There are scores of Beatles fans out there who have never seen Paul McCartney perform live, because, really, there’s only so much entertainment to be derived from watching a pale beige dot bounce around from across the length of a football field. The sad reality of music fandom is that the more popular an artist becomes, the harder it is for any individual fan to take in their performances with any degree of intimacy. But can you imagine what it would be like to see Sir Paul perform about 10 feet from your face in a tiny bar venue, as if he were your uncle’s friend in a Beatles cover band? Because that’s exactly what about 300 people—including his wife Nancy and Queens Of The Stone Age’s Josh Homme—experienced last night in Pioneertown, California.
“Welcome to Pappy and Harriet’s,” McCartney told the crowd, according to local paper The Desert Sun. “This is the biggest gig we ever played!” (This statement is unsubstantiated.) The former Beatle—who is in the area anyway for sets at the Desert Trip Music Festival in nearby Indio, CA—had apparently been planning this small gig for a while. He had previously sent representatives to the western-themed bar for reconnaissance info because he wanted to play a “real desert” gig while he was in the area.
After a 75-minute set—including new and old songs—in the crowded saloon, he ended the night with a three-song encore, featuring the Beatles’ “Birthday,” “I Saw Her Standing There,” and Wings’ “Hi, Hi, Hi.” The surreal event was captured in part by a number of attendees and uploaded to social media with the obvious intention of making all their friends hate them.