Friday: Paul Simon! Paul Simon! Paul Simon!

We almost didn't go. I mean look at my crazy week, and we only heard about it 10 days ago, and it was more money then I spend on anything, and it's PAUL SIMON!

I have now been to 5 Paul Simon concerts. The best, of course, was the Graceland Tour (1986) at the Tacoma Dome and again in Paris. That was an ecstatic experience. John and I saw the You're the One tour (2000) at the Paramount in Seattle. Our seats were really high up, so I didn't feel that connected to the concert, and given all the polite quiet people next to me, I didn't feel I could stand up and dance. Julia, Dan, John, and I saw Surprise (2006) at the Key Arena which was great fun even though I didn't like that album that much. We still had all the old fogies rocking out.

The old fogies (Simon is 69 for heaven's sake) were rocking out at this one. We saw So Beautiful So What at the theater under the football stadium which, with a lot of low light and purple drapes, turned out to be a nice venue. We could see well, especially with the binoculars. I thought the production was good--cool lighting, interesting backdrops, but mostly excellent music. Simon alternated between the new stuff and old favorites. He didn't play three of my all time favorites--Me and Julio, Loves Me Like a Rock, and Graceland. But he did play Kodachrome, Diamonds on the Souls of our Shoes, and this amazing gospel song that I didn't know.

I felt he was completely connected to the words and the music--he was thinking and feeling what he was he was saying. I loved watching the entire 10 piece band moving in rhythm as they sang. I was polite to my fellow concert goers and danced in my chair most of the time.

I loved the concert, and I actually feel more comfortable being at venue with people twenty years older than me, than at a venue with them twenty years younger. But, I missed some of the full body sensory experience I used to get at rock concerts. I missed everyone dancing and sweating together. I missed the smells of all those bodies and (even though I don't partake) the pot. I missed the feeling of barriers breaking down.

But, Paul Simon is a poet, a musician, a performer, a genius. I loved being in his presence.