So now that I am home and got sleep a bit I've decided to write about some of my experiences in Brazil.
I've seen Paul there in Rio 2011 (2 shows), Belo Horizonte, Goiana and Fortaleza in 2013, Brasilia & Sao paulo (2 shows) in 2014 so I am not new to Brazilian shows.
The concerts are standing room admission in front of the stage and people like to sing along, dance, jump and have a good time without getting too crazy like they do in Argentina.
So for the first stop in Porto Alegre this year Paul stayed at the Sheraton hotel.
There were dozens of fans in the lobby waiting for him to come out and come out he did, waving and smiling on the day of the show.
On that night's concert Paul looked a bit tired but the show was great anyway.
During the encore, before performing "Birthday", Paul looked at Abe waiting for him to "count in" and start the song and when he didn't, Macca looked angry and yelled "Come on!" at him.
It seems Brian Riddle -the guy who handles stage security and picks the young girls who go on stage- had 4 Brazilian girls badly dressed with Sgt. Pepper costumes and Paul didn't know, while the band was told this through their in-ear monitors (this is my theory).
So the 4 girls went on stage and danced to "Birthday".
The next noon it was off to Sao Paulo.
There Paul stayed in a 6-star hotel with difficult access for the fans so we missed him going in and out.
At the show on Sunday 15, Paul looked like he wanted to end the show as soon as possible; it felt like a "Take the money and run" gig.
He also did something I've never seen him do before, which is to forget to perform a song and skip it entirely, which is what happened with "You Won't See Me".
Posterior screenshots of the night's setlist showed the Rubber Soul tune to be there, so why Paul forgot to sing it, is anyone's guess.
I noticed Paul giving Wix a "look" because he didn't have his harmonica ready for "Love me do".
Of course he didn't, because Wix was expecting "You Won't See Me" so he still had his accordion on.
This time there were no fans on stage and the same thing happened in Belo Horizonte 2 nights later.
While in Sao Paulo, a friend of mine who buys Hot Sound packages for all shows everytime Paul goes to Brazil, told me she had an extra one for Salvador and wanted to exchange it for the Belo Horizonte show, so I could use it.
We've contacted the production and they said no.
Considering they know my friend, they know she spent thousands of dollars in Hot Sound packages during the last few years, they could have tried harder to help her out.
Pretty dissapointing when things are just about making money and nothing else.
For the Belo Horizonte show, Paul flew directly from Sao Paulo to the venue.
After he performed "In Spite Of All The Danger" me and a group of fans who stood at the front chanted loudly for "You Won't See Me" and luckily he did not skip it this time.
However, he seemed distracted at times, forgetting to sing a verse in "Something" -and because of that we got to hear how important Abe's backing vocals are-, he messed up the lyrics to Hey Jude and got ready for "Obladi Oblada" when the next song was a "A Day in The Life".
The 3 concerts were still great and fans in Brazil had a great time and I don't think anyone left disappointed.
I returned home to get to work the next day while my friends flew to Salvador.
They told me how the hotel was chaos with dozens of fans singing very loudly.
For the concert, apparently they got a hired brazilian model on stage, with very little clothes and dancing sloppily.
Same model was filmed earlier that day and the day before by Charly -Paul's camera guy- for a possible -I assume- video clip.
This got many, many fans upset because they knew that she wasn't a fan going on stage, but it was all fixed from before.
I can't comment any further on the Salvador concert because I wasn't there and I hope you've enjoyed reading my experience.
The Belo Horizonte show was number 25 for me and if I could go back in time I wouldn't skip one of them, money spent be damned.
Hopefully Paul will have many years ahead of great concerts and albums for his fans and if not, there are many memories to cherish.
All the best,
Javier