Forum guest
May-30-2011, 17:40 GMT
USA - United Staates America
 | Beware-not that knowledgeable of Paul´s music so errors can abound!
Paul opened with Boy in the Bubble
Dazzling Blue
50 Ways To Leave Your Lover-during this song Mark was looking back across the stage, sort of at the piano/organ player player and kept pantomining playing a flute or horn with his fingers.-
Now Paul says Hi and something about playing in his home state of Connecticut. Then says this is a new song-
So Beautiful So What
Then said he was playing Vietnam written by ? and at then end moved right into
Mother and Child-
That Was Your Mother-I think for this Paul had no guitar in hand and it featured an accordian and horn solo and then a drum solo and the drummer also was wearing a washboard? which he rubbed with some type of mitts on his hands
Then he did Hearts And Bones- so beautiful!
Then with no comment, right into Mystery Train-at some point the curly haired drummer played a guitar match with Paul and Mark (maybe this was for Wheels that all the set lists mention?)
Slip Sliding Away was next. This was much slower than I recall say from CP 1981 or the albums and seemed to have a much richer sound to me. It was wonderful!
Rewrite-during this Paul did most of the guitar playing on the neck strings-lots of whistling also-nice
Peace Like A River-this had a piano solo at end
Obvious Child-during this song, two female blondes arrived in front of the stage and started dancing-a third later joined-can not read my writing but the curly haired drummer I think played more guitar in this song
Only Living Boy-very poignant for me-done quite quietly
Love is Eternal?-is it possible Paul played the harmonica on this? Sounded like it but I did not see where the harmonica came from or left to? Very heavy beat-
Father and Daughter
Diamonds on the soles-drummers battle
by now about 16 people are up dancing
Gumboots
He shook hands with lots of the people in the pit, says thank you and then all left
Audience goes wild clapping and stomping and, of course, the band and Paul return. Well, more accurate, Paul returns.
Sound of Silence-beautiful acoustic guitar music and Paul himself-quite lovely. One of the best versions I have heard Paul sing solo. (in my opinion)
Kodachrome-the band appeared and off they went-sang original phrase "worse" in B&W this time-
Now pit area is packed-about 30 people-
Gone at Last
Here Comes the Sun with Mark
Late In The Evening
Paul says thanks so much and all leave (again)
More pandemonium from audience-and the band and Paul reappear
Still Crazy After All These Years (Paul used no guitar)
He then introduced band members-Tony on accordian, curly haired drummer as being from Connecticult, Mark as being from another planet, Nick? and that is all I got.
Much hand grabbing from pit folks and then all left and house lights came on.
I would say it was 2 hours-started about 8:15 and ended 10 ish.
Great show.
I did wonder, Paul has a habit of a lot of music after the end of the words before he ends a song and the audience frequently started clapping at the end of the words instead of waiting for the end of the music-but Paul just kept playing over the clapping and it seemed that later in the show, the audience learned to wait for Paul´s flourish of the end.
well, it was a long ride there and back and I must say that I went there with a bit of "dragging feet" attitude. If I had played my cards correctly I could have gone to either of two shows in NYC. But in hind sight, the trip in from the suburbs to the city-leave at 4 for 8 o´clock show and then coming home I always seem to miss the current train and get home well after midnight-was probably just as long.
So to the non-musical stuff-
if you ever get a chance to go to Foxwoods MGM theater-GO! This is a real nice place. Eight miles off major highway and the eight miles on a 2 lane road, well it was 40 miles/hour the whole time and the parking line was not backed up. I went to the event complementary parking area (easy to read signs & directions), arriving at 7 pm and left the car to the valets, forgetting my light weight jacket (for a/c issues) and trotted of to the theater. Got there about 7:15 with easy plentiful bathroom access and lots of food vendors, fast and restaurant on the way.
Friendly workers and the seats were to die for. So roomy and lots of foot/leg room. The nice couple next to me, the lady eventually moved to another empty seat, so I had no one on either side. The slope to the stage was gradual. No alpine heights here. I was in 109 V in the orchestra. The sole negative was 109 was an aisle seat, but could not readily get to aisle as a rail separated me from the leather seating area across the aisle. I guess a VIP area. There were a number of empty seats throughout and the venue was offering a texting seat upgrade lottery. That broke the ice with the couple next to me as she asked if I knew how to text. She finally called her daughter and had the daughter next. But did not win a seat. As far as the temperature, perfect the entire night and no gusts of ac blowing down.
Not totally sure on this, but the first several rows by the stage, maybe the first 5?, seemed to have access to stand in front of the stage and dance. By the end of the concert must have been 30 folks up there? But I saw others come from behind me to try to access the stage and they were turned away by ushers. Later saw an usher seated in the aisle blocking access to rows beyond the near 5. Not sure if these folks had a package deal or what.
Actually scanned the audience for Simon family members but decided they were likely up in the higher regions, if attending.
There appeared to be 8 band members. Of course, Mark Stewart, and Paul introduced them all at the end but I did not catch that many names. Appeared to accentuate an accordian player (did Paul always have this in the band?) and this time had 2 drummers. I am sure there is a difference, Paul referred to them as percussion, but no idea what.
As to wardrobe, Mr Simon appeared to wear what he wore in Washington DC. The light blue shirt, the open over shirt, jeans, no hat, black belt and heavy looking boots. The 2 screens overhead on sides of theater was composed of grids and the picture made Paul appear to be in the cross hairs of a rifle! Paul certainly used massive numbers of guitars during the show!
Well, time to look for my notes. There was a lot of turning the audience lights on so I could see to jot down my notes. And the set list from Roy was so useful. Paul received quite the roar and standing ovation from the crowd when he first walked on stage. The audience was of all ages. But I think they were a quiet group-they all clapped but there was little feedback, say during the start of diamond on her shoes, when the band and Paul indicate they want the audience to sing along.
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Richard
Jun-01-2011, 12:35 GMT
Unknown
 | I agree with Barb´s review. (This is Richard from the Virgin Islands, but I am still on the mainland.)
There were a number of empty seats, but I ran into someone the next day who said she tried to buy a ticket at the door and was turned away. It seemed that a lot of the younger fans wanted to get up to the front to dance, but they were turned away. In the lobby outside there was a sign saying that the artist does not mind standing and dancing, so I thought that was odd. It seemed that most of the center closer seats were older fans who rarely stood up, while at the edges and further back the crowd was more enthusiastic. I had okay seats, much farther away from the stage than the price led me to believe, as they were the "silver package."
For a number of songs only three young blondes stood at the foot of the stage and danced during the fast numbers, but hugged during the ballads. At the beginning of "Diamonds" Paul nodded toward them and said, "You´re the rich girl?" Otherwise his only comment was noted by Barb as he said he was playing in his "home state."
The sound was excellent, not too low as others have noted at previous shows. You could hear every instrument and Paul´s guitar playing was spot on. He nailed the guitar parts for "Peace Like A River" and all the new songs. His version of "Only Living Boy in New York" one of my absolute favorites, gave me chills. But I wasn´t too crazy about the covers. For example, "Vietnam" isn´t as good a song, in my opinion, as the others. And the addition of "Mystery Train" to "Hearts And Bones" detracted rather than added to that rendition.
It was Paul who played the harmonica. Of course, it was well worth the trip, which was about 1700 miles for me. (I know that is nothing like you New Zealanders!) |
