Impromptu concert at Clube Do Choro • Tuesday, November 28, 2023

About

On this day, Paul McCartney held an impromptu concert in Brasilia ahead of the Brazilian leg of the “Got Back” tour. The concert was announced just hours before, and approximately 300 people were in attendance. The shortened setlist consisted of 22 songs.

To celebrate the Got Back tour arriving in Brazil, Paul will play a show later today at Brasilia’s Clube do Choro. Tickets for the show are extremely limited! *UPDATE* SOLD OUT. All tickets are non-transferable

From Paul McCartney on Facebook – November 28, 2023

Caros amigos, a Diretoria do Clube do Choro informa que foi procurada pela produção de Paul MacCartney para a realização de um espetáculo em nossa casa. Todos podem imaginar o significado de uma presença dessa grandeza no Clube do Choro. Ocorre que as tratativas asseguram à produção do artista Paul MacCartney total controle sobre as cortesias. Portanto, não haverá venda de ingressos pelo clube. Trata -se de um gesto de apreço desse extraordinário artista na direção do Clube do Choro de Brasília!

English version: Dear friends, the Board of Directors of Clube do Choro informs that it was approached by Paul McCartney’s production team to perform a show at our house. Everyone can imagine the meaning of a presence of this magnitude at Clube do Choro. It turns out that the negotiations ensure that artist Paul McCartney’s production has total control over the courtesies. Therefore, there will be no ticket sales by the club. This is a gesture of appreciation from this extraordinary artist in the direction of Clube do Choro de Brasília!

From Clube do Choro de Brasília (@clubedochoro) • Instagram photos and videos – November 28, 2023

From Paul McCartney, February 13, 2024:

“Historical and unexpected!” – Jornal De Brasilia/Agencia Brasil, November 2023

What happens in Brasilia, they say, stays in Brasilia. That is, of course, unless you are Paul McCartney performing your smallest ever gig in the southern hemisphere.

As if the Got Back tour coming to Brazil wasn’t enough in itself, Paul had made a spontaneous decision to mark his arrival with an intimate club show in the country’s capital at the music venue, Clube do Choro. And so it was here that this last part of the tour started in the most exciting and explosive way possible.

In a setting very similar to Star Wars’ iconic Mos Eisley Cantina bar, around 300 lucky people packed into Clube do Choro’s sweaty walls, having picked up tickets only that morning, when the show was announced. It was all a complete contrast to Paul’s debut show in Brazil back in 1990, when an estimated 184,000+ people helped Paul set a world attendance record in Rio’s mega Maracanā Stadium. (Well, that’s how many tickets were sold – legend has it that many more spectators had unofficially sneaked in!)

“It was very emotional.” – Correio Braziliense, November 2023

Clube do Choro’s audience was approximately 0.16% of that day 33 years ago, and from my viewpoint it seemed that many present in the club were unlikely even born then! Mobile phones were prohibited for the performance, and so everyone there was being present in the moment, celebrating their luck at witnessing this unbelievable two-hour, 24-song set in such close quarters, which the Brazilians were quick to compare to Liverpool’s Cavern Club. 

Those inside the club were treated to Paul speaking Portuguese between songs. Meanwhile, those outside, who were not fortunate enough to get in to see his first Brazilian gig in five years, were still able to enjoy the show, as Paul’s songs blasted out beyond the walls to those dancing on the surrounding lawn and, apparently, even further: “Sir Paul McCartney proudly shows off Scouse roots on world tour,” the Liverpool Echo reported the next day (referring to his choice of T-shirt that night, which said ‘Liverpool’), from almost 6,000 miles away! 

“The format of this show is further proof that Paul is, in fact, a spectacular person.” – Agencia Brasil, November 2023

From Paul McCartney performs surprise concert for 300 fans in Brazil (foxnews.com), November 29, 2023:

Used to filling stadiums with tens of thousands of screaming fans worldwide, Paul McCartney took to the stage of a small music venue in Brazil’s capital on Tuesday night for a special performance with an intimate, ecstatic 300-person audience.

In a space comparable to the famous Cavern Club in Liverpool where the Beatles began their career, McCartney, 81, performed a 22-song set that included hits from the group and his solo career despite intense heat.

“It was like winning the lottery without having bought a ticket,” said 33-year-old civil servant Amanda Cardoso of getting into the concert that was announced at the last minute.

“I’d already experienced moments I thought could never be beaten, but yesterday I was able to see my greatest musical icon just a meter away from me, interacting with me at various times in a place that was transformed into the Cavern Club for an hour and forty minutes,” she said.

McCartney announced on social media on Tuesday morning that he would be playing later that same day at the Clube do Choro to celebrate the arrival of his “Got Back” tour in Brazil, stressing that tickets would be “extremely limited”.

The option to buy tickets was only released to those who had already purchased seats for his performance scheduled for Thursday at the Mané Garrincha stadium. Tickets priced between 200 raies, or $41, and 400 raies, or $82, much lower than most of those for the tour, sold out in just a few minutes.

Fans who managed to buy tickets received wristbands for the concert. Upon arrival, event organizers sealed up fans’ mobile phones and cameras to prevent images being recorded. Anyone who did not comply would be removed from the venue by security. […]

Last updated on March 2, 2024

Clube Do Choro

This was the 1st and only concert played at Clube Do Choro.

Setlist for the concert