Review: Paul McCartney Spoils Tampa Bay With A Hit-Filled Concert

It’s hard to believe that the iconic, Paul McCartney is 75 year-young!

This was his first local show in 12 years. He hit the stage Monday night at Tampa’s Amalie Arena just casually walking and bouncing along giving the crowd thumbs up.

The sold out crowd erupted even louder when his band started playing, ‘A Hard Day’s Night’. That was only the beginning to the night where the musical icon played hit after hit for over 3 hours to a crowd of fans that sold out the arena the day the show went on sale.

He couldn’t help but gaze and take in the moment, "This is so cool," he said, admiring the crowd. "I'm just going to take a second to drink it in for myself."

When you looked around the audience you saw people of all ages, families with their young children who weren’t even born yet the last time McCartney came to Tampa. If you recall the last time he came he fell into a piano pit on stage, "You know that feeling of slow motion: I'm going down, there's no going back," he recalled Monday. "I'm lucky to be here tonight.” It's clear everyone is a fan of this legend, Darius Rucker was spotted in the crowd with his family enjoying the iconic hits.

McCartney sang hit after hit, which I mostly included Lennon-McCartney material, such as 'And I Love Her’, ' Eleanor Rigby', 'I Wanna Be Your Man’ and 'Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’.

Throughout the night, he told stories of his days with Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. It was an endless amount of memories he shared with George Harrison and John Lennon. McCartney was very open and heart-felt, expressing how guys are not able to express themselves . He did a solo rendition of ‘Here Today’ a song he wrote after John Lennon’s death based on a heart-to-heart he and Lennon shared on a Florida layover in 1964. At the end of the song, he said “If you want to tell someone something,” followed by, “tell them now.”

He catered to every fan, especially his Beatles fans, “ We know what songs you like, when we do Beatles songs, the whole place lights up like a galaxy with phones,’ he continued with, ‘We do a new song and it’s like a black hole but we don’t care,’ as he chuckled.

The night did not go without his cleaver and funny impersonations of certain events in his career. Such as the time The Beatles were invited to play in The Red Square in Russia and the room was filled with Russian Government officials. They were introduced to the Defense Minister of Russia, Paul proceeded to have a Russian accent and said the Defense Minister told him that his first album he ever bought was ‘Love Me Do’. Then another man told him he learned English by listening to The Beatles.

One of the most eye-opening moments was when ‘Live and Let Die’ was performed by the icon and his band with unexpected flames and pyrotechnics that felt like dragon’s breathing fire. . Such an extravaganza. McCartney gave a Lakeland mother, Keisha and her son a night they will never forget when he brought them on stage to sing with him during 'Get Back', you could hear her husband yelling in the crowd, 'That's my wife,' he continues, 'How did this happen?!' Clearly a night this family will never forget.

After three hours of an endless spectacle of his musical catalog, Paul McCartney left us wanting more.

Will he return to the Bay Area? He promised he would but they all say that. We hope he does grace us with his musical genius again.

At least for this time, 17,000 fans shared a one night they will never forget. Don’t underestimate the Beatles Mania, because it still lives on and strong.

Paul McCartney Setlist

A Hard Day's Night
(The Beatles song)

Junior's Farm
(Wings song)

Can't Buy Me Love
(The Beatles song)

Jet
(Wings song)

Temporary Secretary

Let Me Roll It
(Wings song) (With Foxy Lady by Jimi Hendrix snippet)

I've Got a Feeling
(The Beatles song)

My Valentine

Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five
(Wings song)

Maybe I'm Amazed

We Can Work It Out
(The Beatles song)

In Spite of All the Danger
(The Quarrymen song)

You Won't See Me
(The Beatles song)

Love Me Do
(The Beatles song)

And I Love Her
(The Beatles song)

Blackbird
(The Beatles song)

Here Today

Queenie Eye

New

The Fool on the Hill
(The Beatles song)

Lady Madonna
(The Beatles song)

FourFiveSeconds
(Rihanna and Kanye West and Paul McCartney cover)

Eleanor Rigby
(The Beatles song)

I Wanna Be Your Man
(The Beatles song)

Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
(The Beatles song)

Something
(The Beatles song)

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
(The Beatles song)

Band on the Run
(Wings song)

Back in the U.S.S.R.
(The Beatles song)

Let It Be
(The Beatles song)

Live and Let Die
(Wings song)

Hey Jude
(The Beatles song)

Encore:
Yesterday
(The Beatles song)

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
(The Beatles song)

Hi, Hi, Hi
(Wings song)

Get Back
(The Beatles song)

Golden Slumbers
(The Beatles song)

Carry That Weight
(The Beatles song)

The End
(The Beatles song)