SAN DIEGO — Hello! Goodbye?

Call it a not-so-simple twist of fate or an improbable classic-rock coincidence. Either way, what are the chances Paul McCartney officially opened the U.S. leg of his 2025 “Got Back” tour Monday night at Acrisure Arena, the same Palm Desert venue where the Who is scheduled to perform the final show on its farewell tour on Wednesday night?

At 83, McCartney is several years older than the Who’s two surviving members, Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey. Yet, while the Who appears to be putting an end to its touring days after 61 years with the about-to-conclude “The Song Is Over” tour, McCartney is clearly not the retiring type.

He reinforced that point at the end of his marathon, 2-hour-and-47-minute performance, telling the cheering audience: “We’ll see you next time!”

It did not seem like an idle promise from the co-founder of the Beatles and veteran solo artist.

McCartney and his superb band are now in the fourth year of his “Got Back” tour. His new 20-date North American stadium and arena jaunt concludes Nov. 23 in Chicago and it included a last-minute warm-up show on Friday at the Santa Barbara Bowl.

Judging by his 33-song concert Monday in Palm Desert — where the outdoor temperature was 82 degrees when McCartney hit the well-air-conditioned arena’s stage at 8:17 p.m. — he is eager to extend his legacy as a perpetually vibrant rock giant.

Or, as he told the loudly cheering audience of 11,000 prior to “Drive My Car,” which received a suitably high-octane treatment: “This is the second night of the tour, so we’re young and fresh and reckless.”

Young is, of course, a relative term. And it would be unrealistic to expect any singer in his 80s — let alone one as legendary and influential as McCartney — to hit all the notes he did as a young and middle-aged man (or even as he did at his 2019 Petco Park show).

But he didn’t coast on Monday night and his soulful vocal exclamations on “Hey Jude” and other selections were electrifying. Moreover, there was an added poignancy to his more weather on “I’ve Just Seen a Face,” “Blackbird” and other nuggets he write and recorded all those years ago.

McCartney is four years older than President Donald Trump and 14 years older than the new pope. But this improbably slim-and-trim music icon is still able to fill an arena with fans for a night of music-fueled communion. The often-joyous celebration McCartney led Monday appeared equally enthralling for the senior citizens to my immediate right and the Gen Z-ers to my left, each of whom cheered, danced, sang and beamed with delight from almost start to finish.

McCartney did a good amount of beaming himself.

After completing his fourth song, a rousingly brassy version of the Beatles’ “Got To Get You Into My Life,” he told the audience: “This is so cool. I’m going to take a minute here just to drink it all in for myself.”

McCartney also welcomed the chance to banter with his fans. A good number of them held up handmade signs with song requests. One person’s sign documented the number of McCartney concerts they had attended — 138.

“It’s a bit obsessive,” the star of the night said with a grin. “But I like it!”

At one point, McCartney mimicked the excited, seemingly vowel-free shouts of an over-caffeinated attendee. He was clearly tickled by a written request from a 64-year-old woman to sign her arm so that she could use it for her first tattoo. (He demurred.)

Such displays of bonhomie aside, the music was the focus and McCartney sounded vital and engaged. This held true from his opening salvo of “Help!”, “Coming Up” and “Got To Get You Into My Life” through to the final encores of “Golden Slumbers,” “Carry That Weight” and “The End.”

“Help!” is the only song McCartney did Monday that was also included when the Beatles’ sole San Diego concert that took place in August 1965 at Balboa Stadium. His most recent concert here was in 2019 at a sold-out Petco Park.

His Palm Desert performance marked only the second time — Friday in Santa Barbara was the first — since a 1965 Beatles’ concert in Wales where McCartney essayed the song in full. It is the first time in memory he has opened a concert with a Beatles’ classic whose original lead vocal was done not by him, but by John Lennon.

The extremely well-paced concert featured a slew of Fab Four gems, including “Getting Better,” “I’ve Just Seen a Face,” “Love Me Do,” “Lady Madonna,” Get Back,” “Hey Jude,” “I’ve Got a Feeling,” “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” “Something,” an intensely rocking “Helter Skelter” and a solo acoustic version of the civil-rights-movement-inspired “Blackbird” that was especially stirring at this time of growing racial strife.

There were also a good number of songs from McCartney’s solo career and his first post-Beatles’ band, whose 1971-1981 run is commemorated in the upcoming box set, “Wings.”

Monday’s show included eight Wings favorites, from “Let Me Roll It” and “Jet” to the explosive “Live and Let Die,” which used enough pyrotechnics to make the former members of Kiss envious.

Kiss concluded its farewell tour in 2023. Paul McCartney is still going strong down the long and winding road he has been so pivotal in paving.

©2025 The San Diego Union-Tribune. Visit sandiegouniontribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.