At Paul McCartney’s intimate LA show, a lot of healing and one little Trump joke
By Alli Rosenbloom, CNN
(CNN) — On a weekend when millions of Americans took to the streets to say no to “kings,” an intimate, star-studded crowd in Hollywood showed up in support of a “Sir.”
Stevie Nicks, Taylor Swift, Margot Robbie, Billie Eilish and Ringo Starr were among those who gathered to hear Paul McCartney play the second of two shows at the historic Fonda Theatre on Saturday night.
Playing a set heavy with Beatles and Wings classics, McCartney largely avoided politics aside from poking fun at President Donald Trump’s dance moves — a moment that earned the mention of the president’s name boos from the crowd, who had surrendered their phones before the show.
For those who scored highly coveted tickets to the show at the cozy 1,200-person capacity theater, the music was a much-needed escape and salve.
“I just feel like art and community and any sort of gathering around something that’s going to uplift us or bring us closer to each other in our city, that’s the antidote to troubled times,” Derek Heath, a 39-year-old graphic designer, told CNN before the show. “I think that inherently this experience fits within the world of fighting back against tyranny and fighting back against hate.”
Waiting in line to enter the venue, Annika Ahmed, a 44-year-old employed by Los Angeles Unified School District, said she previously attended several No Kings rallies, but skipped that day’s to wait in line at the Fonda ahead of the show. Thousands of people turned out in Los Angeles Saturday, joining millions across the country, to protest Trump.
Ahmed said though she couldn’t attend the protest, she felt good about putting her support behind “someone who we hope has good values and good ideas about how things should be,” referring to McCartney.
She was looking forward to hearing “Blackbird” – a solemn acoustic track that McCartney wrote amid the 1960s civil rights movement in the United States inspired by the Little Rock Nine. She wasn’t disappointed.
In addition to the 1968 hit, McCartney played a roster of Beatles classics, including “Help!”, “Something” and “I’ve Just Seen a Face.” He also played some Wings bangers, including “Band on the Run” and “Let Me Roll It,” among many others during his two-hour set.
Some of the Beatles’ political hits, like “Revolution” — a response to the fraught period of political protests in opposition of the Vietnam War — and McCartney’s anti-war anthem “Pipes of Peace” didn’t make the setlist.
Many in the crowd — which also included actors Steve Carrell, Laura Dern and Dakota Johnson among others — sang and cried as McCartney played, particularly during “Hey Jude” and “Let It Be.”
McCartney announced his 19th studio album last week titled “The Boys of Dungeon Lane,” due out in May.
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