Paul Simon’s Triumphant Comeback Tour Hits Disney Hall: Concert Review

Right here comes rhymin’ Simon. It’s not a phrase we’d have imagined saying once more, within the context of a live performance tour, after Paul Simon wrapped up his official farewell tour seven years in the past. There was motive to consider he had legitimate causes for marking that as his actual goodbye to highway exhibits, and never because the form of fake-out retirement that so many performers money in on after which renege on. However he has discovered options to the problems which may have stored him off-stage. By the point he kicked off a five-night stand at Walt Disney Concert Hall this week, Simon was a full 40 exhibits into his 2025 “Quiet Celebration” outing. And he was sounding… sure, softer (as promised within the tour title!) however, actually, undiminished. We’ve by no means had a greater motive to be glad somebody went again on their phrase.

You would possibly have a look at the “A Quiet Celebration Tour” moniker and ask, as your first query: Properly, how a lot quieter? And the reply is: not terribly a lot. You shouldn’t mistake this for an all-acoustic tour, though that’s the tone that’s taken previous to the present’s intermission, when Simon and his band play again his most up-to-date album, 2023’s “Seven Psalms,” in its front-to-back, suite-style entirety, largely solemn and with out a lot in the way in which of tempo or electrical energy. However then, within the second act and encores, you get 15 catalog choices, together with some tunes that rely as rabble-rousers by Simon requirements. The night does turns into a celebration, regardless of his finest intentions to maintain it down.

There’s a subtlety to what makes this tour so profitable that basically does have one thing to do with quantity, or the looks of it. Simon has as many as 11 gamers on stage at a time, and in the course of the classics, they’re all enjoying roughly the identical very busy elements they might have performed earlier than, on a “Graceland” or a “Cool, Cool River” or perhaps a “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard.” But the preparations have been calibrated in order that the loudest songs appear ever-so-slightly dialed down, nearly imperceptibly, to match what is perhaps slightly totally different for the frontman this time round. Any sense of that gained’t come as a whole shock to the viewers, as a result of Simon has been open about his listening to points, stating that solely by an elaborate, superior system of stage displays has he felt like he might fairly tour once more. There’s additionally the matter of his voice, which is slightly bit softer with age. It’s as if all the pieces has been finely tuned to permit Simon to behave his age (which is 83), with out doing any form of stinting on the wealthy and able-bodied performances.

The efficiency of “Seven Psalms” is referred to by Simon as “the primary half,” though, by precise quantity, it’s effectively underneath that. It’s protected to guess that a lot of the viewers is available in being unfamiliar with the report, and that is the place the reserving of fine-arts joints like Disney Corridor is useful, as even attendees who haven’t come to see the symphony there can nonetheless fairly simply intuit that the venue lends itself to a form of hush and a few centered consideration abilities. The folky “Seven Psalms” exists just about on the meditative, impressionistic and religious finish of his spectrum — except for “My Skilled Opinion,” which comes in the midst of the suite and lands with a playful blues really feel. It has Simon grappling with the idea of God and exploring unreconciled relationships within the later chapters of life, and it’s not simply graspable on first pay attention. However possibly the performances on this tour are inspiring much more folks to take a look at one in all 2023’s most unfairly neglected albums, one which has precisely the ambition and private that means you’d hope for from an awesome artist who has no need to enter that good evening coasting.

The seven music titles from this album helpfully appeared on an overhead display screen as their quantity got here up, to supply a sign of transition with out something as gauche as really pausing the music for applause. However the album is absolutely greater than seven numbers, for the reason that opening music, “The Lord,” will get a number of unbilled reprises because the suite programs alongside. That music alone, in its many iterations, counts as a serious latter-day Simon work, as he ponders each potential manner of wanting on the Lord, from shepherd to wrecking ball, incorporating each essentially the most Christian and essentially the most irreverent potential imagery. By the point he’s sung by all of it, you gained’t precisely know whether or not the singer is a believer or hardened skeptic, however you’ll know that Simon, the magical poet and baseball nut, has coated all bases.

His spouse, Edie Brickell, got here out to visitor on the music cycle’s closing two elements, “The Sacred Harp” and “Wait,” as she apparently does each evening on the tour. She stands on the other aspect of the stage from Simon, to sing her elements, however in musical spirit, at the least, they’re as shut as the 2 owls perched collectively on the “Seven Psalms” album cowl. An idea album that begins out being all about God lastly ends on one thing extra knowable on this life — the bonding with one other human being — and after they sing “Amen” in concord to finish the cycle, it feels prefer it has to do with Simon going through eternity and with placing a divine seal on his and Brickell’s enduring love affair.

After which the longer second “half” rewards followers for any endurance with that opening with a set that hits all of the Simon fandom pleasure facilities. He hits nearly al the apparent best hits (albeit no “Bridge Over Troubled Water” or “You Can Name Me Al”) and finds a number of deeper cuts (like “St. Judy’s Comet,” a 50-year-old monitor from “There Goes Rhymin’ Simon” that’d apparently been carried out not even a dozen instances previous to this tour).

