It was one of those magical "you had to be there" moments, and for roughly 4,000 fortunate lottery ticket winners gathered at the Santa Barbara Bowl on Friday night, they were indeed present at the scene. The occasion? A surprise, one-time-only performance by Sir Paul McCartney and his long-time touring ensemble, serving as a dress rehearsal for the Beatle’s 2025 Got Back tour, which officially commences at Palm Springs’ Acrisure Arena on Monday evening.
As such, it was a rare chance to see McCartney, at the age of 83, breathe new life into his classics in one of the most intimate settings imaginable—an outdoor amphitheater nestled into a hillside of this picturesque coastal town. The venue was so charmingly rustic that parking was arranged at the nearby high school.
For everyone in attendance, the result was nothing short of a quasi-religious experience—a rock ‘n’ roll revival with modern music’s deity at the helm. Among the crowd, one could spot Adam Levine and his wife, Behati Prinsloo, accompanied by their three young children.
Throughout the evening, there were moments of sheer, unadulterated joy and surprise, beginning right from the start when McCartney—appearing two decades younger than his actual age and singing with astonishingly robust vocals, despite what online critics and naysayers might argue—kicked off the show with the Beatles’ classic “Help!,” a song generally attributed to John Lennon and one McCartney had never before performed in its entirety.
The fact that it was a phone-free performance, with guests required to stow their devices in Yondr pouches as they made their way up to the arena, only heightened the electric, fleeting excitement of the show. Scanning the crowd several times throughout the night, the only illuminated sights were the radiant faces of thousands of starry-eyed McCartney devotees. “Nobody’s got a phone tonight,” McCartney remarked at one point, nodding in approval. “It’s better that way.”
That evening, love was in the air in more ways than one, including a heartfelt dedication of his 2012 solo track “My Valentine” to McCartney’s third and current wife, Nancy Shevell; the melody had come to him during an early courtship date in Morocco.
While promoters emphasized that the show did not feature the full-scale production elements of the upcoming arena tour, it was nonetheless packed with a generous dose of laser lighting and projection. Adding a touch of the unexpected, the performance included pre-recorded video clips of Johnny Depp and Natalie Portman interpreting lyrics through sign language, or some creative variation thereof. Depp even picked up a guitar and strummed along during McCartney’s live guitar solo.
