There are reasons for Paul Simon not to be on tour at this moment. There's his advanced age; he turns 84 in October. There's the hearing loss that he's currently suffering. There's the fact that he finished a farewell tour in 2018. Nevertheless, Simon is back out on the road now, playing a series of acoustic shows in relatively intimate venues, with his wife Edie Brickell as part of his backup band. As you might imagine, tickets for those shows are not cheap. If you can get in the door for anything less than $300, then you got lucky. But if you do manage to make it to one of those shows and request a song, Simon will do it for cheap.
On Wednesday night, Paul Simon finished a series of five shows at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Mid-show, someone in the audience called out for Simon to play "Kodachrome," the 1973 classic that he hadn't performed since he was on Chris Thile's Live From Here in 2019. Simon said he doesn't play covers unless you've got $20 -- a joke, obviously, but then someone threw a $20 bill onstage. Simon picked it up and went along with the bit. He started playing "Kodachrome," and his band joined in. Simon cut them off after the first chorus, though. I guess he would've needed another $40 to finish the track. It's always amazing when you get to see a legend of American music getting loose and having fun onstage. Watch some fan footage below.
Paul Simon plays the first of three shows at San Francisco's Davies Symphony Hall tomorrow night. Don't forget to hit the ATM before you enter.
