Paul McCartney has seen every step of the rise of rock shows from when bands solely played clubs, to being in one of the groups that graduated to baseball stadiums and other sports arenas.
Since he started out with The Beatles in the 1960s, he's seeing advancements in PA technology, amplifiers, in-ear monitors, and stage production.
And now, instead of trying to get the largest digital screen invented, he's utilizing some breakthroughs first mastered by bands like Dead & Company: synchronized drones.
Tuesday (11/12), during the Wings classic, "Let Me Roll It," which the singer co-wrote with his former wife, Linda, 51 years ago, the skies lit up with scores of lit drones that flew in unison above the giant stage.
The enormity of the modern drone show dazzled the 65,000 fans of the Estadio GNP Seguros no matter where their seats were.
It was a beautiful and unexpected highlight of the night.
Plus drones, unlike fireworks, cause no air pollution and don't disturb nearby neighbors.
Not that I would tell Sir Paul what songs to put on his setlist, but if you're going to do a Wings tune you co-wrote with Linda during a show in Mexico City with drones that form the Wings logo, why not "The Back Seat of My Car" from Ram?
"The laser lights are pretty / we may end up in Mexico City..."
Small detail: according to our records, Paul has never done that tune in full, live.
The only time it seems he even flirted with it was the last time he was in Mexico, back in 2017.
On that fall evening he played "My Valentine" on piano and improvised "The Back Seat of My Car" at the end. Perhaps he was remembering where he was?
So he knows how perfect it would be that song in Mexico, especially so, now with the light show in the sky, yet he hasn't instructed the crew to make it happen.
Maybe he's waiting for whoever's running his drones to start figuring out why the ones at the Dead & Company farewell show a year ago were so much better.
It hasn't yet been revealed who McCartney used for the drone show Tuesday, but Dead & Co. worked with Nova Sky Stories out of Colorado.
When The String Cheese Incident played Red Rocks this summer, Nova Sky did the drone show for them.
Paul continues his Got Back Tour with two more shows in Mexico including one tonight. So he still has the chance to play the correct song during the light show.
Then he takes a few weeks off before heading to Europe for eight gigs in Paris, Spain and the UK. Paul hasn't done a proper tour of Europe since the Freshen Up Tour in 2018.
Fans will be thrilled he got back. Get tickets via his website.
