Back to back Paul Simon shows. What a life I lead! He tours so infrequently, that you have to take advantage of the chance when you get it. Paul is so in-tune with the music that people often complain that he doesn’t ever address the audience with colloquial stories of how he wrote the songs etc. I reply with “all killer, no filler” because he lets his music be the judge, not some story he could tell. It’s always been about the music, and always will be. Since the set was mostly the same, this will be short, but will I will supplement with photos that I took with my new camera that I bought just for these shows. I love this camera. The trouble in Japan has made it very difficult to get, but I finally got it. I can go up to ISO 3200 and the video looks really nice.
So I took an early train into the city, and found my way to B&H Photo/Video near 9th Ave. What a place for an audio/video-phile like myself. They have everything you could imagine, and you can play with it too. Since I was by myself, I could do what I wanted to do and not have to worry about pleasing other people.
I had made plans to meet up with Bristol and Elise the two main actors from my movie (my movie). Elise picked a place called The Australian to meet. This place had kangaroo meat, so I was really careful not to order that. They had some nice drink specials, which we partook in. The thing I love about Elise is that she eats everything with Ketchup, and it has to be Heinz (product placement much?) As far as I’m concerned, there are few things that the “store brand” can’t be comparable to, and they are in no particular order, Heinz Ketchup, Hellmann’s Mayonnaise, and genuine Q-Tips). She had vegetable risotto and on went the ketchup. I had a cheeseburger (real beef this time) with a fried egg on top, I guess that’s how those Aussies do it. After we finished our ketchup laden meal, we went on a hunt for a Starbucks, which isn’t that hard to find one on every block in the city. Elise bought a round of drinks, thanks Elise!! We parted ways and Bristol and I took a short walk to the subway, I went uptown, he went downtown and I was on my way to the Beacon.
I was still uber early and uber excited, so I found a seat on a bench at the little park on Broadway and relaxed and watched the pigeons and homeless people peck around for food (the homeless should start eating the pigeons, two birds with one stone, no pun intended). At about 7:25 I took the short stroll to the Beacon. The sign outside said “sold out.” There wasn’t any doubt in my mind that it was sold out, because the scalped ticket was burning a hole in my pocket.
After entering the beautiful art deco-decked out lobby, I waited in line to buy the tchockies that would help me remember this show. Instead of having a generic poster printed, Paul has the date and the venue printed at the bottom. This was similar with the Simon & Garfunkel tour posters too, so I guess its Paul’s idea. It’s a nice way to remember the gig.
I sat down next to this nice woman, she would later tell me all about how she got the tickets. She is from Westchester and the funny thing is that I ran into her again at the Crosby & Nash concert in Stamford 12 days later. She was with a significant other, she never introduced him, but I could tell he didn’t want to be there. We chatted, and I told her all about the previous night, about how he wasn’t in a great mood, but didn’t spoil the set list for her. Right about this time, trouble with a capital “T” moved in behind us. This husband and wife team would systematically ruin the concert for me and this nice lady. They were from Connecticut and it was their ninth wedding anniversary, and they both had a little too much to drink. This man was fucking obnoxious and the wife was even worse. She was not happy with the seats they got, I guess they wanted front row, and weren’t happy with 6th row! Some people. This man would whistle one of those high pitched ‘get your attention in a crowded room’ type of whistles after every song, and if he wasn’t whistling then he would be grunting. Then wife would tell him to stop, but that would only make him do it more. It takes a lot for me to get out of my seat and go find the supervisor to take care of this, and I did that, during Rewrite. He calmed down for a bit because the security guy was standing next to him for the remainder of the show. How ridiculous was this, me and this lady spent so lavishly on scalped tickets to a sell out and had to listen to some drunk asshole interfere with Paul and the band all night!
On a side note, I finally tracked down Eddie and let him know about the scalped ticket situation. I asked him why Paul doesn’t do fan pre-sales like they did for the S&G shows in 03 & 04. He was really decent, he apologized and said they do try to make sure the fans get the tickets. I told him that it was my 12th show and how much I paid for the ticket, he was a bit taken back, but he was a gentleman, and a really nice guy. I know he couldn’t do anything, but I felt better getting it “off my chest.” On the upshot, a few weeks later at Webster Hall since they did the ticketless show, there really is no way for someone to buy the ticket and sell it again. The only way you’re getting in is if you go in with the scalper. I don’t know if Eddie or I had anything to do with this, but thanks Eddie if you did!
