Back in January, the launch event opened with a film that proclaimed Liverpool "the centre of the creative universe". Intended to provoke a riotous standing ovation among the audience, the remarks were instead greeted with a ripple of sardonic Scouse laughter. The laughter turned out to be that evening's highlight - a far better tribute to the Liverpudlian spirit than the ensuing shambles on stage. But worse was to come.
An Audit Commission report deemed Liverpool city council the worst performing council in the country, and made particular reference to the Capital of Culture celebrations: a £20m shortfall in funding was later covered, but only by closing two care homes for the elderly.
Then, in April, another report appeared, this time by the Department for Communities and Local Government. It had used something called a "deprivation barometer" to divine that Liverpool was still England's most deprived district in England: new investment spurred by its Capital of Culture status had failed to boost local income or employment. No wonder they're booing.
But the Liverpool Culture Company has one cure-all ace up its sleeve: enter the city's most famous son, oozing bonhomie in full-on Fab Macca Wacky Thumbs Aloft mode.
The Liverpool Echo has been carrying stories in which Sir Paul McCartney talks up his contribution to the Capital of Culture celebrations, using his celebrated aw-shucks-the-Beatles-were-a-great-little-band-style. Admittedly, it's been carrying them alongside stories that - in keeping with the festival's carefully-chosen themes of acrimony and financial chaos - 11,000 extra tickets had to be issued and the stage reconfigured to accommodate the gig's soaring costs. But a sense that his concert at Anfield is the one absolutely guaranteed success of the year prevails. And so it proves.
"Every time I go back to Liverpool all the memories come flooding back. My time with the lads," he told the audience. With one or two minor alterations - a guest appearance by The Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl on Band On The Run and Back In The USSR and an unlikely opening cover of Hippy Hippy Shake (which was performed by the Beatles before lesser Merseybeaters the Swinging Blue Jeans had a hit with it), it's the same live set he's been hawking around the globe for the best part of the decade to widespread euphoria.
Without wishing to belittle the level of public annoyance at the Capital of Culture celebrations, nor Liverpool's apparently unceasing ability to set the deprivation barometer spinning like a ceiling fan, McCartney's live show, unstinting on the Beatles' hits and pragmatically light on new material has faced tougher challenges than this. It's already won over a Glastonbury audience who were infinitely less partisan than the one gathered here, followed the reunited Pink Floyd at an overrunning Live 8 and been packed off to America after 9/11 with the intention of cheering the entire nation up, as the initial arrival of the Beatles was reputed to have done in the wake of JFK's assassination.
The band are drilled to perfection, the selection of songs triple-tested: Penny Lane, Eleanor Rigby, The Long And Winding Road. A sequence that sees him passing through Hey Jude, Yesterday and A Day In The Life in quick succession is so undeniably winning that it's surprising that McCartney didn't try striking up with it earlier this year in the family division of the high court, in the hope of melting his ex-wife's steely resolve and thus saving himself a few quid.
Established even before McCartney has taken the stage, the infectious party atmosphere prevails throughout, even during the few moments that you might expect to be longeurs. The crowd even go for the early-70s cod-reggae novelty C Moon, which seems sporting of them.
Midway through the set, he plays Blackbird alone on an acoustic guitar and the entire stadium appears to join in. There's something strangely touching about hearing so many voices singing gently along with such a muted, crepuscular song.
For tonight at least, the Capital of Culture celebrations seem to be sending Liverpool's citizens home happy.
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