Atwood’s Aidan Moyer braves the cold and recaps the third show of Paul McCartney’s intimate, impromptu Bowery Ballroom residency in New York City.
@aidanmoyer Well, where do you go from here?!! #paulmccartney walking into the Bowery Ballroom for night 3 of his residency!! #newyorkcity #beatles
Slumped over in freezing rain, legs wobbly and spirits weathered, I cursed the ground I stood on and the tent I’d failed to bring.
A post-work Amtrak from Philadelphia to New York and the resultant scramble timestamped this moment as hour 25 without sleep. We’d taken a massive gamble and it seemed in this moment to yield nothing –
“No show today, no tickets sold! GO HOME’.
Crestfallen, all were stymied, frozen in place. Then, a groundswell, some murmurs. Official-looking staff clad in black coats marking our spots in a blocks-deep queue. The tide was turning.
Had I known then what I know now, I’d have gladly waited 13 hours to see Paul McCartney at Bowery Ballroom standing on my head.
On Tuesday, February 11, at noon, McCartney’s official text blast heralded an impromptu gig at the Bowery Ballroom. Doors at 5, show at 6, and only several hundred seats available to the public – this was the “pop-up” Macca had envisaged for the Beatles in the January 1969 Get Back sessions. “We‘ll just show up like the old days, under a different name, play shows for a few hundred people!’ The Fabs didn’t bite. Wings launched a similar experiment in February 1972, a string of unplanned UK university gigs where a mulleted Macca rocked up to cafeterias and asked if the band could “come and play.” Over 50 years later, it was happening again.
My network of Paul obsessives was on the case instantly. Could we drop everything and floor it from PA to NY in time? Saner heads prevailed. We’d have to be content with secondhand yarns of the most intimate McCartney appearances since the PreFab times. I’d grown accustomed to these disappointments; in 2018, my grandfather and I noshed in Grand Central Station with hopes of snagging seats for an Egypt Station surprise show. I listened from just outside the walls.
Wednesday, February 12, 10am – a second text blast, and a second crack at the coveted Bowery seats. Eagle-eyed hopefuls began to notice that acts previously slated to appear at the Bowery were relocating to alternate venues. Thursday and Friday were now conspicuously blank slates.
It was time to call in an expert.
Kenneth Bachor, a dear friend and bandmate, has been shooting NY gigs for two decades. His unbridled enthusiasm had me swayed in short order: we would camp out and gamble on a third Thursday gig. In just shy of an hour, travel arrangements were made and a “go bag” was assembled. Vintage Wings tour necklace, check, toothbrush, check, and a final talisman – a 1991 Hamilton Gifts Beatle Paul figurine. Roll up, roll up for the Magical Mystery Tour!
Around midnight, we heard secondhand reports of disarray. An already-growing queue had heard from staff that the third show was likely slated for Friday. Some abandoned hope, others held their spots, and we had a call to make. 40 tense minutes later, we hailed an Uber.
In a fugue state of bespoke Brooklynite beards and puzzled onlookers, I found one absolute – I. Will. Not. Move. We held steady all night through the early afternoon, and the Bowery staff began to scramble. As it turned out, initial plans to sell tickets on Friday afternoon were pivoted once the Bowery and Macca camps saw footage of the throng. At 1:40 PM, a collective roar cut through the chill as we received the following text:
PAUL McCARTNEY ROCKS THE BOWERY – Night 3
Friday, February 14th.
Bowery Ballroom, New York
5:00pm Doors
6:30pm Showtime
Tickets are on sale now
A bemused Scotsman emerged with a roll of blue carnival tickets. We were politely but firmly interrogated in a thick brogue – “Wot time didje get here? What’s yer favorite Beatles song?”
Ken quipped, “This weather is looking pretty Scottish!” The Scotsman laughed.
We were in.
Early Friday afternoon, a crowd of about 40 hopefuls gathered around the barricade hoping for a glimpse of Paul’s entrance. By 12:15, Ken and I had secured ourselves a front-row spot and assignments to cover the gig. We got acquainted with Adrian, who’d been waiting 16 hours; Ellen, fondly recalling a run-in with Paul at an ice cream parlor ten years prior; Fernando, who hoped Paul would sign his wrist for a tattoo. I spotted a small metal fence about 10 feet off the ground and told Ken to perch on it, balance himself on my shoulder and “get the shot.”
3:40pm – McCartney’s photographer MJ Kim poises himself for a shot and a security detail begins to form. Ken takes his perch on the fence.
3:44 – arrival.
Our phones and Ken’s disposable camera were clasped into locked pouches- no photos, no video. McCartney’s stage setup was oversized for Bowery and jutted about 1/3 of the way into the audience area. The crowd filtered in around 5:20, dressed to the nines – I spotted a Sgt. Pepper uniform and a pink pastel suit evoking Paul’s 1968 ‘Mad Day Out’. We cast our eyes to the balcony to scope some of the glitterati.
