For as long as I can remember I have always said if there was one person I could see in concert it would be Paul McCartney. Maybe it's because I grew up knowing how my mother idolized the Beatles, maybe it's because the Beatles created some of the most amazing music using sound effects and instruments that were unconventional for rock music at that time, maybe it was seeing someone who had such an immense impact on American culture at the time with their looks, fashion, sound, and lyrics. Whatever the reason I have always loved the Beatles and Paul McCartney.
Saturday morning we woke up ready to tackle it all. Around noon we dropped Bo off at my Aunt Amy and Uncle David's who offered to keep Bo so Jarrod and I could go see Paul McCartney. A HUGE thank you to them! We headed to the MARTA station (the Atlanta train which runs through downtown, we weren't going to even attempt parking). After we arrived in Midtown around 1pm we were going to just go "check things out" to see what the crowds were beginning to look like and then go get some lunch because gates weren't schedule to open until 5pm. As soon as we walked up we new food was out of the question, we better get in line ASAP!! It was almost as if all 40,000 people showed up at once. So we found a place in line, I put out our blanket, and Jarrod went to go find lunch!
Sitting in line was actually fun. We met a lot of people. It was such a diverse group of people...young, old, middle age, from the north, south, east, and west! There was a Beatle wanna-be who sat out and played music for everyone. People were sharing food and bottled water because it was so extremely hot. The rumor was that the concert officials had decided to open the gates at 4pm due to the large crowd (apparently they didn't expect so many people to come early), I had to laugh...it's general admission, 40,000 people, for Paul McCartney what rock were these people living under!!!
4pm came and it was like the Atlanta Gold Rush...thousands of people just herding through the gates as fast as the could to claim their spot as close to the stage as possible. I've never seen anything like it before in my life. I have to say we actually ended up with a really great seat! So what did we do from 4pm to 7:30pm? Wait, wait, and wait and drank LOTS of water!!! It was so hot but you couldn't leave your spot or it would be gone so Jarrod and I would take turns going to get food and water. We made a lot of friends, everyone was so friendly. We ended up behind a couple who were there for their anniversary and it turned out the wife had gone to Woodstock, which this weekend was the 40th anniversary. It was so cool talking to her about it, we'll never be able to understand what an amazing experience it was for people who were there.
Finally at 7:00 the opening act came on and they played about an hour. As soon as they were done we looked up and saw horrible storm clouds rolling in! At around 8:30 Paul McCartney took the stage opening up with "Drive My Car". As soon as he finished here came the rain!!!! People were trying to get under their blankets, but eventually it was useless and everyone started singing and dancing in the rain, who cared we were seeing Paul McCartney. Guess it turned out to be a little like Woodstock :) The rain did eventually quit, thank goodness!
He performed for an entire 3 hours, without a break!!! He also knew what people wanted to hear, I would say 95% of his songs were Beatles hits, with a few Wings hits, and some of his new songs. For the most part we sang along to Hey Jude (which by the way I called my mother in the middle of because I knew she loved it...mom you better feel pretty darn special), Let It Be, Drive My Car, Eleanor Rigby, Paperback Writer, I Saw Her Standing There, Yesterday, Live and Let Die, Get Back, the list goes on and on. He also had tributes to George Harrison, by playing "Something" on a ukulele that George had given him and by singing "Give Peace A Chance" in honor of John Lennon. He also sang "Here Today" which he wrote for John Lennon after he died.
After the show Jarrod and I, along with thousands of soaking wet concert goers, headed back to MARTA, it took an hour just to go a few blocks to the train station. We finally made it back home and into bed by 2am. We were exhausted, but it was worth every single second and I would do it all over again tomorrow!



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