Paul McCartney's "Got Back" Tour Stop at Syracuse on June 4, 2022: First Four Songs Video & Show Review

Last night, my son and I went to Syracuse to see Paul McCartney. It was the second time that I have taken him to see McCartney, as we also saw him in Brooklyn back in 2017, which was a fantastic show and experience. Overall, this was also the fifth time that I have gone to see McCartney in concert, not including one very special time when McCartney showed up as a very special guest at Ringo Starr's 70th Birthday concert at Radio City Music Hall back in 2010. In case, you are interested in reading some blog entries of those two shows, I am including the links to them below:

Paul McCartney in Brooklyn- September 19th 2017: Concert Review (originally published on September 21, 2017):

https://charbor74.blogspot.com/2017/09/paul-mccartney-in-brooklyn-september_21.html

Happy 80th Birthday, Ringo Starr! Peace & Love! (published on the 10-year anniversary of Ringo's 70th Birthday show, July 7, 2020):

https://charbor74.blogspot.com/2020/07/happy-80th-birthday-ringo-starr-peace.html

Now, back to last night's show. 

First of all, we do not live in Syracuse. In fact, we do not live anywhere close to Syracuse. The only times that I have really visited the city, and the campus of the university there, were for a handful of major events. I saw the Rolling Stones play at the Carrier Dome (not sure if that was the official name of the dome back then, however) back in 1998, for the Bridges to Babylon tour, with a friend and some of his family members, with Our Lady of peace opening. In 2007, I saw Norman Mailer and John Buffalo Mailer at a speaking engagement in Syracuse, although that was not on the campus grounds, or anything, if memory serves correctly. Finally, last September, my son and I saw the Foo Fighters (who were two hours last to the show, but did eventually show up) at St. Joseph's Health Amphitheater. Finally, this show last night. Other than that, admittedly, I have only passed Syracuse on the way to or back from somewhere else (Buffalo or Toronto, usually). That hardly makes me an expert on the city of Syracuse, admittedly. But I did enjoy each of those four events immensely, and was pleased to have gone to each. Still am, actually. 

I first learned about this show some months ago, and saw that there were tickets which were actually quite affordable (at least for this day and age) for the show available. Granted, it would require a road trip, and that would also mean renting a car for the day. Yet, even this, surprisingly, would be cheaper then getting two tickets for the shows nearer to me (the greater New York/New Jersey metropolitan area tends to be among the most expensive areas for events in general, and concerts like this perhaps in particular). So after some hesitation, I went ahead and got the tickets, then made the arrangements. That included getting off work at 1pm, two hours earlier than normal, which seemed like enough to pick up my son and make the drive up there, with sufficient time to get there and perhaps visit the campus before the show. The main thing was avoiding the unpredictable delays which made arriving on time for the Foo Fighters show back in September a problem (how could anyone know that they would be two hours late?). 

As it turns out, it worked out perfectly. It was a beautiful day for a long drive, with the sun shining and dry conditions. This, along with getting lucky with some really good music on the radio that both my son and I liked, made the drive (about three hours and change) very pleasant. We left northern Jersey maybe around 1:40pm to 1:50pm or so, and arrived maybe ten minutes after five. Plenty of time to walk around the campus, and perhaps grab a bite to eat. It worked out almost perfectly, actually.

Of course, nothing generally works that smoothly, right? Not surprisingly, there were delays. We were on campus and enjoying our visit, but there were no restaurants or any places to eat seemingly on the campus itself, much less near the dome. There were some people eating, and I asked where we might find some places to eat. They said to go back to "The Alley," and there would be places there. So we went back closer to where we had parked, and found a road filled with little shops, including some college gift shops (and presumably book stores) as well as places to eat. There were prohibitively long lines almost everywhere we passed, except for one Korean place. My son said that he was not in the mood for Asian food, but by this point, without the physical tickets in hand, and with my phone access frustratingly refusing to work, I knew that we should get to the dome and go to the ticket window to alleviate this problem well before the show began. So I asked him to be willing to bend, and he did, deciding to try duck for what was apparently the first time. The dishes were actually limited, as they had been really hit hard with a lot of customers that day, so I got what was available, which was Sesame Ginger Boneless Chicken, I believe, with a side of fries (they were all out of rice after my son ordered what was apparently their last order of rice). We also had these strange but good drinks (I had white peach, and he had tropical fruit) and a Japanese desert. We went outside and enjoyed the fresh air, even though it was surprisingly cool in Syracuse on this evening. 

It took him a surprisingly long time to eat. Perhaps knowing how tight time might be, since we still had to go to the ticket window, I basically scoffed the food down, and then waited and waited. He did finally finish, and we headed to the dome. There, not surprisingly, there was an enormous crowd outside of each entrance, and my spirits sank. But having an inspired idea, I asked to borrow my son's cell phone and tried to get access to the tickets via phone that way, and it worked. We would only have to wait in line to get into the arena, but would not need to go to the ticket window or "Will Call" line after all. So we would have plenty of time to sit and relax before the show.

