FOR a nostalgic live music experience, it’s hard to imagine anything that could top Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel’s audience-thrilling concert at Burswood Dome on a brisk Thursday night.
The anticipation was palpable as the lights went down and a montage of Simon and Garfunkel images from the folk pop duo’s heyday in the 60s was played on three large video screens.
The crowd erupted when the spotlight illuminated two men, one tall and lanky, the other diminutive and wielding an acoustic guitar.
Accompanied only by Simon’s guitar, the duo opened with Old Friends, which was the perfect platform for their delicate vocal harmonies that sounded every bit as vital in Burswood in 2009 as they did in ivy-covered campuses in the mid-60s.
The crack band fired up for a rocking Hazy Shade of Winter – an appropriate tune for such a chilly night. In fact, when Garfunkel asked how everybody was handling the cold weather, he may have been wishing he was wearing one of those big cardigans from the 60s.
I Am A Rock drew the biggest audience reaction up to that point, its soaring chorus irresistible.
There was plenty of chat with the audience as the duo recounted how they met as 11-year-olds on a school production of Alice in Wonderland – Garfunkel played the Cheshire Cat, Simon the White Rabbit, roles they said they both regarded as second-leads at the time.
They told how a mutual love of the Everly Brothers’ smooth country rock style laid the foundations for their own famous harmonised sound, an influence that could be heard as they played their first professional recording Hey Schoolgirl.
A pleasing rendition of Mrs Robinson morphed into Buddy Holly’s Not Fade Away, though this stomping version was more like the Rolling Stones’ 1964 cover, before segueing back again.
Both artists performed several of their solo hits, including Art Garfunkel’s ethereally beautiful Bright Eyes and Paul Simon’s Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes, which answered the question as to whether the gig would include any material from Simon’s 1986 mega-seller Graceland.
Simon introduced Slip Slidin’ Away as a tune that would have made a great Simon and Garfunkel song had the duo not broken up years before it was released in 1977.
The main set ended with Bridge over Troubled Water but the two soon reappeared for the first of several encores with The Sound of Silence, which produced the biggest sing-along of the evening.
This was a memorable event with a great vibe both on stage and in the crowd that even the Dome’s buzz-killing décor couldn’t detract from.
All praise to Garfunkel for rocking the same haircut in 2009 as in the 60s. Groovy!