Among the celebrities in attendance were drummer Lars Ulrich, comedians Larry David, Aziz Ansari, and Chris Rock. On the floor, I spied Nancy Shevell, McCartney’s wife, and former Wings drummer Steve Holley.
Reggae mixes of “Live and Let Die” and the Stevie Wonder cover of “We Can Work It Out” faded as the lights dimmed. In an instant, Sir Paul McCartney seemed to apparate several feet away. I was smack in the center of row six and knew instantly no concert before or after could ever compare.
Cutting a slim silhouette in blue stripes and a grey vest, Paul chirped “good evening, Bowery Ballroom!” The crystalline-clear opening chord of “a Hard Day’s Night” rang out. The band was brimming with a loose, kinetic energy and ripped through Junior’s Farm. Die-hards locked their thumbs into the Wings logo “salute” and Paul returned the favor to rapturous applause. Later in the set, he obliged once more after a slight scoff.
I saw Paul pulling Beatle faces – arched eyebrow, mouth slightly agape, decades of stagecraft etched onto his face. The image will forever be seared into all our brains.
The Hot City Horns, a tour staple since the 2018 Egypt Station gigs, made their debut on “Got to Get You Into My Life.” Their ebullience lifted the mix into the stratosphere. Paul noted “you know, at these shows we’ve got a lot of connoisseurs. Pretty much all connoisseurs. Well, connoisseur THIS!”
A room of people has never been more excited to hear Temporary Secretary.
Let Me Roll it featured what sounded like an improvised moment, when Paul (accidentally?) sang an additional verse. Laboriel began hitting the crash cymbal in half time, and the show transformed into a bona fide jam with a snatch of Hendrix’s “Foxy Lady.” Another Wings cut followed, “Let ‘Em In.” Paul explained the lyric “Sister Suzie” as a reference to Linda’s local nickname in Jamaica. “It was great, and that led to Suzie and the Red Stripes”-
Paul was referring to the Wings side project “Seaside Woman,” a Linda vocal released under a pseudonym. I cheered- a bit too loud.
McCartney licked his pointer finger to open an imaginary textbook and repeated, “connoisseur.”
The vibe grew informal, as the crowd began to shout toward the stage and Paul shouted back. “My Valentine” was dedicated to Paul’s wife, Nancy, and the crowd. The audience engaged in some rare back-and-forth: “Paul, will you be my Valentine?” “No, I’m spoken for! I can wish you a happy Valentine’s DAY, but nothing more.” “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five” began with an odd piano syncopation, to which Paul rhythmically corrected “that’s not- how-it goes-AND” to lead the band in. Someone shouted a request-“Twenty Flight Rock!”- the song Paul auditioned to John Lennon in 1956. A mischievous grin stretched across his face, as the band scrambled- Abe mouthed “we can do it!!”, Rusty and Brian assumed position, when keyboard stalwart and bandleader Wix Wickens pointed out “you’re on bass for that one!” Holding an acoustic guitar, McCartney laughed “short answer, no! This is not a request show.” However, a woman towards the front called for Every Night and the band obliged.
Macca opined, “We haven’t played rooms like this place this small since the ’60s, back when they were the only places that’d let us. It’s kind of like the Cavern in Liverpool.”
Directly in front of me, a woman shouted “I’m a Scouser, Paul!” Affecting an exaggerated accent, Paul laughed “ah, yer from Liverpool? What more can ya say to that?”
Pin-drop silence set in as Paul led a solo Blackbird, and his toe taps were perfectly audible percussion. Recalling a segregated Jacksonville, Florida gig that the Beatles refused to play, he invoked the young Black women who inspired the civil rights tune and noted “one of them texted me recently! She’s doing quite well for herself, she’s a history professor now.” Dedicating the ukulele- led “Something” to George Harrison, someone held a ukulele aloft and Paul yelled “crack!”
The crowd was unusually silent as Paul introduced the recent Grammy winner “Now and Then,” reminiscing, “It’s hard to come to New York without thinking about John.”
Once we settled into applause, Paul smiled and insisted “let’s hear it for John!” The band pulled off a faithful arrangement and Paul dismounted with “thanks, John, for writing that beautiful song.”
Requisite singalongs, “Let it Be” and “Hey Jude,” were home runs. Everyone joined in on the na-na-na-nas… except Larry David. One encore – the “Golden Slumbers”/”Carry That Weight”/”The End” – and the band clasped hands, did a shuffle step and they were gone.
In a perfect end cap to the evening, I called my parents to regale them with tales of my MaccAdventure. Steve Holley, the final drummer of Wings, walked directly past me. I placed the call on hold and extended a hand-
“Mr. Holley, I can’t tell you how glad I am to see you here! Paul played so many Wings songs.”
He smiled, gave me a shake and a thumbs up. Ken and I headed down the street for a slice.
On the pizza parlor speakers, the first notes of “I saw Her Standing There” rang out.
— —
:: connect with Paul McCartney here ::
— —
— — — —
Connect to Paul McCartney on
Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram
Discover new music on Atwood Magazine
© Aidan Moyer
© Aidan Moyer:: Stream Paul McCartney ::
