DVD Review: Live in Red Square

1) Getting Better
2) Band on the Run
3) Can't Buy Me Love
4) Two of Us
5) I Saw Her Standing There
6) We Can Work It Out
7) I've Just Seen a Face
8) Live and Let Die
9) Let 'Em In
10) Fool on the Hill
11) Things We Said Today
12) Birthday
13) Maybe I'm Amazed
14) Back in the USSR
15) Calico Skies
16) Hey Jude
17) She's Leaving Home
18) Yesterday
19) Let It Be
20) Back in the USSR
Paul McCartney live. Enough said. He and a superb backing band give the people of Russia, and all the fans watching the D.V.D., what they want.
You get the hits you paid to hear - "Band on the Run", "Hey Jude", "Yesterday" - and some more obscure tracks from Paul's long career - "Calico Skies", anybody? Where did "Getting Better" come from? Oh, yeah.
Hell, they even bust out "I've Just Seen a Face", a lost classic from the Help! album. In short, the set list is sure to satisfy both casual fans and people like me and Chris. Paul's catalog has its highs and lows - seriously, "Let 'Em In"? - but he knows what the people want.
"I Saw Her Standing There" still gets the people dancing. Others, like "We Can Work It Out" and, of course, "Hey Jude", are impossible NOT to sing along to. And "Live and Let Die" just brings the house down, despite the crappy lyric "and in this ever changing world in which we live in."
Paul's well aware that the audience doesn't care about his more recent material - "Calico Skies", anybody? - but delivers the oldies with a fresh sound. Needless to say, he's playing some damn good songs. Credit must be given to his talented partners - Rusty Anderson, Brian Ray, Paul Wickens, and Abe Laboriel, Jr. Back in 2003, these guys put on a show in Red Square that even Putin had to check out.
***** out of five