Review: Paul McCartney triumphs in Minneapolis, despite sound and vocal issues

And in the end, the love you felt for Paul McCartney on Friday night at U.S. Bank Stadium was equal to the love you have for nostalgia, the Beatles and forgiveness.

Forgiveness for him playing at the Vikings stadium with its challenging acoustics (the sound was subpar pretty much everywhere). Forgiveness for asking exorbitant ticket prices of $275 to $2,200 (dynamic pricing lowered them to as little as $23 at one point). Forgiveness for his fading voice (he is 83, but didn’t seem like it).

Like the voices of Bob Dylan and Paul Simon in their Minnesota concerts this year, McCartney’s has lost its range and its oomph (he sounds, well, huskier). But the songs — an unimpeachable catalog if there ever was one — carry the weight. So does his personality. He’s still the cute Beatle: light-hearted, good-spirited and eternally energetic on his Got Back Tour, his 17th trek under his own name.

It’s been 60 years since the ever-mirthful McCartney made his Twin Cities debut with the Beatles at the old Met Stadium, the first of four stadiums on his Minnesota visits (Metrodome in 1993, Target Field in 2014). How many artists — local or otherwise — can say they’ve been playing in a town for six decades and are still drawing tens of thousands of people?

Perhaps only the Rolling Stones — and the slender man from Liverpool with a mop top plus mullet and a three-day white beard.

Here are some thoughts on what might have been our final in-person “Hey Jude” sing-along with McCartney in Minnesota.

Sir Paul played 36 songs, dating from 1958 (the Quarrymen’s skiffle-styled “In Spite of All the Danger”) to 2018 (the hip-hop tinged flirtation “Come On to Me”), for over two hours and 40 minutes. In other words, a marathon worthy of his Mount Rushmorian career, covering many of his eras (though not classical) without dancers or outfit changes (well, he did remove his double-breasted suit coat and pronounced it the “one and only wardrobe change”).

There are only four stadiums (and only one outdoors) on this leg of the Got Back Tour, which is visiting mostly North American arenas. Too bad that we didn’t get two nights at Grand Casino Arena or Target Center, like Macca did last time around in 2016. U.S. Bank Stadium always spells big business potential and sonic disappointments.

The sound was thin, echoey and poorly mixed, though it improved slightly as the evening wore on. It didn’t help that McCartney’s voice was often hoarse and strained. It was amazing that he attempted “Maybe I’m Amazed” with its wide vocal range. At least he nailed the screams.

Despite all the pre-concert grumbling about ticket prices, the stadium looked full, though. Live Nation, the concert’s promoter, recruited a few dozen people as seat fillers, who got in for free, in some unsold choice seats.

It was bittersweet and poignant at the same time as McCartney delivered “Now and Then,” ostensibly the “final Beatles recording” that was released in 2023, accompanied by Peter Jackson’s “Get Back”-documentary videos of the Fab Four clowning around.

Afterwards McCartney blurted: “Thank you, John, for writing that lovely song.”

McCartney dedicated “My Valentine” to his wife of 14 years, Nancy Shevell, who was in the audience. As the lover-boy Beatle delivered the minor-key piano ballad at a concert grand, a black-and-white video of Johnny Depp distractingly signing the words appeared on giant screens. And when Macca took a piano solo, Depp played a solo on an acoustic guitar. What?

McCartney cupped his hands over his ears during the final explosion at the end of the pyro-enveloped “Live and Let Die,” miming a “When I’m 64” moment. Ah, the cute Beatle.

Was anyone ready for Wings’ piano-propelled rocker “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five”? “Dance Tonight,” from 2007’s “Memory Almost Full,” was silly, mandolin-fueled fun, thanks to the “dancing” of drummer Abe Laboriel Jr. And the Beatles’ “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!” amused Sgt. Pepper aficionados, while “I’ve Got a Feeling” from “Let It Be” rocked with soulfulness, perfectly kicking off the encore and setting up the night’s closing run.

You’re not going to get everyone’s favorite Beatles song at a McCartney concert. No “Eleanor Rigby,” “And I Love Her” or “Paperback Writer.” But no “Yesterday”? Arguably McCartney’s biggest song, certainly the one covered by more singers than anything else in his deep canon. Ah, he’d rather let it be.

At least “Help!” which opened the show, returned to the live repertoire in full for the first time since 1965 (when it was released), though he did sing a snippet in a medley in 1990. To be honest, “Help!” was always associated more with John Lennon.

Lennon was often in the mix on Friday. His voice unexpectedly emerged via video during “I’ve Got a Feeling.” It was Lennon and McCartney together again, and the band rocked out to the delight of the crowd.

As he has done on recent tours, McCartney also honored the other late Beatle, George Harrison, with a gorgeous reading of “Something,” starting on a ukulele (that Harrison gave him) before the band joined in.

Nothing, really. No mention of Prince, to whom Sir Paul dedicated his Target Center show in 2016, a couple of weeks after the Minnesota icon died. Nine years ago, McCartney talked about how he’d seen the Purple One perform the previous New Year’s Eve. “Minneapolis, Prince,” he declared and paused. “Prince, Minneapolis. It goes together.” Back then, he even snuck in a taste of “Let’s Go Crazy” at one point and flashed a Prince glyph on the video.

There was a quiet Prince nod Friday during “Hey Jude” as keyboardist Wix Wickens hit a tambourine with Prince’s glyph on it, and it was broadcast live on the video screens.

The social commentary side of the Beatles’ music often gets overlooked. After playing “Blackbird,” a tune inspired by the Civil Rights Movement, McCartney recounted how in 1964 the Beatles refused to perform before a segregated audience in Jacksonville, Fla., and eventually convinced the promoter to let concertgoers sit wherever they wanted to.

This is an excellent band, buoyed by Laboriel’s muscular drumming and the ensemble’s relatively youthful vibe.

McCartney’s considerable musical prowess is often overshadowed by his songwriting, singing and personality. But he was outstanding on his Hofner bass and played piano, mandolin and even ukulele with authority. He switched to guitar on several tunes, doing a Hendrixian electric solo during a snippet of Jimi Hendrix’s “Foxy Lady” grafted onto the end of “Let Me Roll It.”

Ringo Starr, the other surviving Beatle, emphasizes “peace and love” throughout his concerts, which take place in smaller venues like Mystic Lake Casino Showroom in Prior Lake. Simple as it sounds, McCartney’s message is “all you need is love.” Love can bring people together. Leave all your social-message divisiveness on your phone and come to a stadium with 50,000 other people of unknown persuasion and sing “Na-na-na-na, hey Jude” in unison.