Paul McCartney live: Hartwall Areena, Helsinki

Paul McCartney performed at the Hartwall Areena in Helsinki, Finland, on 12 December 2011.

It was the 16th show of the On The Run Tour, which lasted for 37 dates between July 2011 and November 2012.

This was McCartney’s first show in Finland since the 04 Summer Tour stopped at the Olympiastadion in Helsinki in June 2004.

The setlist was the same as his 5 December concert at London’s O2 Arena, aside from the addition of ‘Ram On’.

McCartney’s band was Paul ‘Wix’ Wickens (vocals, keyboards, guitar, percussion, harmonica), Brian Ray (vocals, guitar, bass), Rusty Anderson (vocals, guitar), and Abe Laboriel Jr (vocals, drums).

Paul McCartney – On The Run Tour 2011-2012

Concert setlist

On The Run Tour dates

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2 thoughts on “Paul McCartney live: Hartwall Areena, Helsinki”

  1. Definitely the best rock concert I’ve ever been to! … It’s the only one, though.

    Because of my seat, most of the time I only saw his back ( but I think I saw it better than anyone else at the audience, well, that’s something at least), but luckily there was a monitor so it was ok.

    I was surprised how energetic he was, and he still sounded awesome. I especially liked “Maybe I’m amazed”; I think it might have been even better than the recorded version, very powerful. And here today was touching, of course (he croaked a little but that’s totally understandable). And afterwards, when he said “you had better say things now before it’s too late”, the front audience (mainly consisting of girls), shouted “I love you!” and he answered back. I just find it so cute.

    He was definitely at his best in slower, quieter songs like Yesterday and other ballads. I didn’t really like the way some of the heavier rock songs were mixed; the sound echoed too much and guitars were too prominent so I could hardly even hear him sing, especially on Helter Skelter.

    I was a little disappointed given the appraisal of his Hey June and the “choir singing”; I don’t think the audience fired up enough. Or, should I say, they were so fired from his earlier “Live and let die” that they couldn’t sing-because of the smoke. I know I was coughing all the time when I tried to sing it, and I don’t smoke (nananaa*cough*na..hey…*cough*).

    However, Give peace a chance sounded so beautiful when the whole stadium was singing it, in unison. And it seems John’s name heated the concert in other ways, too, for the first big applauds were given to him (“give a hand to my dear friend, John”)

    Other than Paul, the two guitarists did very well their job, even if the spotlight was always on Paul. And it’s good that they did some running around, since Paul just concentrated on-being. But I really loved the guitarist; he was the comedian of the show, always making weird faces and dance moves (as far as I know about drumming, that part seemed to go well enough as well).

    So, all in all, it was definitely worth it. Although I was standing disappointed in front of concert t shirt section when I realized I had no money with me (although I spent most of it in the tickets, anyway. Thy were rather expensive, but to account for that, the concert was long as well-over 3 hours).

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