Bob Marino
Member
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2007
- Messages
- 3,263
Well, some weeks back, my wife bought 4 tickets to see Paul McCartney at Brooklyn's new Barclay Center. Two seats together for my wife and myself and directly across the stadium from us, 2 tickets for my 15 year old daughter and a friend of hers. Turned out her friend already had tickets, so my sister sat with my daughter. As they are very close in spirit, if not in age, that worked well.
As much as a Beatles fan as I was and am, I was sort of ho-hum about it. Maybe that's really showing my age.
Soooo, the Barclay Center is downtown Brooklyn on Flatbush and Pacific Ave and for those non familiar with Brooklyn, that area was always a very busy hub and until relatively recently, an area that was not the safest at night - putting it politely.
Figuring parking and traffic would be a mess at the stadium, after getting a friend's recommendation, we decided to eat in neighboring Park Slope, an area of Brooklyn long ago very gentrified (cool/hip/packed with restaurants/bars/young singles and couples/tattoos, etc. - you get the picture).
We decided on this place -Al De La: http://www.aldilatrattoria.com/. OK, tiny, a bit noisy, but incredible, true and honest Northern Italian Cuisine. Parking was incredibly tough, but we figured we park at a restaurant and cab it to the stadium. No need - turns out the restaurant was only a 20 minute walk.
If you are in the area, it been around for ages and deserves the incredible reviews it received. Highly, highly recommended!
OK, our seats were pretty good and the crowd was mixed - from babies to boomers, and thank the Lord that the smell of pot was almost non existant - until the last half hour of the show and those partaking at least were not terribly open and in your face about it. [mad] I wonder if anyone on the ground floor front rows - where Mayor Bloomberg was sitting, would have been so bold?
Here's a review from the New York Daily News, that another FOG member posted in another thread.
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music-arts/paul-mccartney-rocks-barclays-center-article-1.1367299
To say that the concert was incredible/fun/entertaining would be using words that have been overused to the point of irrelevance. It was so well done, without relying on half naked dancers thrusting at themselves or crotch grabbing, or throwing the F bomb or berating us with politics. It was simply a man with his band singing some of the most memorable songs of the last half century. And he played true to the original music, not adding endless guitar riffs to fill time. And to see him performing (first time) in my hometown - Brooklyn, was over the top.
If I have to say that one group of all the hundreds of groups and solo artists that have emerged since the 50's until today, that has been the most musically and socially (both good and bad, I suppose) earth changing/important, with the largest musical catalog, it's the Beatles. There have been groups with better musicians, or those with better voices, or better at vocally harmonizing, but again, none who put so much, so well together as the Beatles. Their catalog still rocks those young and old, and most probably will continue doing so forever; and I don't think this is a overly nostalgic look back/opinion from an aging boomer; I really believe their music is timeless. Perhaps, the best part of the show for me was watching my daughter stand , sing along and dance with every song he played.
Bob
As much as a Beatles fan as I was and am, I was sort of ho-hum about it. Maybe that's really showing my age.

Soooo, the Barclay Center is downtown Brooklyn on Flatbush and Pacific Ave and for those non familiar with Brooklyn, that area was always a very busy hub and until relatively recently, an area that was not the safest at night - putting it politely.
Figuring parking and traffic would be a mess at the stadium, after getting a friend's recommendation, we decided to eat in neighboring Park Slope, an area of Brooklyn long ago very gentrified (cool/hip/packed with restaurants/bars/young singles and couples/tattoos, etc. - you get the picture).
We decided on this place -Al De La: http://www.aldilatrattoria.com/. OK, tiny, a bit noisy, but incredible, true and honest Northern Italian Cuisine. Parking was incredibly tough, but we figured we park at a restaurant and cab it to the stadium. No need - turns out the restaurant was only a 20 minute walk.
If you are in the area, it been around for ages and deserves the incredible reviews it received. Highly, highly recommended!
OK, our seats were pretty good and the crowd was mixed - from babies to boomers, and thank the Lord that the smell of pot was almost non existant - until the last half hour of the show and those partaking at least were not terribly open and in your face about it. [mad] I wonder if anyone on the ground floor front rows - where Mayor Bloomberg was sitting, would have been so bold?
Here's a review from the New York Daily News, that another FOG member posted in another thread.
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music-arts/paul-mccartney-rocks-barclays-center-article-1.1367299
To say that the concert was incredible/fun/entertaining would be using words that have been overused to the point of irrelevance. It was so well done, without relying on half naked dancers thrusting at themselves or crotch grabbing, or throwing the F bomb or berating us with politics. It was simply a man with his band singing some of the most memorable songs of the last half century. And he played true to the original music, not adding endless guitar riffs to fill time. And to see him performing (first time) in my hometown - Brooklyn, was over the top.
If I have to say that one group of all the hundreds of groups and solo artists that have emerged since the 50's until today, that has been the most musically and socially (both good and bad, I suppose) earth changing/important, with the largest musical catalog, it's the Beatles. There have been groups with better musicians, or those with better voices, or better at vocally harmonizing, but again, none who put so much, so well together as the Beatles. Their catalog still rocks those young and old, and most probably will continue doing so forever; and I don't think this is a overly nostalgic look back/opinion from an aging boomer; I really believe their music is timeless. Perhaps, the best part of the show for me was watching my daughter stand , sing along and dance with every song he played.
Bob