Sir Paul McCartney Puts Tinley Park On The Map With 'Macca-Nificent' Show

TINLEY PARK, IL -- Sir Paul McCartney put Tinley Park on the map with a killer show Tuesday evening at the Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre. The 75-year-old McCartney played a generous set that included “old songs, new songs and songs in between” from his prolific , 50-plus year songbook. I have to admit that prior to this show I was more of a John Lennon fan, but I walked away with newfound respect for the other half of the Beatles' “Lennon-McCartney” songwriting team.

SPOILER ALERTS for those of you going to Wednesday’s show; you’re in for a treat. McCartney strolled onto the stage at 8:15 p.m. and it wasn’t until 11:15 p.m. before the 75-year-old former Beatle left the building. Backed by Brian Ray, Rusty Anderson, Abe Laboriel Jr. and Wix Wicken — often proclaimed the best band Sir Paul has played with since the Beatles, and the longest — McCartney opened with “A Hard Day’s Night.” Although John was the dominant writer of the title song from the 1964 film, Lennon sang the lead but couldn’t hit the high notes so Paul sang the bridge. It was Beatlemania all over again, with the original fans screaming their heads off, as well as their children and grandchildren.

I sat next to a woman named Kathy from my old North Side stomping ground, Uptown. Kathy has been on Macca watch all week and is one of the “Fans On the Run” following McCartney’s One-on-One Tour. Kathy saw the Fab Four play Comiskey Park once, and twice at the old Chicago Amphitheatre during the Beatles’ touring days in the early 1960s. Paul wore black jeans, a collarless jacket with sergeant stripes on the sleeve, and a white shirt. He took the jacket off by his third song, “Can’t Buy Me Love.”

LIVE BLOG: Paul McCartney At Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre In Tinley Park

Stunning 3D video played on triple split screens behind the band and to the sides of the stage. Most memorable were the blackbirds flying out of a stark field and the wax figures from the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (released 50 years ago this summer) coming to life. Pyrotechnics fire exploded from the stage during "Live and Let Die."

Paul filled the spaces between songs with interesting anecdotes (the late Jimi Hendrix played an electric cover of Sgt. Pepper on his first concert tour), the alleged rivalry between the Beatles and Rolling Stones (“fake news”) and Beatles producer Sir George Martin putting Paul on lead vocals on “Love Me Do” to free up John for the harmonica. He also played two emotional musical tributes to the late John Lennon on the 1982 “Here Today,” confessing to the audience that he never told Lennon what he meant to him. Paul brought out a ukulele for the opening of the beautiful George Harrison ballad “Something” which ended in an electric Harrison-esque guitar riff.

McCartney dipped deep into his songbook, all the way back to The Quarryman, Lennon’s Liverpool skiffle band, on the rockabilly “In Spite of All The Danger,” with a generous selection of Beatles and Wings tunes. Thankfully, Sir Paul did not play “Silly Love Songs.”

As for getting out of the Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre parking lot after the show, it lived up to its hellish reputation. Still, it was the best concert I've been to, including those from the 1970s, some of which, for varying reasons, I have a hard time remembering.

Photos by Patch Contributor AJ Roccaforte