McCartney

The past feels very present for Paul McCartney — at least in the way he talked on stage about those he’s lost during the Las Vegas stop on his “Got Back” tour. “Let’s hear it for John,” he said the first time he mentioned the late John Lennon, like Lennon was waiting in the wings, about to come out and duet with him. “Let’s hear it for George” came as he swapped a guitar for the ukulele George Harrison once gave him, which he then used to plink out a stripped-down version of “Something.”

That ukulele performance of “Something” represented one of the few quiet moments of the show, as McCartney’s goal was to keep the crowd on its feet for, as he proclaimed early on, “the biggest party in Vegas.” It perhaps wasn’t quite as raucous as that (perhaps because the crowd demographic leaned heavily towards people who were calling my 40-something ass “young lady”), but McCartney without question delivered a great two-and-a-half-hour hang without a single break in the music.

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The October 4th, 2025 show at Allegiant Stadium blasted open with the nuclear-powered energy of “Help!” — notable given that the “Got Back” tour is the first time McCartney’s performed the song live in 35 years — and it’s hard to imagine a better way to get a crowd on its feat and ready to dance. From there, McCartney promised that the setlist for the evening would include “some old ones, some new ones, and some in between.” That said, his definition of “new” proved a bit loose just a few minutes later, when he launched into “Come On to Me,” released in 2018. “Relatively new,” he said wryly. “It’s new enough.”

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However, considering the full scope of the 83-year-old’s career, 2018 is new enough. And lest one forget just how long McCartney’s been rocking, he leaned hard into the early days by going even further back than his time with The Beatles for The Quarrymen’s “In Spite of All the Danger.” Before it began, he took a moment to remember those early days in Liverpool, being a young man with his mates recording their very first song. “They did quite well for themselves,” he said with all the earned smugness in the world.

After “All the Danger” came The Beatles’ first track for EMI (that’s the way McCartney introduced it), “Love Me Do,” which remains the same burst of pop sunshine it’s been since 1962. Otherwise, vibe rather than chronology really drove the song order, with the show hitting its most melancholy moments with an elegant rendition of “Blackbird.” For that track, McCartney rose up on an elevated platform that put the full focus on him and his guitar (the band largely taking a break otherwise). It was one of several subtle choices in the stage design that kept the action dynamic without distracting from the music.

Then, McCartney shifted to “Here Today,” the song he wrote for Lennon after Lennon’s death, musing about how hard it is to say “I love you” to your friends. At which point, acknowledging that “now that we’ve plunged the mood to zero,” he performed the “newest” song of the night, “Now and Then.” He concluded with a note of gratitude: “Thank you, John, for writing that beautiful song.”

After that, though, the vibe shifted as McCartney banged out “Lady Madonna” at a technicolor upright piano, followed by a switch to guitar and the exuberant Wings song “Jet.” Other Wings songs featured during the night included “Let ‘Em In,” “Band on the Run,” and of course “Live and Let Die,” which was accompanied by enough pyro effects to put a WWE main event to shame. The literal fireworks being set off on the stadium stage were so loud, in fact, that McCartney literally crouched down and covered his ears for the final blast.

Following “Live and Let Die,” with the smell of gunpowder still in the air, McCartney launched into “Hey Jude” as the pre-encore closer. One really can’t prepare oneself for the experience of hearing an entire damn stadium sing “na-na-na-na” in unison, led by the man who gave us that gift of a song.

McCartney kept engaged with the audience throughout, with the occasional pause to check in with the crowd: At one point, he took a beat to read out some of the signs being held up, people cheering for someone attending their 122nd show. To the person whose sign asked him to autograph “my butt,” he quite fairly said, “No… that’s pushing it.” And he shared a smile of delight with the fan whose sign said I Was at Shea Stadium. His cheery reply: “So was I!”

The backing band knew the assignment and played with world-class skill without drawing focus: Guitarist Brian Ray had some quality solos, and you could tell that drummer Abe Laboriel Jr. was having a fantastic time, a huge grin on his face as he used his drumstick to conduct the audience sing-along on “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five.”

They helped ensure that there was a real sense of play throughout the night, such as the way McCartney ended “Let Me Roll It” with an impromptu cover of “Foxy Lady,” a tribute to “the late, great Jimi Hendrix,” who McCartney recalled seeing perform live in London very early in his career, in a small club. There were only a few people at that early Hendrix show, McCartney said, but a few nights later, when Hendrix played again, word had spread and the place was packed. As for McCartney himself, it’s a bit sad to note that his vocal abilities have not aged as well as one might have hoped. Yet that becomes a secondary concern after watching him bring the enthusiasm of a 20-year-old country star to a twangy rendition of “I’ve Just Seen a Face.”

McCartney kicked off the encore with “I’ve Got a Feeling,” which he performed as a duet using the recently remastered footage of Lennon from Peter Jackson’s Get Back. “I like that song,” he said simply when it was over, “because I get to sing with John again.”

Lennon and Harrison may be gone. But perhaps the reason McCartney speaks about them like they’re still here is simple: For him they’re still alive, through the music they once made together. The music that will outlive us all.

Setlist:

Help! (The Beatles song)
Coming Up
Got to Get You Into My Life (The Beatles song)
Drive My Car (The Beatles song)
Letting Go (Wings song)
Come On to Me
Let Me Roll It (Wings song)
Getting Better (The Beatles song)
Let ‘Em In (Wings song)
My Valentine
Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five (Wings song)
Maybe I’m Amazed
I’ve Just Seen a Face (The Beatles song)
In Spite of All the Danger (The Quarrymen song)
Love Me Do (The Beatles song)
Dance Tonight
Blackbird (The Beatles song)
Here Today
Now and Then (The Beatles song)
Lady Madonna (The Beatles song)
Jet (Wings 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)
Get Back (The Beatles song)
Let It Be (The Beatles song)
Live and Let Die (Wings song)
Hey Jude (The Beatles song)

Encore:
I’ve Got a Feeling (The Beatles song)
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) (The Beatles song)
Helter Skelter (The Beatles song)
Golden Slumbers (The Beatles song)
Carry That Weight (The Beatles song)
The End (The Beatles song)

Paul McCartney 2025 Tour Dates:
10/04 – Las Vegas, NV @ Allegiant Stadium [Buy Tickets]
10/07 – Albuquerque, NM @ Isleta Amphitheater [Buy Tickets]
10/11 – Denver, CO @ Coors Field [Buy Tickets]
10/14 – Des Moines, IA @ Wells Fargo Arena [Buy Tickets]
10/17 – Minneapolis, MN @ U.S. Bank Stadium [Buy Tickets]
10/22 – Tulsa, OK @ BOK Center [Buy Tickets]
10/25 – San Antonio, TX @ Alamodome [Buy Tickets]
10/29 – New Orleans, LA @ Smoothie King Center [Buy Tickets]
11/03 – Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena [Buy Tickets]
11/03 – Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena [Buy Tickets]
11/11 – Pittsburgh, PA @ PPG Paints Arena [Buy Tickets]
11/14 – Buffalo, NY @ KeyBank Center [Buy Tickets]
11/17 – Montreal, QC @ Centre Bell [Buy Tickets]
11/18 – Montreal, QC @ Centre Bell [Buy Tickets]
11/21 – Hamilton, ON @ Hamilton Arena [Buy Tickets]
11/24 – Chicago, IL @ United Center [Buy Tickets]
11/25 – Chicago, IL @ United Center [Buy Tickets]