Okay so back at the beginning of the month I toddled along to the Second City of Empire ("Glasgow smiles better"TM) to see the venerable Mr. Simon out promoting his latest record, Surprise. Not my usual kind of thing, to be honest - though I love Simon, the venue was a) the TENT that is the SECC, and b) my posse and I halved the average age. And c) I'd waited so long for tickets that we ended up at the back (hence no pics either. Besides, you couldn't see the guy for that blasted cap).
Anyway, Paul Simon needs no warm-up act. Out he came just before 8, and he played on till about 10.30, blasting his way through the new record and hits from Graceland as well as a number of Simon and Garfunkel hits; all of this was mightily appreciated by the crowd, although some of the fogies got a bit confused by the new "rocked up" arrangements that Simon seemed to favour. "Mrs. Robinson" got a particularly bizarre treatment that had the old dear next to me looking pretty blank. Still, the audience went wild for everything, and we got an awesome romp through numbers like "Graceland". And, given that I really like the new record, I was pleased that it holds up well next to the older stuff. "How can you live in the Northeast" was a great opener, and there was an especially nice touch of attaching a free CD copy to every seat. I like free stuff. Mind you, given the ticket price...
Simon finished 3 quarters of an hour of encores, which included a solo performance of "Bridge Over Troubled Water". No "I am a rock", but hey! You can't fit the entire back catalogue into 2 and half hours...
Paul Simon - How can you live in the Northeast
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