Buenos Aires

From LA NACION, October 6, 2024 (auto-translated from Spanish):

The concerts of artists who have already become legends, more than musical moments, are emotional experiences. No one (or almost no one) in that great tide of public that observes the stage in a dazzled way has any expectation of how much they can be surprised when the lights go out; rather, he expects an experience: how much the evocation of those songs will influence his feelings. And that was exactly what began to be experienced as soon as the first of the two shows that Paul McCartney scheduled in Buenos Aires for his Got Back Tour kicked off this Saturday.

At 9:20 p.m., the great living hero of rock began to go through a repertoire of about three dozen songs without haste or pauses, during the more than two and a half hours of music that lay ahead of him. In what he puts on stage there are essential elements and others that might not be there, but they are, nevertheless, his best allies. You don’t need to hang a hem on your right shoulder, but it’s something you can’t stop doing. It is an extension of your body. Fortunately for his bones, he continues to choose the lightest electric bass that was created in the last 69 years. Neither by contract nor by the demands of the public does he have to play and sing for almost three hours, but for some reason he needs to spend that time there, hand in hand with songs that work like a photographic album that begins in his adolescence, with a postcard that he brings from the prehistory of his success, The Quarry Men. And with all that nostalgia, of course, that embellishes memories.

On the vertical screens guarding the ends of the stage, the image of the iconic Hofner 500/1 bass disintegrating in the explosion of a big bang was seen, seconds before Sir Paul and his band entered and took their places. Then the first sign of what was to come next was heard. Definitely, it was not a musical journey but an absolutely emotional one, with “Can’t Buy Me Love” that sounded powerful, like a vertigo of sensations that made the audience explode in a scream and everything became an emotional flashback to the heart of The Beatles.

After the second song, “Junior’s farm” (another old, although not so old, from his band Wings), he offered the first words to the audience: “Hello, Argentina, good night, Buenos Aires. Oh yes!“, was his laconic presentation, so as not to cut the rock climate of his powerful beginning.

From then on, many songs by The Beatles would begin to be played, from McCartney’s solo stage and until the last release, created with Artificial Intelligence, which allowed a piano recording of John Lennon to be included in a version of the song “Now and Then”.

Although it is little noticed, Paul McCartney is not the alien that some suppose he is. He is a man of flesh and blood, 82 years old and vocal cords that honor his age. Only that their professionalism allows the aging of their throat to become a simple fact of the passing of the years. Anyone who has seen him in previous shows will have noticed how significant the changes in his voice can be in the last two decades. And yet, it has not lost its particular signs at all. Just a few tricks are enough to distract him over the years. Setting a trap for him. Use another diaphragmatic volume and phrasing that allows you to round notes that you didn’t need to round with effort before. It is difficult to explain in any other way the fact that he can arrive, thirty songs later, with nuances and singing strength, to classics such as “Helter Skelter” which is one of those he saved for the final stretch of the concert. […]

From For Whom The Bell Tells: ‘GOT BACK’ Central and South American Tour 2024, January 13, 2025:

What an incredible atmosphere there is in the Buenos Aires’ River Plate Stadium, the largest stadium in South America. The history of the place is palpable – it hosted the final of the 1978 World Cup (which home team Argentina won!) as well as countless classic concerts, including previous visits from Paul, who first played here in 1993 – which makes it all feel quite magical.

It is rather surreal, though, to have the stadium located so close to the nearby Jorge Newbery Airport. One minute you’re captivated by the awesome sensorial experience that is Paul McCartney rocking out on stage, and the next your eyes are suddenly drawn to the curious sight of a plane descending overhead. Or, was it a… JET!

After the first show there, Paul’s tour production manager, Di Eichorst, showed us some photographs she’d been sent by a friend who had just happened to have been on one of those flights, and was surprised to find themselves looking down on a Paul McCartney concert! That would have been one hell of a journey during the pyro-heavy ‘Live And Let Die’!

Mind you, we’re lucky that Paul’s show even went ahead, considering the emergency the crew faced that afternoon! Paul and the group were on stage sound checking, doing what they do, when all of a sudden, we couldn’t hear a thing! “We had a failure in the main audio console,” Paul’s Front of House engineer Paul “Pab” Boothroyd explained later, once he’d recovered from his panic. “It started making a horrible noise before shutting down. Lots of warning signs flashed up on our console screens, before that typical electronic burning smell confirmed it had gone with a bang!”

“Luckily,” said Pab, “we had a spare console that’s on standby ready to go, so Matt – my system engineer – and I very quickly moved a couple of cables, and we were back doing soundcheck without too much drama and notice from all. Not ideal, but this is why we carry spare systems and parts.”

Pab is just one of the long-serving members of Team Macca, having worked with Paul now for 35 years. He’s seen it all, and, as demonstrated in Buenos Aires, has learned to get to grips with whatever the road throws at him. South America, he tells me, is a whole challenge in itself, given the contrasting conditions we can encounter on one leg. “Some cities are high in altitude,” he explains, “and there can be climate difficulties like heat and humidity, which affect not only the team but also the equipment.”

There has been a lot of wet weather since we’ve been here (see, it’s not all glamorous sunshine on tour!), but Pab and the team are prepared for all eventualities. “We always anticipate it might rain as it’s a tropical environment,” he says, “so we carry tarpaulins and rolls of plastic sheet to keep things dry.” What a trooper!

Fortunately, of course, thanks to Pab and the crew, the gig went ahead without a hitch, and that weekend is now seared into my memory – as it is also, I expect, for the 120,000+ lucky people he played to over those two nights. I got to see an incredible show in an incredible place surrounded by incredible fans.

Stuart Bell – Paul McCartney’s publicist – From For Whom The Bell Tells: ‘GOT BACK’ Central and South American Tour 2024, January 13, 2025