Paul McCartney at Safeco Field

A few days ago J and I went with our friends JB and M to see Paul McCartney play at Safeco Field. J's parents also went to the concert, but they had seats closer to the stage. We were in the very back of the stadium, on the second to last row!

This was a pretty historic show for a few reasons. For one thing, before this night Safeco Field (where the Mariners play) had never been used for a rock concert. It is obvious that the large venue was a good choice, since the show was sold out.

Also, Paul McCartney played for three hours! He played seven encore numbers! For his encore numbers, he invited members of Nirvana to join him on stage (including Dave Grohl who started the Foo Fighters after Nirvana). Maybe they had such a good time on stage that they just kept playing and playing. J especially loved that Dave Grohl played with McCartney on "Helter Skelter," since Grohl is an heir of the musical tradition that "Helter Skelter" helped to lay.

Paul mentioned a few times that some songs had never been played before in Seattle, which was neat. He said that "For the Benefit of Mr. Kite" had never been performed since the song was released as a recording, so it was really neat to hear that song. He also mentioned that "Blackbird" was written for people in the South during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. I think he mentioned that same thing when we saw him play in Salt Lake, but I forgot that detail. He also played "Here Today," a tribute to John Lennon that Paul wrote after Lennon was killed.

The complete set list from the show and some fan footage is found HERE.

I feel really lucky that now I have gotten to see Paul McCartney perform three times in the past decade (see my thoughts on the previous shows HERE). My in-laws had never seen Paul perform live before this concert, so I'm glad that they got a chance to see him too. Even though Paul is seventy-one years old right now, he still is a great performer. (It was an infinitely better concert than the Jerry Lewis performance that we saw earlier this year, that's for sure!) If I never see Paul perform live again, I will feel like I've had more than my fair share of special opportunities to see him on stage.