| Vincent Nguini - Guitar
Bakithi Kumalo - Bass
Steve Gadd - Drums
Mark Stewart - Guitars, Cello, Saxophone, selfmade instruments
Robin diMaggio - Drums, percussion
Tony Cedras - Accordeon, Keyboard, Guitars
Andy Snitzer - Saxophone, Synthesizer
Harper Simon - Guitar
Adrian Simon - Keyboards
|
First time to see Paul Simon in concert. Four of us cruised down from San Luis Obispo and it was worth every mile, every dime spent on gas. I´m a huge fan of ´Surprise´ and wanted to see how he performs live.
By the way, kudos to opener Kelly Sweet. Strong voice. Bright future. Her debut album comes out in March. Nice way to start the show.
Paul Simon took the stage around 7:55 and ended right around 10. As expected, he said hardly a word the entire evening. What´s up with that? I wanted to yell out from the audience ´Say a few words,´ a la ´Live Rhyming,´ but resisted. He did pretend like it was his birthday, but mostly he was down to business.
Great set! A bit too much emphasis on ´Graceland´ for my taste, but glad to finally hear all those songs performed live. As others have noted, Paul puts a twist on all the arrangments and that was just fine. I didn´t want to hear a folk singer from the ´60s. I also was blown away by the order of songs -- he just seemed to drop in songs. For example, ´Still Crazy´ as an encore? Saving ´Only Living Boy´ for towards the end? Hmmmmm. Interesting.
Ended with ´The Boxer,´ though there seemed to be some miscue. His third encore was ´Night´ and he left the stage and the lights came up and people leaving. Suddenly the lights go down again and Paul scrambles out to do ´Boxer.´ Another hmmmmm.
Anyway, great, great concert. Generous time on stage. Professional musicians. Good sound. Audience energy strong, particularly towards the end. Hope to see him again! |
As a serious Paul Simon fan,the only words that come to mind to describe his gig at the bowl, are beyond belief.Paul Simon truly gives it up for the fans,and that is deeply appreciated.The sound quality was spot on,and Paul´s voice has remained strong.We are talking about one of the top song writers of the 20th century here,to be sure.I enjoyed the show with my daughter Natalie,who was as blown away as her dad was.I will close by thanking Paul Simon for sharing his wisdom and his incredible gift with the world. |
I told my wife a month ago, ´Don´t schedule anything for Oct 7 ´“ I´m taking you out on a special date.´ She´s been in suspense, getting more excited as the date approached. ´What should I wear?´ I said, ´Casual, and warm, since we´ll be traveling by Vespa.´ The concert was at the Santa Barbara County Bowl, an outdoor natural amphitheater, which, by the way, is one of the greatest places to see a concert I´ve ever gone too ´“ right up there with Red Rocks in Colo, but smaller, more intimate.
After an excellent dinner at Pascucci´s (how can you go wrong?) on State Street, we headed over to the Bowl ´“ as we approached, she figured out where we were going, but had no idea who was playing. The Vespa enabled us to bypass all the traffic (parking is really a hassle at the Bowl, which is in a residential neighborhood). When she saw it was Paul Simon, she simply said, Oh, Paul Simon ´“ hmmm.´ Turns out she wasn´t a great Paul Simon fan (how can someone NOT be!?) ´“ but she is now!
Paul´s voice was solid, his energy level never wavered (he did look JUST a little tired for one of his encores) ´“ same basic setlist as previously stated in earlier reviews, although order was a little different, I think ´“ someone else please post the order ´“ last encore was The Boxer. Cecelia really cranked up the crowd, Wartime Prayer and Bridge Over Troubled Waters brought tears to our eyes, and everyone left happy. The sound was perfect, a full harvest moon rose from behind the hillside early in the evening, and the light show accompanying the music was superb.
And the Vespa handled the outgoing traffic with the same smoothness as the rest of the evening´¦ |