Yeah, yeah, yeah! Paul McCartney returning May 4 for Target Center concert

The Beatle is downsizing from stadiums to arenas on his 2016 tour, which comes just two years after he easily sold out Target Field.

March 16, 2016 at 7:51PM
Paul McCartney appeared at Target Field in 2014.
Paul McCartney appeared at Target Field in 2014. (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Less than two years after knocking it out of the park at his sold-out Target Field concert, rock's most celebrated living song man Paul McCartney will now try to blow the roof off Target Center for his first local indoor show in 11 years on May 4.

The concert was announced early Wednesday morning with an appropriately showy press conference at the Minneapolis arena. Tickets will cost $47-$252 and go on sale Monday at 10 a.m. through AXS.com or 1-888-9-AXS-TIX. American Express card holders can get pre-sale access starting Thursday at 10 a.m.

Only the seventh Twin Cities performance in McCartney's 54-year career — going back to his 1965 appearance with the Beatles at Met Stadium — the Target Center gig will be one of the first stops on his 2016 One on One Tour, so named to reflect the downsizing to arenas from his usual stadium gigs. Not many other rock acts can get away with calling an arena an intimate affair.

A press release for the tour says it will include his usual band and "massive screens, lasers, fireworks and, of course, a staggering selection of the best songs ever written or performed." The tour was initially announced last week with dates in several cities he has never before played, including Sioux Falls S.D. on May 2, his stop right before the Minneapolis date.

This one's a pleasant surprise for Twin Cities fans, many of whom pondered whether the Target Field stop on 2014's Out There Tour would be McCartney's last time in town given his age (73) and the fact that he has typically come to Minnesota only once per decade.

The one other time he offered local dates this close together was in 2002 and 2005, the years he played Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. He has never performed at Target Center, where fellow '60s British rock legends the Who are scheduled to perform three nights before Macca.

Chris Riemenschneider • 612-673-4658

@ChrisRstrib

about the writer

about the writer

Chris Riemenschneider

Critic / Reporter

Chris Riemenschneider has been covering the Twin Cities music scene since 2001, long enough for Prince to shout him out during "Play That Funky Music (White Boy)." The St. Paul native authored the book "First Avenue: Minnesota's Mainroom" and previously worked as a music critic at the Austin American-Statesman in Texas.

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