Simon says farewell in concert
funky — while the reinvention of “The Boy in the Bubble” all but took our breath away with the aggressiveness of the strings and the potent choral chant of “don’t cry, baby, don’t cry!”
“That Was Your Mother” sprung to life with Joel Guzman’s dramatic accordion work and a climactic Dixieland jam, and the similarly up-tempo “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard” sounded like it went to “Graceland” and back.
Symphonies, like our own, are beginning to specialize in these concerts backing pop musicians, generally with sleepy, rudimentary arrangements that were no match for what NYC’s prestigious yMusic brought to the stage Monday night. Their work, particularly when they backed him solo on “Rene and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After the War,” “Can’t Run But” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” was not only intricate but also full of unexpected colors, twists and turns.
Mr. Simon, not typically much of a talker, was more generous here in discussing his process. He spoke of learning to play guitar from his father and realizing that most of the songs on the radio were the same three chords. He would obviously go well beyond that, as displayed in all his fine fingerpicking during the show.
In the patient buildup to the greatest hits, we got some of his new material, from the quirky little “Wristband” to the solo reading of the existential “Questions for the Angels,” introduced with a recommendation to check out E.O. Wilson’s book “Half Earth” and to support environmental causes.
As much as I like his solo work in the ’70s and early ’80s, if Mr. Simon had stayed on that course, he most likely would have faded into a pleasant nostalgia act. Of course, he didn’t. He lit a fire under his sound with “Graceland” and “Rhythm of the Saints,” which fueled the latter part of the set.
Closing the main set was an Afropop dance party to “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes” and “You Can Call Me Al,” both highlighting the popping bass work and vocals of Bakithi Kumalo.
No skimpy encore here. They came back for the first one just as vibrant with “Late in the Evening” and “Graceland” sandwiching a “Still Crazy After All These Years” that seemed more meaningful now than it did then.
“Just playing my guitar … in the home of Sidney Crosby,” Mr. Simon said, launching a second encore with a tender “Homeward Bound,” loaded with even more “feels,” as they say, for everyone in the building. He settled into three final ballads, beginning with “The Boxer,” delivered with sharp accordion accents and “li-la-li’s” all around.
Alone on stage, Mr. Simon said, “Strange times, huh? Don’t give up” and it was all he had to say, introducing “American Tune” and with it an outbreak of goosebumps. In that naked light, he finished with the song that started it all, “The Sound of Silence,” heightened by the emotion that it might be the last time we see him do it.
If it is, and let’s hope this whole farewell thing is reconsidered, Paul Simon, in his eighth decade on the planet, left us with what will be remembered as — look out, here comes an unfettered rush of superlatives — one of the best sounding, best arranged, best played, most sophisticated and most poignant shows we’ve ever seen in Pittsburgh.