Sean Henri

Paul McCartney Joins Billy Joel at Shea

July 19, 2008 // 1 Comments  // Add yours »

(Source: NYT; Photo:Kevin Mazur) 

So last night, while I was home relaxing.. Paul McCartney joined Billy Joel on stage for the "Last Play at Shea" - the final concert at Shea Stadium before it is to be torn down.  It was two of my favorite singers/songwriters side by side, and I missed it.  I found out about the surprise performance a few hours prior to the show, but it was too late.  Needless to say, I regret not buying tickets in advance.  But I have an idea for next weekend that could make up for it.

McCartney wasn't the only one to join Joel on stage.  Roger Daltrey of the Who, Steven Tyler, and Garth Brooks came on to play a few songs as well.  Videos are floating around on YouTube.

On another note: I went to see  a Brian Wilson concert in Torrington this past Wednesday.  It felt like more of a tribute to Wilson than it did a performance.  His band did the bulk of the singing and he hardly played an instrument, but they were playing HIS songs, and it was an honor to witness it.  If you aren't familiar with Brian Wilson's life and work ("God Only Knows", "Good Vibrations", "Wouldn't it Be Nice", etc.), you should read a bit about him.  He's the genius behind the music of The Beach Boys, and one of the greatest songwriters/producers in American pop-music history.

Posted in:  Billy Joel, Concerts, NYC, Paul McCartney, The Beatles | Permalink |  Digg This | Share on Facebook |Comments (1)

Video from the NYC McCartney Show

October 27, 2007 // 3 Comments  // Add yours »

I came across some really good footage from the Paul McCartney show I attended this past June.  It's shot from right about where I was standing.  In fact, I think I can hear my friends voice on the video.  Anyway, enjoy.

Blackbird:

I'll Follow the Sun (Intro):

Posted in:  Concerts, NYC, Paul McCartney, The Beatles, Videos | Permalink |  Digg This | Share on Facebook |Comments (3)

Paul McCartney's Ecce Cor Meum on DVD

October 23, 2007 // 0 Comments  // Add yours »

Footage from the world premier performance of Paul McCartney's "Ecce Cor Meum" comes out on DVD  this November 20th.  I don't tend to listen to much classical music but I found this to be quite good.  So good I went to go to see the US premier at Carnegie Hall last November. Of course there were a few other factors in my decision to go see it, one being that this guy was a part of the most important band that ever existed, and I must admit I'm a big fan.  But seriously, I think it's worth a good listen.  It's fantastic stuff.  So pick this sucker up.

Update: The release of Paul's Ecce Cor Meum DVD has been put back until early 2008. Dates are currently being rescheduled, but a February/March release is most likely.

On another totally unrelated yet somewhat similar note:   If you like good music I'd suggest listening to Silverchair's "Young Modern".  I was a bit skeptical about how much I'd like it after seeing the very bland / pop-like video for the song Straight Lines, but now that I've heard full album a few dozen times I think it's one of the best group of songs I've heard all year.  It's creative, melodic, and has some interesting orchestral arrangements composed with a little help from former Beach Boy collaborator Van Dyke Parks.

Personal favs:

• Those Thieving Birds (Part 1)/Strange Behaviour/Those Thieving Birds (Part 2)
• Insomnia
• If You Keep Losing Sleep
• Low

Thus concludes my statement of the night.

Posted in:  Concerts, Culture, Paul McCartney, Stuff, The Beatles | Permalink |  Digg This | Share on Facebook |Comments (0)

Paul McCartney's Secret Gig at the Highline Ballroom

June 14, 2007 // 8 Comments  // Add yours »

I'm back from the Paul McCartney concert!  Time for the recap:

Let me go back a few weeks to explain this.  About a month ago I found out that Paul McCartney would be doing some type of live performance in NYC to promote his new album Memory Almost Full.  Any large-scale world tour would be postponed to next year due to "personal issues" (his divorce from Heather Mills).  So being a huge Beatles/Paul McCartney fan, I did some intense research until I found out the details of what would be going down.

I found out that the show was going to be a small-scale "secret" show about two weeks ago and that I'd have to win tickets through a radio station contest in order to go.  Only a few hundred contest winners and invited guests would be given tickets.  So after looking through the websites of nearly every FM radio station from the country's major cities, I finally found a contest where you could enter a raffle to win tickets by correctly answering 20 questions about Paul.  I didn't win.  But my friend Steph did, and she offered to take me.  Amazingly, my friend Bret won as well and offered to take my brother Justin.  So now we had 3 people from CT's smallest town attending a concert that thousands of people from around the world were trying to go to, and I was one of them.

More below the cut.

Continue reading "Paul McCartney's Secret Gig at the Highline Ballroom"

Posted in:  A Day In The Life, Concerts, Contests, Culture, NYC, Paul McCartney, Photos, The Beatles, Videos | Permalink |  Digg This | Share on Facebook |Comments (8)

My plans for the evening: Attend a secret Paul McCartney Concert

June 13, 2007 // 0 Comments  // Add yours »

Tonight I'll get the incredible opportunity to see Paul McCartney in concert from just a few feet away.  Along with my friends Steph, Bret, and my brother Justin, I'll be among just 300 contest winners and invited guests who will watch McCartney play Beatles classics as well as some of the best songs of his new album Memory Almost Full.  The show takes place at 8:30 pm tonight at the Highline Ballroom on 16th St. in NYC.  It's extremely rare for a guy who usually performs in front of 50,000 people to do a show in a venue this small.  What makes tonight even more interesting is that his album debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200 this morning with his highest weekly sales since 1982.  I'll post a recap after the show.

Thanks for MaccaReport.com for the heads up on the secret gig!

Posted in:  A Day In The Life, Concerts, Contests, Culture, NYC, Paul McCartney, The Beatles | Permalink |  Digg This | Share on Facebook |Comments (0)

Ecce Cor Meum at Carnegie Hall

November 15, 2006 // 1 Comments  // Add yours »

Last night Steph and I went back into the city to attend the United States premier of Paul McCartney's latest classical album Ecce Cor Meum.  The concert took place at Carnegie Hall, which was one of the few major places in the city that I had yet to visit.  We arrived minutes before the show was to begin, walked right in and took our seats on the main floor.  We were excited, but not shaking with anticipation as I had thought we'd be, probably because we had just met Paul the day before, but still, it was great to be there and I couldn't wait for it to start.

A minute or two before the performance was scheduled to start Paul entered a box maybe 10 feet directly above us and sat down with a bunch of celebrities.  The crowd went nuts and many got out of their seat to get closer.  Eventually they sat everybody down and the show began.

Continue reading "Ecce Cor Meum at Carnegie Hall"

Posted in:  A Day In The Life, Concerts, Culture, NYC, Paul McCartney, Photos, The Beatles | Permalink |  Digg This | Share on Facebook |Comments (1)

How I Met Paul McCartney

November 13, 2006 // 14 Comments  // Add yours »

I have now met one of The Beatles.  The other day I finally got to meet Sir Paul McCartney, the most successful popular-music composer and recording artist ever, at the Times Square Virgin Megastore in NYC.

It took some effort to get the opportunity.  Steph and I arrived 22 hours before he was scheduled to arrive.  We had expected maybe 30 people or so to already be standing in line, but instead found a line that wrapped all the way around the corner and down W 46th St.  A man towards the front of the line started passing down a list for people to sign, and we found that we were the 114th and 115th persons in line. 

Continue reading "How I Met Paul McCartney"

Posted in:  A Day In The Life, Concerts, Culture, NYC, Paul McCartney, Photos, The Beatles | Permalink |  Digg This | Share on Facebook |Comments (14)