for Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center
with special guest Paul Simon
Fox Theatre
St. Louis, MO
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Section Balcony 4, Row E, Seat 106
$75
The sportscaster Bob Costas hosts a fundraiser every year for a local children's hospital. I knew about it before, but never felt the need to attend. They always get a well known comedian and musical guest. This year, the musical guest was Paul Simon, and Roy definitely wanted to attend. I'm a big fan of Simon and Garfunkel, but I've never listened to much of Simon's solo work. I wasn't sure how many songs I would know, but I was interested in going.
Is it weird that I've never even heard all of Graceland? Roy had a copy, but lent it out long ago and never got it back. Roy played me parts of a couple albums to get familiar with Simon's music: Still Crazy After All These Years and a live album.
This isn't just a concert, but a society event. We got an information sheet in the mail, complete with a dress code. It said business casual. I wore my new brown dress and Roy wore black slacks and a polo shirt with Roger Dean artwork on it. Some people were way more dressed up than that - wearing tuxedos and gowns. The people-watching (and outfit watching) was fun.
I didn't know what the audience would be like during the concert. Were they there for the music, to be part of the scene, or because they were supporters of the hospital? I do know that tickets went on sale long before Paul Simon was announced. we got tickets shortly after that, and a good deal of the orchestra seats were already gone. Our seats were pretty good though, lower balcony, just off the center aisle.
The night started with Bob Costas coming on stage to introduce the event. He made a big deal about how far people traveled for this show. Paul Simon isn't on tour, and apparantly, hasn't done too many live shows recently. He put his full band together for this one-off performance, and lots of fans came to St. Louis to see it. I'm glad they got to see such a nice venue and the Grand Center/Saint Louis University area.
Costas told some jokes and then introduced comedian Robert Klein. I'd never heard of him, but it looks like he's been around for a long time. He told lots of, too many really, growing older jokes. Some were funny, some weren't. He did a few songs and some shtick about not being able to stop his leg. Roy and I both thought Costas was funnier. The people in the row in front of us were laughing loudly at everything Klein said.
There was a long intermission. Then there was a long video thank you to everyone who contributed to the Cardinal Glennon's. All of this build-up was for a good cause, but we were really there for the music.
Simon opened with a song I didn't know. Next, he did the "These are the days of miracle and wonder" song. I recognized it, but Roy had to tell me this song was called Boy in the Bubble. It always reminds me of the ABWH song Quartet, which goes "We are living in days of wonder, Simon says". Of course, this is the song where Simon is saying it.
Things got interesting during the next song, Slip Sliding Away. Not for the performance, but for what was going on around us. Roy and I were the second and third seats in from the aisle. Some guy on the other side of the aisle was talking really loud. Another guy tried to shush him. Loudmouth and Shusher got into an argument. Shusher got up from his seat and brought back a cop. She asked Loudmouth if there was a problem. No, but when she left, Loudmouth started cursing out Shusher. We might be all dressed up, but we're still not civilized, are we? Shusher and quite a few other people in neighboring rows got up and left. He wasn't doing anything wrong, and I only hope they were all able to sit elsewhere and put this behind them for the rest of the show. Loudmouth was mostly quiet after that.
Other people around us were more fun to watch. There were a group of young women next to me, college-aged maybe. They looked too young to know this music, but at least a couple of them were singing along. I had to point out to Roy when at one point, all four of them were taking cell phone pictures of the concert.
The people in front of us looked like a mother and father, adult daughter, and her boyfriend or husband. The father put his arm around his daughter during the Father and Daughter song that was on the Wild Thornberry's movie soundtrack. The daughter was really getting into the show, but she was inappropriately rocking out in the mellowest moments. She'd just start head-banging and it didn't fit the music at all. Nothing rude, but it was distracting and blocking my view a bit. The seat next to Roy by the aisle was still empty, so he had me move over there.
There were a few more songs that I recognized. I knew Mrs. Robinson from the Graduate soundtrack from the start. They started it off just playing that riff and then went into a snippet of Not Fade Away from Buddy Holly. Roy thought the absolute highlight of the night was hearing Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard, with Paul Simon pulling off the whistle part live flawlessly. It's hard to whistle on command like that, hitting all those notes and timing for such a long part.
One of my highlights of the night was Diamonds in the Soles of Her Shoes. I gave it a standing ovation. I felt like a lot of the previous songs had been mellow and soft rock. Nice and well performed, but this song was a good change of pace. The last song of the set was Late in the Evening - another of those songs that I recognized, but didn't know the title.
The encore was strong. Still Crazy After All These Years, The Boxer, and You Can Call Me Al. The young women in my aisle, who looked like they were enjoying the show all night, got up from their seats and walked past us. They weren't leaving now, were they? No! They just moved to the section next to ours. People were up and dancing over there, and there was that whole bunch of empty seats. They moved over there to dance. I can so relate to that. As they went back to their seats, I told one of them, "That was so cool!", meaning watching them enjoy the music. The girl thought I was talking about the show itself and agreed with me.
For the second encore, Paul Simon came out by himself and performed a solo The Sound of Silence. I remember learning this song in elementary song. It was my principal Mr. Romanelli's favorite song, and our music teacher Mrs. Jacobs wanted to surprise him one year. I didn't know who performed it or that it was a "rock" song. It was the mid-80s, so the song had to be about 20 years old at that time. I always liked it, but it was years later that I rediscovered it. That was the other big highlight for me.
I liked the show, but Roy was blown away by it. He is so glad we went, and still amazed that Simon put his whole band together for this one show. It was a special event.
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