Live Review: Paul Simon, Rufus Wainwright

Fresh from Bluesfest and solo (when solo is with a small army of world musos), Paul Simon was indeed a treat. Add to it support by the divine Rufus Wainwright (solo, actually, just with a guitar and piano) and a cameo from Bonnie Raitt – and it's pretty hard to top. Following a tight and relatively understated set from Wainwright (marked particularly well by gorgeous intro The Art Teacher and a tongue-in-check jangly guitar version of Out Of The Game), Paul Simon played for a couple of hours with three encores. Warming up kinda slowly with a career skim for the first half of the set, he teased us with 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover three songs in. A couple of gentle digs between songs gave a sense of his depth (“Sydney, I love this place. Now what other bullshit can I get away with?” he smiled). With some token Graceland as well as all-in folk from more recent times, highlights included an amazing lead in to Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes and a solo (as in actually just Simon and guitar) The Sound Of Silence.

By the third time he returned to the stage, he finally gave us the '80s awesomeness that is Call Me Al with all the trimmings and some great Crazy Love, Vol II. When we all thought that was it, he led the band by giving in to a nostalgia fest by way of a collection of Simon & Garfunkel tunes “just because I feel like it”. Also sharing that sentiment was the crowd, vociferously singing along. When Wainwright returned to do Art Garfunkel's part for the last tune, The Boxer, there was an audible ripple of awesome (well, from this reviewer at least). Understated and over-the-top in just the right way, Simon was gorgeous.