Paul Simon at WaMu — one for the ages
Paul Simon, in the first salvo of his North American tour, delivered a show for the ages Friday, April 15, at Seattle´s WaMu Theater, mixing old favorites such as ´The Sound of Silence´ with songs from his brilliant new album, ´So Beautiful or So What.´
By Paul de Barros
Seattle Times arts critic
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PAUL DE BARROS
The set list from Paul Simon´s concert at WaMu, April 15, 2011.
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Paul Simon´s immaculate, inspiring, near-perfectly articulated two-hour concert at WaMu Theater on Friday, the opening salvo of his North American tour, was one for the ages.
At 69, Simon is still writing brilliant stuff — per his new album, ´So Beautiful or So What´ — even as he surveys a body of work that is the envy of any singer-songwriter.
Dressed in denim, green T and black overshirt with sleeves cut at the elbow, the diminutive, round-faced, silver-haired troubadour with the high, slightly melancholy voice coasted insouciantly over a delicious tangle of world rhythms created by a carefully-balanced eight-piece band.
The sold-out crowd greeted him with a standing ovation before he sang a note.
Simon projected the mood of an adult comfortable in his own shoes, enjoying the moment, looking back at life with sentiments both savory and skeptical and eagerly anticipating the future.
´Life is what you make of it,´ he sang with a shrug, in the title song of the new album. Its driving rhythm lifted the room to the first peak of many in an evening that began with a slightly cottony reserve but inexorably built to a climax with a slow burn.
Simon peppered the night with new work and old, dipping into ´The Sound of Silence´ (great Spanish guitar!) and ´Kodachrome,´ as well as Graceland favorite ´Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes,´ which got the boomer fans (some, with their kids) up on their feet and dancing.
But the new songs, such as the Blake-like vision ´Love is Eternal Sacred Light´ and the Hoagy Carmichael-inflected ´Love and Hard Times,´ with their Big Subjects (cosmology, God) were more than welcome. Simon handled them with a remarkably light touch.
When someone shouted, ´We love you!´ Simon responded, ´I used to love me, too,´ suggesting, perhaps, that humility is the key.
The concert celebrated the 20th anniversary of Seattle radio station KMTT 103.7 The Mountain, which the singer cordially congratulated, dedicating the touching ´Father and Daughter´ to Mountain program director Dave Benson.
The years have frayed Simon´s voice a tad. He carefully avoided some high notes and occasionally strayed off pitch, though his casual abandon was worth the trade-off.
Simon was pulled back for two encores, ending a sumptuous night with ´Late in the Evening,´ a sweetly unabashed foray in nostalgia — for youth and young love.
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