A concert planned in secret over the past three years treated fans at the Santa Barbara Bowl to a historic performance.
Paul McCartney took to the stage Friday night, acknowledged the sold-out crowd and jumped straight into “Help,” the classic Beatles tune he has not played in full since 1965.
Several fans of a certain age immediately started crying, the moment was that moving.
The one-night-only show kicked off McCartney’s 2025 “Got Back” tour. That kind of star power can bring logistical issues, so ticket-holders were advised to arrive earlier than usual. Some took that quiet literally, lining up at 11 a.m. for a 7:30 p.m. performance.
By 5 p.m., the crowd stretched down Anapamu to the Santa Barbara High School parking lot, with a friendly banter among young and old alike: They couldn’t believe the Sir Paul was playing in such an intimate venue in their town.
The small setting was made to feel even larger, with McCartney’s team building an impressive arena-sized production for the show. Pre-show, a DJ played surprisingly tasteful remixes of various Beatles/McCartney tunes, while massive IMAG screens and a gloss-black stage deck lent a seriousness to the set-up. I’ve been covering shows at the Bowl for the past four seasons, and I’ve never seen lighting on a scale like that before.
Paul McCartney headlines at the Santa Barbara Bowl. 
The one-night-only show kicked off Paul McCartney’s 2025 “Got Back” tour. 
The small setting at the Bowl was made to feel even larger with an impressive arena-sized production. 
A massive audio-visual set-up, including IMAG screens, belied the intimacy of the 4,500-seat venue. 
A horns section performs during Paul McCartney’s concert. 
An impressive audio-visual production lent an arena-like air to the inmate Santa Barbara Bowl venue. 
During some songs, stage crews activated lasers as part of the impressive lighting setup. 
Ticket-holders began lining up at 11 a.m. for the 7:30 p.m. show, which was billed as a phone-free event.
To manage the extensive lighting and audio/visuals, the usual Front of House booth had to more than double in size. This is also where the photo riser was placed, where the photographers — myself included — were allowed time to shoot the first two songs.
As the night progressed, it seemed like the sound and lighting widened, getting incrementally bigger with each song, until finally, “Blackbird.” McCartney played it flawlessly, his 83-year-old voice still hitting all the vocal “Paul-isms.” Afterward, he shared a story about how he had messed up that song not once, but twice, in front of Meryl Streep.
Next up was an innovative live-music video combo. Similar to how a pit orchestra plays a movie soundtrack live, McCartney and the band played the Beatles’ “Now and Then” over the music video, syncing up the singing on screen to live vocals.
Normally, that kind of thing would have conjured up a sea of cellphones, but this was a no-phone show, with guests using Yondr pouches to secure their devices pre-concert.
Before he started “Lady Madonna,” McCartney addressed the phone-free zone in the crowd, saying he’s “tried it a couple times, it’s better.”
The widening of the concert’s sound and lighting continued and reached a peak with “Live and Let Die,” with the crew activating lasers and carbon dioxide cannons, making the driving string sections of the song absolutely massive.
After a lengthy, tearful singalong to “Hey Jude,” McCartney and the band took a short break before returning with huge American, California, UK and LGBTQ+ flags, while the drummer carried a glass of wine onstage. They got back to it with another great A/V trick and cut in footage of John Lennon from the 1969 Apple Corps rooftop concert during “I’ve Got A Feeling” to make a seamless virtual duet.
A six-song encore of Beatles songs included the heavy “Helter Skelter,” the anthemic “Golden Slumbers” and ending naturally with “The End.”
And while it was the end for Santa Barbara — there is a hard nightly curfew of 10 p.m. at the Bowl — the arena portion of McCartney’s “Got Back” tour begins in earnest in Palm Springs on Monday, followed by stops in Las Vegas, Denver, Atlanta, Nashville and elsewhere. Information about upcoming shows can be found here, although most are already sold out.
