I am so lucky! Beyond lucky. I have my health, a great job, I live in a great area, have loving family and friends but last night I got a jolt of super luck.
I got to go to the Musicares event last night. Ive been to this event many times in the past and always loved it. Musicares is party of the Grammy organization and it’s a charity that helps music people in need. It’s always a great event, with a cool goodie bag, but last night topped them all. They honored Sir Paul McCartney and it was awesome.
The event is held in downtown LA at the Convention Center. Certainly not the most glamorous place to hold a black tie event but ultimately it doesn’t matter. Before dinner there’s always a cocktail hour / silent auction with just tons of stuff. Jewelry, travel packages, instruments signed by artists, original art, etc. It’s pretty impressive. This year one of the best parts of the cocktail hour was the hors d’oeuvre! Since it was a Paul McCartney event, and he is a vegetarian, all the food was vegetarian! It was so liberating to me to not have to ask what kind of meat is in the pupu platter. I tried everything and it was all good. I was an omnivorgitarian! He he!
So next up was a mad push into the main room where dinner would be served. For all of the times I’ve been to Musicares, this was definitely the biggest one. I think they had a couple thousand people there. Our table was not that great, but it didn’t matter.
I wanted to see if I could find my friend Paul, so a co-worker and I walked up the aisle to the front of the room to see if we could spot his table. I passed by Giuliana and Bill Rancic, Allison Krause, Lindsay Lohan’s mom (Dina Lohan), Smokey Robinson, Barry Gordy…then there he was…Sir Paul McCartney. Like right in front of me! We stood around for a few minutes then floated back to our seats.
The night started off with Cirque du Soleil performers from The Beatles LOVE. There were performers everywhere in the room – with really cool costumes – dancing, jumping, bungee cordings from the ceiling. It was wild. Then Sir Paul took the stage! He was in great voice and sang “Magical Mystery Tour” and “Junior’s Farm”. Incredible.
Then Foo Fighters came on and did an awesome, rocking version of “Jet”. Alicia Keys came out and played piano and flatly sang to “Blackbird”. Not my favorite but still cool. There was a small rotating stage in the center of the room, close to my table and Alison Krause and Union Station came out and sang “No More Lonely Nights” while spinning.
The pace of the show was a bit uneven as there were long pauses between some acts. Eddie Izzard was the host and he came out on a few occasions and spewed a McCartney bio where all of the events in his life took place in 1962 and included a Wings rivalry with Fidel Castro’s band, Beaks. Pretty funny stuff even though it was completely over the top.
The night just kept coming fast and furious with stars like:
Tony Bennett on “Here, There and Everywhere”
Katy Perry on the center stage in a gorgeous pink frock and blingd out mic stand singing a beautiful acoustic version of “Hey Jude”
Nora Jones – “Oh Darling”
Neil Young and Crazy Horse with a big sloppy rocking version of “I Saw Her Standing There”(incredible)
Coldplay on the center stage doing an acoustic “We Can Work It Out”
James Taylor and Diana Krall
Duane Eddy
Sergio Mendes
Insane!!
The night ended with McCartney doing two songs from his new album then back on the old stuff. It was truly a fantastic night. I am so lucky.
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