TORONTO -- There was a big "Macca" attack at the Air Canada Centre last night as Paul McCartney brought his latest tour to Toronto.

Appropriately then, the 63-year-old former Beatle and his four-piece band launched the evening with the Fab Four classic Magical Mystery Tour on a cool-looking, curved stage cut up into squares to resemble a crossword puzzle.

Let's put it this way, the retro setting wouldn't have been out of place in an Austin Powers movie with plenty of blinking psychedelic lights and a large video backdrop.

Basically, the opening number was a sign of the Beatles-heavy set list to come over the next two-hours-and-45-minutes, even though McCartney is touring in support of his latest solo album, Chaos And Creation In The Backyard, one of his best-reviewed discs in years

McCartney did dip into his solo work early with the second song, Flaming Pie, from his 1997 album of the same name, but then went back several decades to the Wings hit, Jet, a song which found him with some serious energy.

"Greetings Toronto, greetings Canada," said McCartney to huge cheers and applause from the the 15,000-plus in attendance who snapped up all the available tickets in five minutes.

"It's great to be here, great to be back in Toronto. We want to have a bit of fun tonight."

And fun McCartney and his band -- lead guitarist Rusty Anderson, guitarist-bassist Brian Ray, keyboardist Paul "Wix" Wickens and drummer Abe Laboriel Jr. -- had although it took them a while to get really warmed up.

McCartney was strangely still, almost stiff, during the first third of the concert and his stage moves were pretty much limited to raising his instrument in the air once a song was over. (It was a far cry from his wildly energetic performance at the ACC three years ago.)

Three early Beatles tunes -- I'll Get You, Drive My Car and Till There Was You -- followed but momentum wasn't fully realized until another Wings rocker, Let Me Roll It, with nice guitar and keyboard work all around.

The show actually began with a filmed retrospective of Macca's long career, beginning with black-and-white footage of the London blitz and old photos of McCartney and his family in Liverpool, including a copy of his birth certificate.

Also in the opening montage were old photos of the late John Lennon and George Harrison, when they played with McCartney in The Quarrymen, and later in The Beatles including that famous 1964 appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.

But the first really neat trick of the night occurred when a piano magically appeared from beneath a hole in the stage so McCartney could play the first Chaos single, Fine Line, his early love letter to late wife Linda, Maybe I'm Amazed, and the beloved Beatles tune, The Long And Winding Road.

"On the third night with this tour I forgot there was a hole," recalled McCartney.

"I fell into the hole, it was all in slow motion and then I thought, 'How deep is this hole?' "

McCartney and his band had considerably loosened up by this point as Anderson read from a Chinese fortune cookie he had saved from dinner earlier in the evening.

"It says, 'A pleasant surprise is in store for you,'" said Anderson with a smile.

He wasn't far wrong.

In one of the more intimate, if mellow, segments of the show, McCartney was left on stage alone with just his acoustic guitar for a spirited, audience-friendly rendition of In Spite Of All The Danger, the first recording he, Lennon and Harrison, ever made in their pre-Beatles days.

Macca also performed the simple but pretty I Will, the new Chaos song, Jenny Wren, backed by Wickens on accordion and Laboriel on drums, and For No One, Fixing A Hole and another new tune, English Tea, on piano.

But the heart strings were really pulled when McCartney explained how he and Harrison -- "wee Georgie" he called him -- used to play J.S. Bach on guitar together, which led to the writing of Blackbird.

Before he performed the song, McCartney asked for a moment of appreciation for Harrison and was rewarded with an extended and moving round of applause.

Other highlights were the Beatles hits Eleanor Rigby, She Came In Through The Bathroom Window, Good Day Sunshine, I've Got A Feeling, Back In The USSR, Hey Jude, Yesterday, Get Back, Please Please Me, McCartney's own early solo rocker, Too Many People, and Wings' Band On The Run and Live And Let Die -- the latter complete with explosions and firebursts.

And in a very special, Toronto-only moment, the Peel Regional Police Pipe Band joined McCartney and his band on stage for the Wings' hit, Mull Of Kintyre, during the show's second encore.

SET LIST

Here's what Paul McCartney played last night at the Air Canada Centre:

Magical Mystery Tour

Flaming Pie

Jet

I'll Get You

Drive My Car

Till There Was You

Let Me Roll It

Got To Get You Into My Life

Fine Line

Maybe I'm Amazed

The Long And Winding Road

In Spite Of All The Danger

I Will

Jenny Wren

For No One

Fixing A Hole

English Tea

I'll Follow The Sun

Follow Me

Blackbird

Eleanor Rigby

Too Many People

She Came In Through The Bathroom Window

Good Day Sunshine

Band On The Run

Penny Lane

I've Got A Feeling

Back In The USSR

Hey Jude

Live And Let Die

ENCORE:

Yesterday

Get Back

Helter Skelter

SECOND ENCORE:

Please Please Me

Mull Of Kintyre

Let It Be

Sgt. Pepper's reprise/The End