video review : Live At Webster Hall ( concert ) … Paul Simon

video review : Live At Webster Hall ( concert ) ... Paul Simon

Not a whole lot of people were lucky enough to attend a Paul Simon concert on the “Evening” of June 6, 2011. The legend performed in New York City on the main stage of Manhattan’s Webster Hall for about 1400 fans; the culmination of a two-month tour to promote his album, So Beautiful Or So What. The rest of us have to settle for this concert video, a PBS exclusive.

It’s his first solo release since You’re The One from ten years ago and it was worth the wait, especially considering the fact that his band, a collection of top instrumentalists, includes most of the same faces. There’s Mark Stewart, Tony Cedras and a seemingly more subdued Vincent Nguini. They’re getting older; Paul Simon himself is 70; but they don’t miss a beat.

The Beautiful album, Simon’s worst, offers one decent song. The rest are duds compared to the older stuff, the newest of which stops at Rhythm Of The Saints as if You’re The One and Surprise never happened. When an artist who’s spent decades in the pop music world performs a handful of songs though, albums are going to be ignored and Simon isn’t one for medleys.

His songs are less about catchy hooks and more about overall structure, so they’re performed from beginning to end, sometimes with a few minor revisions or jam-time extensions to keep them fresh. Paul Simon is like a chef, so when he talks about making a chicken “gumbo” with “cayenne” pepper, his words aren’t to be taken literally. They’re meant to be taken metaphorically.

Poetry, in the form of song lyrics, is what Paul Simon does best. Even if the new songs don’t make you clap your hands or make you dance like Kodachrome, Mother And Child Reunion or this surprisingly fun version of That Was Your Mother; I never really liked the original version; you’re still left pondering what he has to say and how he chooses to say it.

my rating : 4 of 5

2011

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