concert Archives - Hey Dullblog, the Beatles fan blog

Cirque de Soleil’s “Love” at the Mirage

By Nancy Carr|2020-09-10T10:58:03-07:00June 30, 2020|Beatle-inspired, Beatles tributes, concert, Covers, Covers, Live, Sgt. Pepper|

Back on March 7, my husband and I saw Cirque de Soleil's Beatles-themed show Love at the Mirage hotel and casino in Las Vegas. I've been meaning to write this post for a while now, but the way things snapped shut right after that trip due to covid-19 has made it hard to figure out what to say about the experience. Please bear with this somewhat rambling account. I'd wanted to see the show for quite a while, and my husband proposed that we finally just go to Las Vegas for a weekend. We could combine seeing Love with catching up with [...]

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Interview with Jay Goeppner of the the Beatle Brothers

By Nancy Carr|2021-07-23T07:28:33-07:00August 28, 2017|Beatle-inspired, concert, Covers, Covers, Interviews, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, The Fest for Beatles Fans|

Chicago-based singer Jay Goeppner pours his fervent love for the music of the Beatles, and John Lennon, into every performance. His voice, and his energy onstage, are almost eerily similar to Lennon's. I've seen several of his Beatle Brothers shows, and can testify that the only time I've gotten a stronger Beatles vibe was at Paul McCartney's concerts, since rock and metal concerts have always been my favorites and I even look for metal concerts near me every time I can. I caught up with Jay by phone recently, as he was returning from a last-minute road trip to fill in for [...]

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The Beatles, Sean Spicer, and the Chicago Women’s March

By Nancy Carr|2017-01-23T17:29:00-08:00January 23, 2017|Beatle-inspired, concert, Covers, Politics|

Saturday was a tale of two crowds: the kerfuffle over the inauguration audience and the turnout for the women's marches around the country and around the world. Given that the facts / "alternative facts" in question concerned crowd size, it's fitting that the ever-popular Beatles featured in a couple of the memes generated in the wake of Sean Spicer's statements to the press about the audience for the inauguration. The Women's March in Chicago this past Saturday, which I participated in, did have one actual link to the Beatles: members of the local cast of "Hamilton" performed "Let It Be" at the rally. I didn't [...]

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McCartney Opens Sacramento Stadium with a Bang

By Nancy Carr|2016-10-11T17:31:36-07:00October 11, 2016|"New" album, concert, Live, McCartney: Man of the People, Paul McCartney, Uncategorized|

My view from the cheap(ish) seats. Paul McCartney opened Sacramento’s Golden 1 Center on October 4 the same way he closed down Candlestick Park two years ago – with a nonstop volley of songs. The opening chord of “A Hard Day’s Night” sounded, and tens of thousands of fans started screaming. The overall mood, though decidedly more decorous than the heyday of Beatlemania, was reminiscent of it. And as has become usual during the past few years, McCartney basked in it, drew energy from it, and played a nearly 3-hour set that included 38 songs. Most of the songs and anecdotes [...]

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Eight Days A Week: 5 Great Things About Ron Howard’s Documentary

By Nancy Carr|2022-08-25T17:28:11-07:00September 26, 2016|1963, 1964, 1965, Beatle History, Beatlemania, concert, Live, Movies, Uncategorized|

Getting ready to perform, during the suit-and-tie era. Ron Howard's Eight Days A Week documentary of the Beatles' touring years is excellent. Not perfect, not a definitive look at the totality of the Beatles' career, but very good at doing what it sets out to do. Howard does shy away from the unseemly elements of the Beatles' life on the road, most obviously the rampant sex. And he doesn't delve into the disenchantment that Lennon and Harrison later expressed about the experience of being Beatles. But Howard is aiming to show us what being on public display felt like for [...]

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McCartney shakes it in St Louis

By Nancy Carr|2016-08-16T12:02:38-07:00August 16, 2016|concert, Live, Paul McCartney, solo, Wings|

Waiting to sit in the stands of the sports arena. Paul McCartney proved he could still play, sing, and shake it at his show in St Louis last Saturday night. Looking loose and sounding in fine voice, McCartney was clearly having a capital time with the capacity crowd at Busch Stadium. And–almost unbelievably, given the high winds, lightning, and sheets of rain of the preceding night–it didn't even sprinkle. In most respects the 38-song setlist reflected the kind of Beatles-heavy mix McCartney has favored in recent years. It included 23 Beatles songs, 5 Wings songs, and 6 solo songs. But [...]

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McCartney and Starr on Orlando attack

By Nancy Carr|2016-06-16T07:33:19-07:00June 16, 2016|concert, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Uncategorized|

McCartney on stage in Berlin After the June 11 mass shooting attack at Orlando's Pulse nightclub, both Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr have publicly expressed their solidarity with the victims. This isn't a surprise, but it's a welcome reminder that in this time when so many seem driven by fear and hatred of those who are different, there are still prominent voices speaking of the power of love and connection. At his June 14 show in Berlin, McCartney emerged for an encore wearing a large rainbow flag and declared "We stand together with Orlando." And in an interview on June [...]

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John and Yoko at the Fillmore

By Karen Hooper|2016-02-11T16:54:10-08:00February 9, 2016|1970s, concert, john and yoko, John Lennon, Uncategorized|

Frank Zappa tells an interesting story about John and Yoko and their guest appearance at Zappa’s 1971 live album concert at the Fillmore East. After briefly meeting them through a reporter, Zappa invited John and Yoko to come to the Fillmore that evening to jam with the band. Nervous but buoyed by cocaine, The Lennons played with the Mothers for nearly an hour and performed four songs, including a 5-minute jam. According to Zappa, “we played for about 40 minutes I guess, and it just so happens that we had made arrangements to record that night...and the whole thing got laid down on tape. [...]

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Mitch O’Connell McCartney poster

By Nancy Carr|2015-08-04T08:16:35-07:00August 4, 2015|"New" album, concert, Paul McCartney, The Fest for Beatles Fans|

Artist Mitch O'Connell created this unofficial McCartney poster for the current "Out There" tour -- in my opinion, it's more interesting than the official one. Thanks go yet again to commenter Hologram Sam for bringing this to Hey Dullblog's attention. Sam, we have to get you writing posts for us! On his site O'Connell notes that "I combined about 50 references in the drawing, a few obvious ones being the walking pose from Abbey Road, the profile from Revolver, the garb of Sgt. Pepper, the lettering from Magical Mystery Tour, and on and on and on, all rendered with a nod to [...]

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McCartney’s DJ Chris Holmes

By Michael Gerber|2015-01-07T16:39:50-08:00January 7, 2015|concert, Covers, Remixes & Mashups|

LA-based DJ Chris Holmes. Now that I know what he looks like, maybe I'll bump into him. Rolling Stone comes in for a lot of licks here on Dullblog, mostly from me, mostly for its role in canonizing Lennon and demonizing McCartney in the early 70s. But they've gotten their act together since then, and the Stone's relentless Boomer-focus means that they do get into some interesting Beatle-related nooks and crannies. This article for example, on McCartney's DJ Chris Holmes. Holmes' mixes have been warming up Paul's crowd since 2009; he provided his set to RollingStone.com, and I've been listening [...]

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