Paul McCartney at Syracuse University's JMA Wireless Dome

Sir Paul McCartney is either lying about his age, or he discovered the fountain of youth at some point.

The Beatles legend performed 36 songs during a nearly three-hour concert at the JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse on Saturday, mixing Fab Four classics like “Can’t Buy Me Love” and “Get Back” with his solo and Wings catalogs. It was his first show at the Syracuse University stadium since 2017 and the only Upstate New York stop on his 2022 “Got Back” tour dates.

“Welcome back to Syracuse, Paul,” multiple signs at the Dome said.

“It’s good to be back,” McCartney told the crowd of some 35,000 fans as the concert began.

McCartney turns 80 later this month, but he still has the boyish charm of a mop-top singer performing on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1964. He’s one of the greatest songwriters of all time, a two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, has won 18 Grammys and an Academy Award, and was a member of one of the most influential bands in music history.

Yet he’s still a humble and polite lad from Liverpool, thanking people for signs they made — cheers to the guy who said he was seeing his 127th McCartney show — or when they light up their cell phones during torch songs like “Let It Be.” He gave a shoutout to “the best crew on the planet” for the amps and stage setup brought in by 19 tractor-trailers, acknowledging roadies in a way that lesser artists almost never do.

McCartney played with the crowd, smiling as he threatened to jump off the stage and go crowd-surfing, or joking about the pyrotechnics during “Live and Let Die” being too old. (If it’s too loud, you’re too old, but we don’t believe you, Paul.) He also feigned modesty when the ladies screamed as he took off his coat.

“What? It’s just a jacket,” he said.

At one point, I swear to you, he even pulled a Benjamin Button during “Hey Jude” and looked like he was 26 years old again, trying to cheer up John Lennon’s son by taking a sad song and making it better. I saw Syracuse basketball coach Jim Boeheim, sitting near me with his wife Juli, similarly travel back in time to a smiling twenty-something during the song’s “na-na-na-na” refrain.

Jim and Juli Boeheim enter for Paul McCartney at Syracuse University’s JMA Wireless Dome, Syracuse, N.Y., Saturday June 4, 2022. Scott Schild | sschild@syracuse.com Scott Schild | sschild@syracuse.com

McCartney was happy to share his youth with the whole audience, who jumped up and down during “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” danced to “Band on the Run” and acted like it was their 12th birthday during “Birthday.” The crowd ranged in age from grandparents and great-grandparents to young adults and little kids, but we were all drinking from Macca’s fountain of youth.

The only hints that McCartney himself is a 79-year-old “grandude” were his thin white beard and a voice that’s not always quite as powerful as it was 60 years ago. His lively backing band and the crowd’s knowledge of nearly every single lyric helped with the latter, though, and he showed his guitar skills are still top-notch during a “Foxy Lady” tribute to the late, great Jimi Hendrix.

Besides being forever young, McCartney’s greatest talent is storytelling. He revisited all the ones we’ve heard before, such as the formation of The Quarrymen and how George Martin helped the Beatles reach bigger stages. He held a ukulele and talked wistfully about George Harrison before a rendition of the Beatles’ “Something.”

It was the first event at the newly renamed JMA Wireless Dome, previously known as the Carrier Dome for 42 years. Signs inside and outside the stadium simply called it the “JMA Dome.”

The running joke of the Carrier Dome was that it was named after an air conditioning company, but the building itself had no A/C — until last year. Now it stays nice and cool even on a warm June night, though irony reigns as it’s still difficult to get a wireless signal on your phone despite the Dome now being named after a local wireless company. (JMA Wireless is working on that.)

The show’s stage setup was fantastic, including 100-foot tall screens to help everyone in the back of the Dome to see everything. The stage lifted up McCartney on a platform during solo acoustic songs “Blackbird” and “Here Today,” an emotional letter to John Lennon that echoed through the stadium. Video visuals also complemented performances, such as psychedelic cartoons during “Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite” and footage of Lennon performing on a rooftop from Peter Jackson’s “Get Back” documentary for a virtual duet on “I’ve Got a Feeling.”

Everything was well choreographed with no breaks. McCartney only briefly left the stage for a minute before the encore, quickly returning with flags for the U.K., United States, Ukraine, Pride month and New York state.

But the best parts were the unexpected moments, like McCartney’s drummer channeling Ringo Starr goofiness during an accordion-featuring version of “Dance Tonight.” (He chose to dance the “Macarena” tonight, by the way.)

DJ Chris Holmes served as the opening act, playing remixes of Beatles songs like “Twist & Shout,” “Back in the USSR,” “Come Together,” “Why Don’t We Do It in the Road?” and “Revolution.” Almost none of the songs overlapped with McCartney’s set list and helped ensure the biggest Beatlemaniacs got to hear as many of their favorite songs as possible.

It’s wonderful to hear songs that make people happy, and it’s magical how they make us feel young. Here’s hoping McCartney comes back to Syracuse so we can all “get back” to that fountain of youth.

Paul McCartney performs at Syracuse University’s JMA Wireless Dome, Syracuse, N.Y., Saturday June 4, 2022. Scott Schild | sschild@syracuse.com

Paul McCartney set list for June 4, 2022

At the JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse, N.Y.

Can’t Buy Me Love (The Beatles song)

Junior’s Farm (Wings song)

Got to Get You Into My Life (The Beatles song)

Let Me Roll It (Wings song) w/ Foxy Lady jam

Getting Better (The Beatles song)

Let ‘Em In (Wings song)

Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five (Wings song)

I’ve Just Seen a Face (The Beatles song)

In Spite of All the Danger (The Quarrymen song)

Love Me Do (The Beatles song)

Here Today (tribute to John Lennon)

Lady Madonna (The Beatles song)

Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite (The Beatles song)

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (The Beatles song)

You Never Give Me Your Money (The Beatles song)

She Came in Through the Bathroom Window (The Beatles song)

Get Back (The Beatles song)

Band on the Run (Wings song)

Let It Be (The Beatles song)

Live and Let Die (Wings song)

Hey Jude (The Beatles song)

I’ve Got a Feeling (virtual duet with John Lennon rooftop performance video from “Get Back” documentary)

Helter Skelter (The Beatles song)

Golden Slumbers (The Beatles song)

Carry That Weight (The Beatles song)

The End (The Beatles song)

Paul McCartney at Syracuse University’s JMA Wireless Dome, Syracuse, N.Y., Saturday June 4, 2022. Scott Schild | sschild@syracuse.com Scott Schild | sschild@syracuse.com

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