Summer is almost upon us and I once again find myself looking at the upcoming concert season as well as the annual weighing of the pros and cons of a weekend at ACL (this year’s line-up only has me interested in a possible Sunday daytrip). 2009 has already been a great year for live shows and it is almost impossible to believe anything I see these next few months will be able to top seeing Devo back in March. Of course, I have to say “almost” as long as I have Animal Collective tickets burning through my pocket.
As hard as it is to believe I’ll see a better show this year, it is even harder to think I may someday see a concert better than the one I saw about 5 years ago.
I was still living in Mesquite working as a projectionist at the local discount movie theater (prestigious, I know) ensuring no patron had to watch the last third of ELEKTRA out of focus, when I got a text message from my Uncle James: “Wanna see Simon & Garfunkel tonight?”
I figured he had to be kidding…of course I wanted to see Simon & Garfunkel. Even in my best not talked about metalhead high school days I would still transition from “Master of Puppets” to my essential S&G without a second thought. So I got off of work, threw off my faded purple work polo, and met up with UJ, my cousin Lisa, and my brother Nick to head to American Airlines center. As was typical of him at the time my uncle spared no expense on the seats. We were a straight shot above stage left. I remember thinking that if this had been the Ford Theater I would have been sitting next to Lincoln. The lights finally dimmed and the show began. No cheesy or mediocre opening act…just Paul and Art and their backing band.
There they were, Art Garfunkel with his thinning, but still impossibly curly hair, Paul Simon dancing around in a bizarre squat making him look like a chicken about to lay an egg (I find his comfort with being the least cool looking rockstar in history something that makes him extremely cool). The boys didn’t waste any time and before the show was even half through my throat was already sore from singing and screaming. Then Paul gave a little spoken interlude: “Thanks everybody. You know, it is kind of strange for Art and I to be on this stage after all these years. Sometimes it feels like only yesterday we were two kids in Art’s basement singing Everly brothers songs…” and then BOOM the Everly Brothers were on stage with them as a surprise guest!
What’s this? You mean, I can hear “The Sounds of Silence” AND “All I Have to Do is Dream” in the same night?! Yes, please. The Everlys did a quick run through all of their best known hits (“Wake Up Little Susie,” “Bye, Bye Love,” etc) and Paul and Art even joined in on a couple. I think it’s safe to say that it was around this point I completely lost my shit.
S&G did the second half of their hits, I got to hear Art hit that great high note at the end of “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” and rock out to “Cecilia.” Towards the end of the evening they even started giving the backing band more and more opportunities to wow the crowd (one song was even played entirely on homemade instruments…bad ass) and in case all of this wasn’t enough Paul even snuck in a few of his solo career standards into the mix.
I left the stadium exhausted, sore-throated, and wanting to sing 7 songs at the same time. Until there’s a Talking Heads reunion show with Lou Reed and John Cale coming out in the middle to do a quick Velvet Underground set, the idea of a better concert experience seems like an unlikely miracle.
Luckily, I’m a big believer in unlikely miracles…