The band received much more exercise on a few of these oldies than on the extra minimalist and hypnotic “Seven Psalms” materials. The presence of two veteran sidemen in Simon’s solid made for particularly memorable and even touching moments. The bass participant, Bakithi Kumalo, was launched because the final surviving member of Simon’s unique South African “Graceland” band, and his hyperlink to the frontman’s (arguably) most important period was invaluable with some fleeting signature vocalizations. In the meantime, Steve Gadd, one in all three drummers or percussionists within the ensemble, was again within the fold from the early ’70s to play what might rely as pop music’s most well-known snare drum half, on the encore of “50 Methods to Go away Your Lover.” And if that isn’t well worth the value of admission…

Horns and strings had their place — largely the latter, with viola participant Caleb Burhans and cellist Eugene Friesen managing to sound like practically a full Kronos Quartet up there at instances. (Friesen’s instrumental entwining with Simon’s acoustic guitar throughout a stripped-down portion of “Slip Slidin’ Away” was a beautiful instance.) Nothing was too radically rearranged, though you might discover that “Homeward Certain” had been subtly remodeled into extra of a rustic music, between the train-like sound of brushes on drums and Mick Rossi’s lilting piano line.

The display screen on this half was used for the occasional photograph illustration as a substitute of the earlier act’s music titles: Should you ever wished to see the precise photograph that impressed “Rene and Georgette Magritte With Their Canine After the Struggle,” there you had it. And “The Late Nice Johnny Ace,” which had an unusually expansive spoken intro by Simon, climaxed with the sight of Johnny Ace, JFK and John Lennon aspect by aspect on the large display screen, every of them with “Johnny Ace” because the caption underneath his identify.

Brickell made a return look, getting into from the wings to contribute a whistling solo to “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard.” On this music, which served as climax to the primary set, it was just like the night had been the live performance equal of “Benjamin Button” — starting with Simon in his superior years wanting into the nice past, and ending with him as a schoolboy.

However the denouement grew somber once more, with Simon lastly alone on stage with simply his acoustic guitar for firm, bringing issues again to an origin level otherwise with a closing rendition of “The Sound of Silence.” Simply as we have been all born in mud and to mud we will return, so it’s with silence, possibly for any of us, however particularly for a Paul Simon who (together with Garfunkel) had that existential hymn as his fluky first No. 1 smash 60 years in the past.

To return to a burning query, or at the least one which was on the minds of followers earlier than this tour began: What is the sound of Simon proper now — his singing voice, significantly? When he appeared on the “SNL 50” particular not too long ago, there was some alarm that he didn’t sound as youthful as, effectively, his duet accomplice Sabrina Carpenter. Or, to offer the scoffers extra credit score, as sturdy as he did even on his earlier twenty first century excursions, pre-retirement. The reply to that ought to be a reassuring one, for anybody who hasn’t but caught the tour and is considering scoring a resale ticket earlier than it’s throughout. One of the best ways to explain it’s that, for possibly the primary 60 seconds of the present, you might be struck by how Simon’s voice sounds a bit extra fragile, at this age… after which after that temporary interval of adjustment, you neglect about it. It’s uncommon to note many excessive notes that has been scaled down for age, and also you by no means have to fret about him lacking any notes. (And he didn’t sound any worse the wear and tear for simply having had the again surgical procedure for acute ache that compelled him to cancel a pair earlier exhibits… the one reference to having been underneath the knife being an acknowledgement on the high of the present that he’d had “the craziest week.”)

So, in different phrases, in one of the best ways, he appears like an 83-year-old choirboy. How lucky are we to unexpectedly get to share his sanctuary once more?

Setlist for Paul Simon at Walt Disney Live performance Corridor, July 9, 2025:

Set 1: Seven Psalms
“The Lord”
“Love Is Like a Braid”
“My Skilled Opinion”
“Your Forgiveness”
“Path of Volcanoes”
“The Sacred Harp”
“Wait”

Set 2:
“Graceland”
“Slip Slidin’ Away”
“Prepare within the Distance”
“Homeward Certain”
“The Late Nice Johnny Ace”
“St. Judy’s Comet”
“Underneath African Skies”
“Rene and Georgette Magritte With Their Canine After the Struggle”
“Rewrite”
“Spirit Voices”
“The Cool, Cool River”
“Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard”

Encores:
“50 Methods to Go away Your Lover”
“The Boxer”
“The Sound of Silence”

The remaining dates on Paul Simon’s 2025 tour:
July 12 Disney Corridor, Los Angeles, CA 
July 14 Disney Corridor, Los Angeles, CA 
July 16 Disney Corridor, Los Angeles, CA 
 July 19 Davies Symphony Corridor, San Francisco, CA
July 21 Davies Symphony Corridor, San Francisco, CA
July 22 Davies Symphony Corridor, San Francisco, CA
 July 25 The Orpheum, Vancouver BC 
July 26 The Orpheum, Vancouver BC 
July 28 The Orpheum, Vancouver BC 
 July 31  Benaroya Corridor, Seattle, WA
August 2 Benaroya Corridor, Seattle, WA
August 3  Benaroya Corridor, Seattle, WA