Or so I thought. In fact, the dome, which prior to this show was known as the Carrier Dome, but which is now called the JMA Dome (this was evidently the first event with the new name) was ridiculously packed. It was unbelievably congested in the corridors, to the point where we tried to simply go up to the upper rafters and navigate our way to our section that way, instead of through those corridors, which were so packed that they were barely moving. I was shocked at how chaotic and unbelievably slow it was to move around in the corridors. It took a surprisingly long time to get to our section, but we did eventually get there, with almost half an hour to spare before the official start time. As it turns out, there was a video playing with songs of the Beatles and McCartney, all while showing some vintage images spanning the career of the Beatles and of McCartney, specifically. I was not checking my watch, admittedly, but think that he actually took the stage maybe around 8:30pm or so. 

When we saw McCartney at the Barclay Center in Brooklyn back in 2017, we were closer, but behind the stage a bit. This time, we were quite far, admittedly. Almost as far away as we could have been, and with obstructed view, all of which accounted for why the tickets were as relatively affordable and available as they were. Still, we had a view which, despite how far it was right in front and more or less the middle of the stage, which was directly in our front view. So we got to see the band (tiny, and at times, from certain angles as the members moved around on stage, indeed obstructed). Still, we were there, seeing a true musical legend, so we both felt blessed to be there at all. 

He played for probably around two and a half hours, and played most of his biggest hits, of course. There were some songs which I could not specifically remember him doing at any of the previous shows of his that I had attended, and those were a pleasant surprise, particularly "I've Just Seen a Face" and some new songs. One fairly big surprise, however, was that he did not play Yesterday. Once he played "Hey Jude," I predicted (wrongly, as it turned out) that McCartney would finish this show with Yesterday. In fact, it was conspicuous by it's absence. 

Still, all in all, whenever you see Paul McCartney, you are almost assured of seeing a fantastic show. Such was the case last night, as well. Seeing him song along with John Lennon, through a bit of video and voice isolation done by Peter Jackson, was impressive. And as always, his tributes to now departed former bandmates John Lennon (Here Today) and George Harrison (Something) were moving, as always. I think that this one topped the previous McCartney show that we attended in Brooklyn in 2019, although my absolute favorite McCartney show will likely always be the free show that he gave at the Plaines d'Abraham on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the city of Québec back in 2008. My son was there for that one, as well, although he was not even three years old. He was awake throughout the rehearsal session, which we were privileged to see live (most of the crowd did not), as we were sitting atop the wall, mostly for his safety. But after maybe three or four songs of that show, he fell fast asleep. Not even the very loud pyrotechnics during "Live and Let Die" or the fireworks which followed the show were able to wake the sleeping baby on that day. 

But I digress. In any case, it was a truly fantastic show that McCartney put on last night at the JMA Dome in Syracuse. My phone was pretty full (I got notifications just days earlier alerting me to the fact that it was dangerously low on storage), but I did manage to take a few halfway decent pictures and, almost shockingly, about fifteen to sixteen minutes of the opening of the concert. Also, I added a couple of links to two articles (both by the same author) reviewing the show below.

Here, I should note that some of the pictures are repetitive. This is because I had to put them on here and then edit them, and did not get to eliminate all of the extras, which I will do. That said, I will post some more pictures of the show, as well as of the Syracuse University campus, later on, probably within a few days, so be on the lookout for that.

Enjoy!

Paul McCartney set list for June 4, 2022  At the JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse, N.Y.  

Can’t Buy Me Love (The Beatles song)  

Junior’s Farm (Wings song)  

Letting Go (Wings song)  

Got to Get You Into My Life (The Beatles song)   

Come On to Me  

Let Me Roll It (Wings song) w/ Foxy Lady jam  

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 (tribute to John Lennon)   

New Song 

Lady Madonna (The Beatles song)  

Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite (The Beatles song)  

Something (The Beatles song)   

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (The Beatles song)  

You Never Give Me Your Money (The Beatles song)  

She Came in Through the Bathroom Window (The Beatles song)  

Get Back (The Beatles song)  

Band on the Run (Wings song)  

Let It Be (The Beatles song)  

Live and Let Die (Wings song)  

Hey Jude (The Beatles song)  

ENCORE:  

I’ve Got a Feeling (virtual duet with John Lennon rooftop performance video from “Get Back” documentary)  

Birthday (The Beatles song)  

Helter Skelter (The Beatles song)  

Golden Slumbers (The Beatles song)  

Carry That Weight (The Beatles song) 

The End (The Beatles song)

The pictures with my son inside of the dome itself came out surprisingly dark, for some reason. It looks more like a shadow than anything. So I worked on them a bit, and think that the ones below, which I touched up, came out a bit better:

Paul McCartney leads Syracuse to fab fountain of youth (concert review, photos) By Geoff Herbert, Updated: Jun. 05, 2022,  Published: Jun. 05, 2022:

https://www.syracuse.com/entertainment/2022/06/paul-mccartney-leads-syracuse-to-fab-fountain-of-youth-concert-review-photos.html?fbclid=IwAR1vRc7CgnViQTWQvbxEKgdeqoGcbgNFf3ttX1qPCMaLXl4J40G4pkpEtks

Paul McCartney performs at JMA Wireless Dome: Syracuse concert set list, photos By Geoff Herbert, Updated: Jun. 05, 2022,  Published: Jun. 05, 2022:

https://www.syracuse.com/entertainment/2022/06/paul-mccartney-at-jma-wireless-dome-syracuse-concert-set-list-photos.html?fbclid=IwAR1AWSul9D24QDQwg_dqrET1mpwEuxUzqSapboK2IRFqvMwmIW65jTG9tq8