Concert Review: Paul Simon-Homeward Bound: The Farewell Tour at the Xcel Energy Center

I got my love of Paul Simon’s music from my parents. I can’t remember exactly when I first encountered him, but I remember looking at the gatefold album cover of There Goes Rhymin’ Simon as a child. By the time I was in high school in the late 1990’s, I was a fan, thanks to The Graduate, with its evocative soundtrack of Simon and Garfunkel songs, and also to Graceland, Simon’s landmark 1986 album which fused his wordplay with South African rhythms and Cajun zydeco. I’ve seen Paul Simon in concert several times—the first back in 1999, when he was playing shows with Bob Dylan, in 2000 when he was touring with Brian Wilson, in 2003 when he reunited with Art Garfunkel, and in 2016—a show that I reviewed here.

There’s a lot that is special about Paul Simon’s music. First, there’s his voice, which retains the appealing warmth that it had in the 1960’s, when he paired with Art Garfunkel’s angelic high tenor. Paul Simon doesn’t sound like James Taylor, but their voices both feel like a warm handshake to me. There’s a comfort in Simon’s voice, even if he’s singing a song about alienation. Then there’s Simon’s guitar playing, which has always been expressive and versatile. And then there’s the music. There are few singer-songwriters of Simon’s generation who have successfully immersed themselves in as many different styles of music as Simon has. Simon’s love of different rhythms and musical styles from around the world make his catalogue of songs deep and rich. There isn’t a “typical” Paul Simon song—they range from the guitar-based folk of “The Sound of Silence,” to the jazzy “The 59^th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)” the propulsive rhythmic groove of “Cecelia,” and “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard,” the perfect pop of “Kodachrome,” the marching-band funk of “Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover,” and the world music combinations of “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes” and “You Can Call Me Al.” 

Simon announced that he’s retiring from touring after this tour, the “Homeward Bound: The Farewell Tour.” It’s sad to think we won’t see him again on stage, but he’s left a legacy of many memorable live performances. Simon opened with one of the greatest Simon and Garfunkel songs, the beautiful, elegiac “America,” which included a great saxophone solo. He didn’t return to the Simon and Garfunkel years until the encore. He followed up “America” with two of his most famous songs, “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover,” and “The Boy in the Bubble,” the first song from Graceland. One of my favorite moments of the concert was hearing Simon perform “Mother and Child Reunion” straight into “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard.” Both guitar-driven songs, they both appeared on Simon’s first album after his break with Garfunkel, 1972’s Paul Simon. 

One of the more obscure songs performed was “Rene and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog After the War.” Simon explained that the inspiration stemmed from the caption of a photo in a biography of Magritte that was on Joan Baez’s bookshelf. Simon performed the song and “Can’t Run But” with strings, which worked very well. Simon’s band was fantastic, and it seemed as though everyone in the band played multiple instruments, which allowed him to sing many different songs. Simon has always done a good job of making his songs sound good in concert—they’re always recognizable, he doesn’t do the Bob Dylan trick of completely changing them around, but he’s not hidebound to the original arrangements. He’s not afraid to change his phrasing or add different instrumentation.

The sound mix at the Xcel Energy Center was fantastic. I’ve always been annoyed that sound at concerts can’t be more distinct—it’s often hard for me to pick out individual instruments in the mix. But the sound for Simon’s concert was superb—you could clearly hear every word he was saying, as well as the distinct instruments that made up each song. 

Simon only performed one song from his most recent album, 2016’s Stranger to Stranger, the wry and witty “Wristband,” which is one of my favorite songs from that album. He saved many of his biggest hits for the end of the show and the encores, including the three most famous songs from Graceland, the title song, “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes,” and “You Can Call Me Al.” The second encore featured “Homeward Bound,” “Kodachrome,” which has always been one of my favorite Paul Simon songs, and “The Boxer,” on which we all sang along and tried to match Art’s perfect soaring tenor on the “lie-la-lie” section. The concert concluded with Simon alone on stage with his guitar, singing the beautiful and downbeat “American Tune,” and “The Sound of Silence.” It was a fantastic concert showcasing the singing and songwriting of one of very best musicians of the rock and roll era.