Paul McCartney Got Back Tour Brisbane, 2023: A Spiritual Rock Experience

Sir Paul was last in Brisbane in 2017 to a sell out crowd and I thought to myself “Man, that’s a bit expensive…I’ll wait for him to come back in a couple years.” Well, roughly 7 years later I jumped on tickets ASAP because at 81 I am not sure how many tours to Australia he has left. One of the best songwriters of all time and a living rock icon, I had to make it happen. So, I got some tickets headed out to the concert and now my lovely Jukeboxers I am here to review my experience.

First of all, I feel that reviewing Paul McCartney’s concert is like giving a review of the Sistine Chapel to Michelangelo. It just doesn’t feel right. I mean…HE WAS IN THE BEATLES! Anyway, I will put my rock fanboy feelings aside to give you all an honest review. First of all, there was no opening act. That’s right, no opening act. This is the first concert I have ever been to that there was no opening act, but who would you pick to open for Paul McCartney? It’s a tough gig, so it was probably best to forget the opening act altogether. Oh, and he also played for just under 3 HOURS! That’s right, Paul channeled his inner Bruce Springsteen and put on a show that I felt would never end.

There is a lot to get through, so I will split it up into sections. I’ll talk about his new stuff, then Beatles / Wings stuff and end with my general thoughts. Ok. The last thing you want to hear at a Paul McCartney show is “now here’s a new song.” A majority of the new songs were not tracks that need to be released, but tracks from McCartney 3 and other past solo records. These were solid tracks and it was Paul McCartney, so I wasn’t too bothered. I think the standout of the new tracks was Dance Tonight, which had Paul playing the mandolin. Having said that, no one at the show was saying, “I can’t wait to hear Paul’s new stuff!” So, let’s get into the main attraction.

Paul was wise and front-ended all of the new tracks, which left plenty of time for Beatles and Wings tracks. The concert kicked off with Can’t Buy me Love and that classic Paul vocal, which is part schoolboy and part screaming banshee, jumped to life. In general he had to pitch a few songs down and his range was more limited than when he was in his 20s. Having said that it wasn’t that noticeable and every so often you would close your eyes and could picture yourself hearing the Beatles live in the 60s. He played a wide range of hits from really early stuff like Birthday and Love me Do and Lady Madonna to later tracks like Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da . Some tracks that really made the concert were songs that listening to live sung by Paul McCartney was a spiritual experience. This included a solo acoustic Blackbird followed later in the show by Let it Be and the crowd highlight Hey Jude, which ended the show. Some great Wings tracks came at the back half of the show with Band on The Run and Jet bringing down the house, while Live and Let Die was accompanied with so many pyrotechnics I feared for Paul’s safety.

The encore was something special that I would be a top 10 concert for me in and of itself. It started with Paul singing I’ve Got A Feeling where the bridge was provided by John Lennon footage from Get Back as Paul then joined back in to sing a kind of duet with John. It was very cool and Paul remarked that singing that track in concert always got him because he gets a chance to sing with John again. He then went into Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band and ended the encore with a combination of Golden Slumbers and Carry That Weight. However, the standout for me in the encore was Helter Skelter. It was a total surprise that he would play this track and he screamed like a man possessed. It blew me away.

There was tons of banter as he had the crowed eating out of his hand. He started a story with “So, we released Sgt. Pepper’s on a Friday…because you released records on Fridays back then. Anyway, I went to a Jimi Hendrix show with Pete Townshend and Eric Clapton on the Sunday.” I mean…that is a great way to start a story. His voice held up for the whole show and he had tons of energy. The show definitely gained speed after the initial block of new songs and the final 90+ minutes was truely out of this world. To see and hear one of the best songwriters of all time play his music with all of his energy and love with very little vocal dips was beyond what I hoped for. This wasn’t just a tick off the bucket concert list, but a spiritual experience from a rock god that still has it.