Review: Simon And Garfunkel, Acer Arena
06/23/2009 05:28 ПП | Articles
A SIMON and Garfunkel concert feels like one big nostalgic sigh.
It’s that comfortable feeling you get from being with two guys who, throughout the course of their long careers, have created songs that have become the soundtracks to our lives.
Fans had been holding their collective breaths for 26 years, since the duo last performed in this country.
And Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel certainly didn’t disappoint, wheeling through a hit-packed set at their second Sydney show at Acer Arena on Sunday.
After a brief video montage of their lives, the pair took the stage to perform Old Friends, which is also the name of the tour. From there things shifted up a notch, with their seven-piece band providing some grunt for the riff-heavy A Hazy Shade Of Winter.
Other standouts included I Am A Rock, America and the delightful Mrs Robinson. Mid-show there was a chance for some banter where we learnt the two met while performing in a school play version of Alice In Wonderland.
Garfunkel was the Cheshire Cat and Simon the White Rabbit.
We also diverged into each singer’s solo material. The highlight of Garfunkel’s tunes is certainly Bright Eyes, that great ode to dying rabbits from the movie Watership Down.
Simon rocked the house with Diamonds On The Souls Of Her Shoes, from his popular album Graceland.
At 67, it’s understandable they are showing their age. The former’s voice has signs of wear-and-tear and he sometimes struggled to find high notes. Still, it didn’t dampen the mood, especially as night moved towards its emotional high point, Bridge Over Troubled Water. The encores, The Sounds Of Silence and The Boxer were the icing on the cake.