At about ten after eight, the band came out and found their places followed by Paul. Tony blew a triumphant bugle call into the trumpet. Maybe this was done to announce that the show was starting, or to see if his monitors were turned on. That is the worst thing that can happen when your monitors don’t work and you can’t hear yourself and “the show must go on.” That happened at a Simon & Garfunkel show in 2004 I was at. Paul’s monitors went out and like a true soldier; he fought on and sang the song without being able to hear himself. Artie does not use monitors.
The set was almost the same except for a couple different songs and the order of the songs. The man and his voice were in a better mood for the second night. The orchestra was up with standing ovations after almost each song. They barely stood at all for the first night.
There was an extended intro on the accordion for That Was Your Mother. Paul made a hand gesture, looking like he was directing traffic, so Tony played a couple more bars and extended the intro but I guess that meant, keep playing. He did the same thing to Andy during this song at Foxwoods and Webster Hall.
The fake strings in Hearts & Bones didn’t sound so cheesy this time, maybe it was a bad night the previous night. The crowd went crazy when he started Mystery Train and we were all in awe of Wheels. Jim really is a great guitar player, I wonder which he learned first?
Paul hit the high notes in Peace Like a River effortlessly. He also nailed the guitar finger picking part.
Someone yelled out a request, I couldn’t hear which one, but I did hear Paul say, he was “thinking about it.” The Obvious Child got the standard standing ovation. The only awkward Paul Simon moment in the show was before The Only Living Boy in New York. He felt like he should say something, so he announced that to the crowd and thought for a few seconds and said “getting old, how great is that?” Out of left field huh? It still got a nice reaction from the crowd. When he does the “guitar solo” in this song, Paul has been doing it weird. He hits the strings instead of strumming them. He has screwed it up almost every time I have seen it. He substituted Father & Daughter for Questions for the Angels. This is a much better song than Love in Hard Times which he dropped after a few shows.
Diamonds got the usual response when he started to sing the opening line. He has a nice little horn section in the band now, Andy, Tony and Mark. I wonder if Mark learned the sax just for playing with Paul. If I ever meet you Mark, that will be my first question, followed by a question about your White Falcon. Gumboots was full of vigor and a great way to end the main show.
After leaving the stage, Paul came back a few minutes later by himself to play The Sound of Silence. He really nailed it, no issues with his voice like the previous night. Kodachrome™ was enjoyable, but Gone at Last brought the house down. At the end of the song, he said “Phoebe Snow.” I’m not sure if this was his way of dedicating the song to his recently departed co-singer or not.
He introduced the next song when he said “we’ll it’s late in the evening.” The song followed. He then left the stage. After returning for the final time, he thanked us very much, followed by “it’s kind of a cliché to say, but I do, I thank you very much.” Paul seems to have a real problem taking praise. Tony started Still Crazy. Once again, his voice sounds tired of this song. I wish this would get retired because everyone knows that he is crazy, we don’t need a song about it.
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Before they started The Boy in the Bubble, Paul said “I gotta catch the “D” train.” After this song, he did his usual band intros. They were a bit extended maybe because it was in New York. He had a kind word about everybody. Jamey was the guru and master percussionist. Vincent was the ‘King of Cameroon’. Paul thanked us again, and it was over two hours after it started.
Crazy Love, Vol. II
Dazzling Blue
50 Ways
So Beautiful or So What
Slip Sliding Away
Vietnam
Mother & Child Reunion
That Was Your Mother
Hearts & Bones
Mystery Train/Wheels
Rewrite
Peace Like a River
The Obvious Child
The Only Living Boy in New York
Love Is Eternal
Questions for the Angels
Diamonds
Gumboots
Sound of Silence
Kodachrome™
Gone at Last
Here Comes the Sun
Late in the Evening
Still Crazy
The Boy in the Bubble
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