Paul McCartney performed "I’ve Got A Feeling" alongside footage of John Lennon last night
McCartney played the Beatles track with video of Lennon taken from the group's famous rooftop concert
For about a decade now, we’ve seen dead celebrities returned to life as holographic performers. There was, most famously and eerily, that Tupac hologram at 2012's Coachella. And, spurred on by the remarkable weirdness of that show, there have been efforts to revive Freddie Mercury, Selena, Amy Winehouse, and Marilyn Monroe as techno-ghosts. At best, these holograms have been a slightly disconcerting tribute to the departed. At worst, they’re blasphemies of nature that glossily allow for corporate exploitation of the departed from beyond the grave.
With the latter in mind, we now report that Paul McCartney performed alongside his late Beatles bandmate John Lennon last night. But, by using regular old video footage and isolated audio instead of a hologram, it was somehow, incredibly, not actually all that creepy.
At last night’s Spokane Arena show—the first date of McCartney’s current U.S. tour—the musician played a bunch of Beatles tracks, from “Blackbird” and “Can’t Buy Me Love” to “You Never Give Me Your Money,” “Getting Better,” “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window,” and “Hey Jude.” (The full setlist and a few extra phone-shot videos are available at Stereogum.)