Great fun at the Paul McCartney show last night. What a set list - a ton of Beatles tunes (something like twenty) for one thing, and not just the ones you might expect, but some from off the beaten track (although even lesser known Beatles songs are still famous by most standards), such as "I Got a Feeling" with its intricate inner-voice harmonies in the guitar parts, "Things We Said Today", an under-appreciated pop masterpiece, "The Night Before", "I Will" (ditto for both). A lot of great Wings stuff too, including one of my favourites, the mighty "Let Me Roll It". Also excellent versions of "A Day in the Life", "Give Peace a Chance", and "Something", tributes to John and George, of course. And he's still in terrific voice, as powerful versions of "Got to Get You into My Life", "Band on the Run" and "Golden Slumbers" demonstrated. He's got an excellent band too - lots of great guitar stuff (with many contributions from McCartney), excellent backing vocals, strong grooves, and just the right attitude in terms of how to back a legend. Here's a song that he didn't play last night, but which I find is sort of his quintessential statement regarding how he sees his place in the world, in which he has always shown, as Auden put it, "an affirming flame": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2udwmwNBwbs.