Stofsky, yeah I see your point. Your observations are valid on many scores.
In the interests of fairness however, please consider the following points.
By and large, with the exception of performances which featured a band who had their own drummer, Phil Collins played drums through at least 85% of the tunes which were played that night. No less an authority on drums than Dave Grohl of Nirvana/Foo Fighters fames has pronounced Phil Collins as one of the greatest drummers in the last 30 years - and he’s right. The drumming on the early Genesis stuff was extraordinary.
So… in the context of a guy who had to play for 4 hours or more over a veritable shitload of different songs and styles, the guy more than impressed me. His timing was exemplary and his fills were just spot on. A truly great demonstration of his craft I felt - considering the circumstances.
However, Paul McCartney’s drummer is an American monster by the name of Abe Laboriel Jr - a ‘relative’ newcomer but he truly stole the show I felt. Also, McCartney is no fool - he’s a contrived dork to be sure - but he’s always been smart enough to hire the best musos in the business. Rusty Anderson, the guy who played the white Gibson Firebird during Macca’s set is truly a world class performer, as was the good looking blonde guy to Macca’s left. THey had the rich Beatles harmonies thing down pat I felt. I rather think Macca did quite well to come out on stage at almost 60 years of age looking as fit as he did and proceed to do as good a set as he did. He followed after some stirling performances too. And he went from accoustic guitar, to electric piano, to Gibson Les Paul, to Hofner bass back to electric piano. He did good. But his backing musos did even better I felt.
Of the other performances, yes, I agree - it certainly was a bit of a “let’s revisit England’s World Cup win of 1966” wasn’t it?
However, if you make a point of asking some real pro musos - like for example the guys in Letterman’s band for example - they would have been spellbound. Trust me when I say this - it is so incredibly hard to get such a diverse lineup of artists to come out on stage and play so many different songs back to back with a sound production level which by and large was as consistently high in quality as it was.
Joe Cocker’s “With a Little Help From My Friends” was absolutely spot on as an example - and very rich in it’s arrangement. This included Steve Winwood on Hammond Organ and Brian May doing Jimmy Page’s original guitar part. All of these guys were playing bits and pieces on everyone else’s songs - that’s what really worked for me as a music lover. It was getting to see an all too rare opportunity to see various ‘greats’ in the music biz play cover versions then and there with other ‘greats’ in the trade. It’s a great thing as far as I’m concerned.
I’ll stake my bottom dollar that the guys in Pearl Jam and Queens of the Stone Age watched that concert with their jaws on the ground - because THOSE guys know how hard it is to cut it live.
I have to admit, Brian Wilson is kinda freaky to be sure. And his singing always has and always will be the weakest link in the Wilson family, still, it was MY first opportunity to see the great man do his original arrangements - and I for one enjoyed the performance for that reason alone. Also, if you know the story about how he let the Beatles do his head in, that moment where you saw Brian intently watching McCartney play Hey Jude on the piano? Take note. Look at Brian’s eyes. He was staring TOTALLY at McCartney’s hands and nothing else. He wanted to see how the only guys who could beat him in the 60’s did what they did. His face said it all - a totally debilitating mixture of pure jealousy and pure awe. Poor bugger…
I liked the version of While My Guitar Gently Weeps with Clapton on lead vocals, though.