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Paul McCartney
Better Mush Than Mud


Pop culture has been forgiving to Paul McCartney. Ten years ago his critical name was mud, thanks to a long string of spotty albums and sugary singles. But now that he’s making better albums and selling fewer copies, the world has largely forgotten his solo career, remembering him instead as Paul the Beatle, with a reputation that rests on "Hey Jude" and "We Can Work It Out" instead of "Silly Love Songs" and "Ebony & Ivory."

The sold-out FleetCenter concert last Friday didn’t hurt McCartney’s case, in part because he played the former two songs but not the latter. But it was also evidence of how much difference a good band can make. When he last toured, in the early ’90s, McCartney was backed by a bunch of session pros who drained the life out of some of the Beatles’ greatest songs. Although he can afford any all-star band in the world, this year he chose a bunch of nobodies. But they’re absolutely the right bunch of nobodies, including one holdover (keyboardist Paul Wickens, who I’m happy to say has toned down the synths), two LA guitar hotshots, and one former Boston guy (drummer Abe Laborial Jr., who was in the local band Stranger Than Pretty around the time McCartney last toured).

The half-hour opening found a troupe of circus performers parading through the audience and doing a few stunts on stage, spending more time than it would have taken the Beatles to play a whole concert. But the two-hour-plus main set was about as stripped down as you can get from a name this big. The middle section was all acoustic and mostly solo, with back-to-back tributes to Lennon ("Here Today") and Harrison ("Something," played on ukulele but sung true to the original). And the two band sets were loose and lively; the wide grin that Rusty Anderson broke into after punkifying the guitar solo on "Back in the USSR" said it all.

The set list combined a whole lot of Beatles (including welcome surprises like "Getting Better") with a selective mix of Wings and solo hits, tracks from the recent and decent Driving Rain (Capitol), and just a little mush ("My Love" and "Freedom," but one can’t imagine a McCartney show with no mush at all). If anything, Paul blew the chance to go deeper into his catalogue and pull out the neglected gems: the late-’90s albums Flaming Pie and Run Devil Run (both Capitol) were his best in decades, so it was surprising that he played nothing from either. Instead, he gave the crowd what it wanted to see: Beatle Paul, still sporting the old haircut and Hofner bass, the voice changed remarkably little.

He also won points for charm when he forgot some lyrics on "You Never Give Me Your Money" and substituted a goofy ad-lib. A friend who follows the chatboards reports that McCartney has made exactly the same mistake during every other show on this tour, but never mind if that sounds odd: he’s a pro even when he’s messing up.

BY BRETT MILANO

Issue Date: April 25 - May 2, 2002
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