Solely Paul Simon might command the sound of silence like this.
Within the opening act of the primary of 5 sold-out exhibits of his comeback tour at NYC’s Beacon Theatre, the music legend performed the whole thing of “Seven Psalms,” his 2023 album that was conceived to be listened to in its entirety as a seven-part piece.
After a Simon took the stage to a standing O, embracing it with arms huge open, you can hear a pin drop — as the gang dutifully obeyed the no-phone directive for taking pics and movies with out having their machine locked away in a Yondr pouch.
It was half the haunting hush of the much less acquainted materials. And it was half reverence that the 83-year-old Queens native was again enjoying something in any respect on any stage after he had carried out what was purported to be his last live performance at Flushing Meadows Corona Park in 2018.
That was the tip of a farewell tour that basically appeared like an actual goodbye — particularly after the double whammy of the pandemic after which Simon revealing that he had suffered near-total listening to loss in his left ear in 2023.
However — after working with the Stanford Initiative to Treatment Listening to Loss and revamping his complete stage setup to make performing viable once more — Simon is again together with his “A Quiet Celebration Tour,” which lived as much as its billing.
Though he sounded frail and fragile at occasions within the nakedness of the quiet — little doubt so he might hear higher—he was nonetheless very a lot the Paul Simon that everybody was ready for within the second act, which was all about his solo hits in addition to some with Artwork Garfunkel.
It kicked off with “Graceland,” the title observe from his South African that gained the Album of the Yr Grammy in 1987. The jaunty shimmy instantly energized the gang, which abruptly turned rather more vocal.
In the meantime, “Slip Sliding Away” took on new that means within the delicate deliverer of a person who not so lengthy appeared like he was doing simply that — not solely professionally however maybe personally too.
Any pathos pale away when Simon’s longtime spouse Edie Brickell joined him for the little bit of whistling whimsy on “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard,” ripping a wave of hand-clapping and singalong pleasure all through the theater.
Likewise, the communal crooning to the easy-grooving “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” was each soulful and religious.
And by the point he did Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Boxer, it was clear that he was now not alone, shining a highlight within the viewers throughout the refrain to amp up the engagement.
However for the ultimate music, “The Sound of Silence,” it was all him. No band, no viewers, simply Simon bathed in white mild, singing and strumming within the nonetheless of the quiet that the S&G traditional has at all times celebrated.
