Sir Paul

Great concert.

Mother nature played a part as well. When we were about to leave for dinner with friends, the heavens opened and it dumped rain for about 20 minutes. Then it let up and we made it to the restaurant.

After a delicious pizza and beer time was had by all, we headed out and, sadly, into the rain. We peeled off to meet up with our better, more connected friend who had our tickets to the controlled access area in front of the stage. We met at 8:15, in the rain, and made our way to Fan Zone 3, just behind Fan Zone 1 and next to Fan Zone 4. Concert to begin at 9:00.

We hunkered down with our raincoat hoods up and under two umbrellas to wait in the downpour. At this point the umbrellas were pretty much useless as we were already completely soaked.

At 9:10, the countdown clock began. 20:00, 19:59, 19:58, 19:57, 19...well, you get the idea.

And then he was there...

Awesomeness.

...playing a song we didn't know.

But then he played songs we DID know, and it was even better.

The rain stuck around for about half an hour, then let up. Which was nice, because people in front of me closed their umbrellas.

He mixed it up, playing Beatles and post-Beatles songs. A bit strange was that the crowd generally reacted more to songs that we didn't necessarily think were the ones we came to here. I mean, Band on the Run? It was good, but...

Eleanor Rigby and Good Day, Sunshine were very good. As were a few Beatles songs he didn't originally sing, incluidng Something by George Harrison, and a medley of Lennon songs during the encore

The best, however, was a 4 song arc that started with Back in the USSR. -- He mangled some Ukrainian that I think was something like "I know this is history, but..." then launched into it, and the crowd went completely crazy. They loved it. Very fun. Then Live and Let Die, with pyrotechnics and fireworks and general craziness, followed by rousing renditions of Let it Be and Hey Jude to end the set.

All in all, a fantastic show. We're very glad we weren't chased away by the rain, and very glad that our friend Gundo thought of us when he had two extra tickets to the controlled access area in front of the stage.

Walking home, Katherine summed it up when she said she would never forget standing in the middle of thousands of Ukrainians going wild in Independence Square as Paul McCartney sang Back in the USSR.

Now we've got to get up for the Lenny Kravitz show. Luckily, it's indoors, so weather won't play a role.

But first, I've got to go to bed, just in case my tennis tournament isn't rained out tomorrow.