Pop Music

BY RICK MASSIMO
Journal Pop Music Writer

BOSTON - How much is Paul McCartney allowed to mix it up? Wednesday night at Fenway Park, in the first of two shows, he did his best to find out.

McCartney opened with a suite of pounding rockers from his Beatles, Wings and solo careers, including "Drive My Car," "Jet" (a little slow) and "Mama Only Knows" (from 2007's Memory Almost Full). And by seven songs into the show, he'd done more songs from the past 12 years than from the '60s.

As well he should. He may not make records like he did 40 or 45 years ago, but he is making better records than he did 20 or 25 years ago, and Wednesday night's two songs from Electric Arguments, his record from last year under the pseudonym The Fireman, made that clear.

While most of the McCartney evergreens were there ("Maybe I'm Amazed" was the only glaring omission), after the solo acoustic "Blackbird" McCartney went into the rarities vault. The John Lennon tribute "Here Today" was heartfelt, and it set up the slight but happy stomp of "Dance Tonight" well. Then came the acoustic-plus-accordion sway of "Calico Skies" (from 1997's Flaming Pie), followed by "Mrs. Vanderbilt," an album track from 1973's Band on the Run. And after a tip of the hat to the classics with a solo "Eleanor Rigby" (with taped strings) came the clanging, joyous rocker "Sing the Changes," from Electric Arguments.

From there, McCartney went back to giving the crowd what they wanted with "Band on the Run," and then kicked out the proverbial jams with "Back in the U.S.S.R." and "I'm Down."

Still boyish-looking at age 67, McCartney couldn't help cheap theatrics even as he chided himself for them: "We couldn't hear anything we did because of the all the girls screaming," he said of The Beatles at one point, of course provoking the women in the audience to scream. "But we liked it!" he added, and as if to prove his point about a half-hour later he said it all again. He can even make a plug for the Beatles Rock Band video game (after "Got to Get You Into My Life") seem charming.

Even for Beatles tunes, McCartney dipped a little deeper into the well later in the show, pulling out "I'm Down" and "I've Got a Feeling" (with a new, extended double-time coda) later in the set. A pedal-to-the-metal "Paperback Writer" was even extended.

There was one more divergence from the greatest-hits routine later, when McCartney picked up the ukulele given to him by George Harrison for a tribute to his late Beatle bandmate for a take on Harrison's "Something" that started off with characteristic ukulele jaunt, transmogrifying halfway through into a more traditional rendition. Shortly thereafter, he dipped into Lennon's catalog for "A Day In the Life," which melded halfway through into "Give Peace a Chance."

And he closed with a medley of the reprise of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" folding into "The End," including the extended three-way guitar solos.

While McCartney's whole band is more than competent, most of them only took as much slack as McCartney gave them. Drummer Abe Laboriel Jr., however, was the true secret weapon, pounding away with a vengeance, particularly on the rockers. He plays the hallowed material so strongly in the present tense that he threatens to take them over and avoiding the "here's one you might remember" syndrome that seems to envelop the band (even McCartney) when a Beatles classic comes up in the set list.

Did McCartney do "Let It Be"? "The Long and Winding Road"? "Hey Jude"? "Yesterday"? Well, yeah; he's Paul Freaking McCartney, and even Paul Freaking McCartney has to give people what they came for. But just when you could begin to wonder what, at age 67, McCartney's got left to prove, he showed something, and with great energy during a two-and-a-half-hour show.

"Everything I do has a simple explanation," McCartney sang during "Flaming Pie," and in nearly 50 years he's never given anyone any reason to think that's not the case. So maybe he's just an old vet mixing things up to have some fun. That sure is what it sounded like.

The Brooklyn band MGMT opened the show, and while their melodic mid-tempo rockers and ballads were basically tuneful, and the icy '80s synthesizers helped put them over, they seemed at a loss on the big stage (maybe anyone would). The neo-disco "Electric Feel" was probably the highlight.

(Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated MGMT's origins.)

rmassimo@projo.com / (401) 277-7206

 Tags  Fenway Park music review Paul McCartney

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