasn’t singing or playing an instrument, McCartney took time to talk to the audience and recount anecdotes, sharing memories he had with other members of the Beatles.

During “I’ve Got a Feeling,” McCartney was able to perform a duet with John Lennon thanks to technology, which made it sound like the former bandmates were performing live on stage together.

The concert was full of surprises as well. Highlights included Sir Paul dedicating “My Valentine” to his wife Nancy, whom he said was in attendance. During “Dance Tonight,” the drummer took a short break to show off his dancing skills, which included the Macarena and the Sprinkler.

McCartney showed off his sense of humor as well. When he asked the audience if anyone came to the show from outside of North Carolina, he said, “the Department of Tourism welcomes you.”

Many fans held up homemade signs, which McCartney took a few minutes to read aloud. One sign asked if he would sign their arm so they could get it tattooed. He responded, “I don’t think we have time for that.” Another sign read “Sign my butt, so I can get it tattooed.” McCartney joked, “Well let’s see it!”

The singer wrapped up his regular set with “Let It Be,” “Live and Let Die” and “Hey Jude” before playing a six-song encore.

The show on Saturday was McCartney’s only stop in the Carolinas on the “Got Back” tour, which continues through mid-June.

From journalnow.com, June 1, 2022:

In the aftermath of Paul McCartney’s “Got Back Tour” concert here on May 21 a couple of questions came in:

Where did Paul McCartney stay when he was in Winston-Salem? Did he visit any places in the city other than the concert venue? S.C.

What was the attendance at the Paul McCartney concert at Truist Field? I only saw that it was in the “thousands.” I’ve never seen that stadium so packed with fans. L.O.C.

Answer: Will Pantages, an associate athletic director at Wake Forest University, said that there was a full house at the concert.

“Truist Field hosted a capacity crowd (33,500) for this memorable event. Additionally, Sir Paul McCartney traveled into and out of Winston-Salem the same day of the concert,” he said.

From paulmccartney.com, May 23, 2022:

“Well, the rain exploded with a mighty crash…”

No lyric could have painted a more vivid picture of the local weather mere hours before Paul was expected onstage at Winston-Salem NC’s Truist Field at Wake Forest University. The picturesque home of the Demon Deacon football team was being hammered by near-horizontal torrential rains as forecasts predicted thunderstorms to pass directly over the stadium.

Paul however was undaunted in his optimism that the clouds would break and the skies would remain clear for his first ever show in Winston-Salem. A few songs in, with the weather holding and his prediction proven correct, Paul said confidently, “I think we’re going to get lucky with the weather,” before launching into a stomping ‘Come On To Me’. 

And get lucky Winston-Salem did for the next few hours. While the weather remained calm, the tens of thousands in the sold-out stadium did anything but—case in point being Paul’s request to the crowd following ‘Love Me Do’ — “Come on, girls, let’s have a Beatles scream” — being answered in eardrum-shattering fashion, as the Charlotte Observer noted: “Right on command, for 10 long, deafeningly loud seconds, thousands of women tested the limits of their vocal cords with shrieks and hoots and hollers that filled the air near the university’s campus with euphoria. There was a lot more where that came from inside the stadium over the course of the evening…”

Understatements are understandably an occupational hazard of reviewing a Paul McCartney show — especially a debut concert taking place in such an esteemed local landmark — so suffice to say, there was certainly “a lot more where that came from” and then some: the roar of pleasure as ‘Something’ kicked in from Paul’s ukulele/vocal intro to the full band accompaniment, an ‘Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da’ singalong that would have raised the roof had this venue had one, the howls of instant recognition that greeted the very first opening notes of ‘Get Back’ that mounted in volume with the addition of Peter Jackson’s bespoke montage of imagery from the series… and so many more—not least of which greeting ‘Band On The Run’, possibly enhanced by the fact that the rain did not explode at any point throughout the show.

Speaking of Mr. Jackson’s gifts to Paul and the GOT BACK audiences, the encore treated Winston-Salem to the second ever stadium scale rendition of the Paul/John virtual duet on ‘I’ve Got a Feeling’. Words inevitably fall short when attempting to convey the emotional impact of witnessing this reunion, especially on this scale, but kudos to our friends at the Charlotte Observer for a valiant try: “at once a simple, beautiful, reverential and ever-so-slightly sorrowful sight to behold.”

A volley of ‘Birthday’, ‘Helter Skelter’, ‘Golden Slumbers’, ‘Carry That Weight’ and ‘The End’ later — with the crowd’s volume still pinned in the red as the Hot City Horns played Paul onto the waiting bus with ‘Nothing Could Be Finer’ — it was time to say good night at the close of an experience that moved Yes! Weekly to sum up, “McCartney got back, all right. And it felt like we all belonged”.

Steve Martin – Paul McCartney’s US publicist 

Last updated on June 30, 2022

Truist Field

This was the 1st and only concert played at Truist Field.

Setlist for the soundcheck

Setlist for the concert