At this point, Paul McCartney might play your birthday party

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Paul McCartney walked casually onto the stage at the Fonda Theatre and looked out at the audience of around 1,200 people, joking, “I can see the whites of your eyes.” He then shared a quick story about the history of the venue before the concert began on Friday night.

The Fonda, he told us, opened 100 years ago; back then, he added, it was called the Music Box.

“Cool little place, innit?”

At 83, McCartney is well into his cool-little-place era.

Last year was pretty amazing for me as a music fan. I managed to catch the rock legend playing some intimate shows at the Bowery Ballroom in New York – he was in town for the 50th anniversary of ‘Saturday Night Live,’ which was cool. Then, just a few months later, I saw him again at the Santa Barbara Bowl. It felt like a smaller, more personal show before he kicked off the latest part of his massive Got Back world tour.

Paul McCartney’s Friday night show at the Fonda was the first of two quickly sold-out concerts. He’s building excitement for a new album coming out in May, and a bus promoting the album – titled “The Boys of Dungeon Lane” after a street in his hometown of Liverpool – was parked outside the venue.

The show, which lasted nearly an hour and forty minutes, felt less like a formal concert and more like a personal performance – surprisingly, it didn’t even include his most famous hit. It’s clear Sir Paul truly enjoys these smaller, more connected shows, relishing the chance to stand before an audience and perform songs like “Get Back,” “Jet,” or “Got to Get You Into My Life.”

And why wouldn’t he?

While a Paul McCartney arena or stadium concert is a polished, crowd-pleasing trip down memory lane, his smaller club and theater shows are where he truly gets to play music – and after over sixty years, it’s clear he still loves it.

Music

As a lifelong movie and music fan, I’ve been thinking about Paul McCartney’s career since the Beatles ended – a full 50 years! It’s amazing to look back at everything he’s done, starting with those early, self-made solo projects, then forming Wings with Linda, and all the incredible collaborations over the decades. Seriously, from working with Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson to more recent artists like Rihanna and Kanye West, the guy has consistently stayed relevant and creative. It’s a pretty stunning body of work, really.

Honestly, these shows aren’t about reminding Paul McCartney he’s ‘one of us’ – after all, very few people become legends! But they do seem to reconnect him with what made people fall in love with his music in the first place. And that’s huge, because his songs have always been about how love changes everything, so it’s like a full-circle moment for him, and for us as fans.

Like the show in Santa Barbara, Paul McCartney and his seven-piece band – including three horn players – performed a streamlined version of their recent ‘Got Back’ set. They started with a powerful combination of “Help!” and “Coming Up,” immediately showcasing McCartney’s incredible vocal ability and stamina.

As a lifelong fan, I’ve always loved how each Beatles (and post-Beatles!) song has its own vibe. “Let Me Roll It” just grooves with a cool confidence, and “Getting Better” is relentlessly upbeat. Then you have tracks like “I’ve Just Seen a Face” where their vocal harmonies are so clean and beautiful, and “Lady Madonna” really highlights how perfectly they played together rhythmically. I remember reading about a performance where Paul asked Brian Ray to demonstrate the incredibly simple, yet essential, bass line to “Let ‘Em In” – just one note repeated endlessly, but it worked!

He shared a couple more funny stories, like recalling Tony Bennett singing perfectly well without a microphone to show off how good a concert hall’s sound was—only to later see Bennett do the same thing at the Beverly Hilton. He also playfully teased the audience members in the nicer seats at the Fonda Theater. Among them, he noticed, was Morgan Neville, who directed the recent documentary about his life after the Beatles split, called “Man on the Run.”

He also mentioned his wife, Nancy Shevell, was present and performed “My Valentine” for her. However, the song felt somewhat sad, as did “Now and Then,” the final Beatles song released in 2023. That song was created using technology to finish a rough recording John Lennon had made years ago.

After John wrote the song, Paul McCartney said he appreciated it, and that made it a bit more difficult to dislike.

The concert continued with more beloved songs, including a lively performance of “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” and a pairing of “Let It Be” and “Hey Jude” that prompted such enthusiastic singing from the audience that Paul McCartney could have easily pretended to sing along without anyone noticing.

But of course he didn’t want to — that was kind of the whole point.

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2026-03-29 02:01