“Nice little place, isn’t it?” Paul McCartney shouted as he looked up to the rafters, then to the crowd of 1,200 cheering fans at the Fonda Theater in Hollywood on Friday night, minutes after he and his band kicked off the night with the Beatles’ classic “Help.”
As McCartney suggests, this He is A different venue than he usually plays, and much more intimate than the usual arena or stadium gig one of the world’s most legendary artists usually plays when they go on the road. It comes just one day after the singer released a new single and announced his first album in five years this week, and it was impossible not to feel festive.
Friday was the first of two Fonda shows played by McCartney this weekend, with the second show on Saturday night. It’s a rare opportunity for a small number of fans – plenty of others were out there actively trying to score a ticket at the last second – but offers like this have been unheard of over the past year; He played three shows at the Bowery Ballroom in Brooklyn in February 2025, and performed at the Pinnacle in Nashville in November.
Friday’s show had everything fans would expect from a McCartney show and was structured like the Got Back Tour that concluded late last year. He played a high-energy set that had the former Beatle weaving through decades of tunes, shifting throughout the night from guitar to guitar and piano, all while delivering clean vocals and adding that signature grit when he wanted.
The night began with heavy wings, as the band played tracks including “Let Me Roll It,” “Jet,” “Let ‘Em In,” and “Nineteen Eighty-Five.” The latter half was more Beatles-focused, with McCartney playing “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da”, “Get Back” and “I’ve Just Seen a Face”. In the most intimate moment of the night, with only McCartney’s guitar and the spotlight, he broke into “Blackbird.” The audience sang along quietly, and only exploded in cheers and applause after he finished.
McCartney’s banter was as warm and homely as ever, with Macca interacting directly with screaming fans in the audience and sharing memories from his unique life of travel, from his early days at Liverpool to his post-Beatles fame.
At one point, McCartney told a story about seeing Tony Bennett at a concert, where Bennett did a bit of a compliment where he complimented the venue where he was playing, saying, “You’ve got a beautiful voice here,” and instructed the crew to turn off the microphone so he could sing live to the audience.
“I saw him later at a charity event at the Beverly Hilton,” recalls McCartney, feigning disappointment when he saw Bennett giving the hotel the same praise again, while once again singing from the microphone.
“I believed him,” McCartney said as the audience burst into laughter.
He recalled the Beatles’ early days as well, noting that at some of their first shows in America, they would see men staring intently at guitars while trying to learn the chords.
“It wasn’t the girls,” McCartney quipped as women in the crowd shouted. “Give us a Beatles shout,” McCartney replied, as the whole crowd was now screaming. Befitting the early Beatlemania vibe, he and the band jumped into “Love Me Do,” the band’s first hit.
McCartney also shouted out Morgan Neville, who directed McCartney’s latest film Man on the run Documentary and was in the crowd on Friday night. “Well done, Morgan,” McCartney said, joking that Neville would have to sing a song for the crowd.
McCartney’s set was a reminder of the depth of the catalog he amassed with the Beatles and in his subsequent solo career, an unparalleled collection of hits that became the Universal Songbook. With so many iconic songs to choose from, it was inevitable that he would miss the favorite that fans were probably hoping for. Among those rejected on Friday were “Yesterday”, “Runaway Band”, “Live and Let Die” and “Maybe I’m Surprised”. Maybe those will find their way into Saturday’s set instead.
However, it was impossible not to feel the weight of McCartney’s vocals as he began “Let It Be,” as he then told the audience about the song’s famous lore, in which his late mother visited him in a dream. “Hey Jude” came next, with the crowd of 1,200 singing the song’s outro in unison.
McCartney finished as usual Monastery Road A medley outro starting with “Golden Slumbers” and then ending with “Carry That Weight” and “The End”. He and the band took their final bow and sent the audience home before another show the next night.
Settings menu:
“helps”
“Coming”
“I will bring you into my life”
“Let me roll over”
“improvement”
“Let them in”
“Valentine’s Day”
“Nine hundred and eighty-five”
“I just saw a face”
“Every night”
“Love me I do”
“Blackbird”
“Now and then”
“Lady Madonna”
“Blazing Pie”
“airplane”
“Ob la di, ob la da”
“Back”
“So be it”
“Hi Jude”
“Golden sleep”
“Carry this weight”
“the end”
