Paul McCartney fans, young and old, flock to Miller Park for concert

 

Jess Skinner of Milwaukee and Tom McKinney of Spring Grove, Ill., have both wanted to see Paul McCartney live since they were kids.
The difference is that McKinney has been waiting longer: he's 56, thirty years older than his fellow McCartney fan.
But age didn't define the crowds outside Miller Park on Tuesday as much as enthusiasm for McCartney did. With Beatles hits playing out of their car radios and umbrellas in hand to combat the heat, scores began arriving at the parking lot as early as 4 p.m. for the 8 p.m. show, McCartney's first in Milwaukee since 2005.
Many began grilling food and passing out drinks in the lot, despite the baking sun. "There's water and beer — it helps," said Zack Weddigs.
Though the Beatles and Wings star is now 71, concert-goers said they expected him to be in good form on this leg of his latest tour, "Out There."
"I've seen a lot of other musicians and he stands out as still really good," said Kyle Richards, who saw McCartney in Chicago two years ago. "He still sounds pretty close to being the same."
Jim Linneman said he thought this would be a good chance to see a quality McCartney performance, considering that it might be some years before he returns to Milwaukee or anywhere near it.
"The last time he was here was in '05, so if it's eight years again, he'll be about 80," Linneman said.
A number of the diehard fans out early said they had seen McCartney before and jumped at the chance to do so again.
That was the case for Tyler Matasek, of West Bend, Ill., who last saw the musical legend after he graduated from high school two years ago. Matasek has the same bass guitar McCartney uses and some of his friends came to the concert prepared with the complete Beatles score. They get together to play Beatles hits sometimes, he explained.
"He's so much a part of history," said Linda Heneger, who saw The Beatles in Milwaukee in 1964 and spoke to the Journal Sentinel on her way over to Miller Park to see McCartney. She said that she sees the concert as an opportunity to "regain" her youth; she remembers the days when she wished McCartney were her boyfriend.
And for another vet of that '64 performance, Linneman's girlfriend, Marty Hacker, this McCartney concert is a chance to appreciate the group's music in a way she couldn't the last time she saw them.
Back then, Hacker said, women screaming drowned out the music.
She hopes that the crowds, large as they are, will be slightly less overbearing this time.
For her, Hacker said, it's about "the old Beatles songs."
Fans in the parking lot were supposed to be allowed entry into the stadium at 6 p.m., but were still being denied entry after 6:30 p.m. as the sound check was ongoing and musicians were still on stage.
Some people complained about the lack of water outside the stadium and the long lines caused by the delays.
Others expressed concerns about tickets being sold for seats that did not exist.
Late Tuesday, Tyler Barnes, the Brewers' vice president of communications, wrote in an email to the Journal Sentinel: "Concerts of this size and scope typically have a small number of seats that have to be moved once the full production and staging set up is complete.
"It has happened on a similar scale for other shows staged at Miller Park. Tonight, persons holding those tickets were relocated in almost every case to seats that were in the same category as those that they had purchased."

By Akbar Ahmed

Source: http://www.jsonline.com