Joy. Unabashed, unrestrained joy. That is a Paul McCartney show, complete with pyrotechnics and confetti cannons. And this was never so obvious as it was on Wednesday (8/10/16) at the sold out Verizon Center show in Washington, DC. McCartney and his incredible long-time touring band on this, called the “One On One” tour, packed the set list with the usual things you’d expect to hear. But this time through, McCartney is offering many more melodic homages to those who impacted his career along the way than he did on his last tour. We’re talking dedications and stories about Beatles’ producer George Martin (“Love Me Do”), songwriter partner John Lennon (“Here Today”), fellow Beatle member (covering “Something” by George Harrison), his current wife Nancy Shevell, who was in the audience (“Valentine”), his wife and Wings-member Linda (“Maybe I’m Amazed”), who passed in 1998 from cancer. The band played the first song McCartney ever recorded, “In Spite of All the Danger,” when the Beatles were still The Quarrymen, and his latest, the 2015 collaboration with Kayne West and Rhianna, “FourFiveSeconds,” which became a whole different song with a full band. For 2.5 hours, McCartney and the 18,000 people in the audience walked back and forth through musical history, visiting some of its highest points with the man who made them happen. And the joy of it all, both onstage and off, was glorious to behold.
