Paul Simon, Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham – review and photos
| Posted: November 13, 2016
Paul Simon at Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena
If we must have arena gigs – and, apparently, we must – why can’t more of them be like this?
Paul Simon offers nothing in the way of visual pyrotechnics. But he and his prodigiously gifted nine-piece band enthralled a sold-out crowd with the sheer power of one of pop’s most shimmering songbooks. It was more than a great night out. It was a victory for music itself.
From the start – the band tearing off a thumping instrumental Gumboots before Simon strolled on to lead them through The Boy In The Bubble – it was clear that the musicians were on cracking form. Endlessly swapping instruments over sometimes one, sometimes two and on one occasion FIVE drummers, they never put a foot wrong, their obvious virtuosity never tipping into empty self-indulgence.
image: http://www.nottinghampost.com/images/localworld/ugc-images/276368/binaries/X121116KC1-1.jpg
Even better, the sound mix was stunning, surprisingly so given the venue, with mathematically plotted arrangements conveyed in almost molecular detail. A song like Spirit Voices – built on a bed of granular percussion, fat bass and exultant brass that was more Weather Report than Simon and Garfunkel – was layered miraculously.
image: http://www.nottinghampost.com/images/localworld/ugc-images/276368/binaries/X121116KC1-2.jpg
In a set peppered with classics, 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover, Mother And Child Reunion, Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard and a spine-chilling version of America were all dispatched in the first third. But songs from the 75-year-old’s latest album, Stranger To Stranger, a surprise number one earlier this year, earned their place
too: the title track, a love song to music and the craft of songwriting, was stark and sophisticated; The Werewolf, based around the twanging sound of an Indian instrument called a gopichand (handily demonstrated by Simon as he introduced the song), was a blackly comic tale of encroaching dread; Wristband, the cheekily catchy single, took a mere anecdote of Our Hero locking himself out of his own gig and turned it in an oddly prescient evocation of the social divisions which some believe are driving contemporary politics
image: http://www.nottinghampost.com/images/localworld/ugc-images/276368/binaries/X121116KC1-3.jpg
He told stories about his first experience of playing second fiddle to the bingo in working men’s clubs in the north of England. He played Homeward Bound. He teased his huge crowd with an instrumental arrangement of El Condor Pasa that suddenly became the lesser-known Duncan.
Then there were the less obvious choices: the sinuous groove of The Cool, Cool River was vivid and compelling, while a much earlier composition, One Man’s Ceiling Is Another Man’s Floor, unfolded in jagged and jazzy flourishes. And it was a great to hear two songs, Dazzling Blue and Rewrite, from 2011’s terrific So Beautiful Or So What (slightly compensating for the complete lack of anything from his two most underrated albums, Hearts And Bones and Surprise).
Read more: ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water? I thought it was too long’ – the Paul Simon interview
image: http://www.nottinghampost.com/images/localworld/ugc-images/276368/binaries/X121116KC1-5.jpg
Graceland was heavily plundered. That Was Your Mother was played early on and the main set ended with explosive versions of Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes and You Can Call Me Al that brought everyone on their feet through the sheer power of Bakithi Kumalo’s astonishingly fluid basslines and Vincent Nguini’s intricate guitar work.
The encores came thick and fast – the instrumental Proof and Wristband gave way to Graceland and Still Crazy After All These Years. A second batch began with the brass’n’bass of Late In The Evening and ended with the crowd eerily singing along with The Boxer.
But his final touch was as oblique yet pointed as the best of his meticulously constructed lyrics. American Tune was written in the early 1970s as a weary reaction to Richard Nixon’s misdeeds. Simon never mentioned the US presidential election but, as he played at the Democratic convention this summer, his opinions on the result aren’t hard to guess.
image: http://www.nottinghampost.com/images/localworld/ugc-images/276368/binaries/X121116KC1-4.jpg
As he stood alone, singing “I don’t know a soul who’s not been battered/I don’t have a friend who feels at ease/I don’t know a dream that’s not been shattered/Or driven to its knees”, it wasn’t hard to get the point. The bit about the Statue of Liberty “sailing away to sea” just underlined it, a final thread of dread that couldn’t quench the warmth of the rest of the music in this stunning show.
image: http://www.nottinghampost.com/images/localworld/ugc-images/276368/binaries/X121116KC1-6.jpg
Setlist
Gumboots (instrumental)
The Boy In The Bubble
50 Ways To Leave Your Lover
Dazzling Blue
That Was Your Mother
Rewrite
America
Mother And Child Reunion
Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard
Spirit Voices
The Obvious Child
Stranger To Stranger
Homeward Bound
El Condor Pasa (instrumental)
Duncan
The Werewolf
The Cool, Cool River
Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes
You Can Call Me Al
Encore 1
Proof (instrumental)
Wristband
Graceland
Still Crazy After All These Years
Encore 2
Late In The Evening
One Man’s Ceiling Is Another Man’s Floor
The Boxer
Encore 3
American Tune
Paul Simon - 'Time it was...it was' 
