Feeling Groovy

We experienced a nice moment of serendipity the other day at Kath and Andrew's place. There we were sitting in front of the TV, content as could be after a delectable meal of chicken pot pie followed by super cupcakes. Out of the blue an advert for Simon and Garfunkel came on, which quickly psyched Alison up into a ferocious frenzy of fan-girl furore. I feared for the glass coffee table when she realised that the two weren't just playing in Brisbane, but that the concert would be in just five days time. Minutes later we were up in the study booking tickets for the night. To put this in perspective, Alsie has said on many an occasion that she would fly anywhere in the world to see these two play if they got back together.

I don't claim to be a huge Simon and Garfunkel fan. I certainly think their songs are great and Paul Simon's guitar arrangements are superb, but I just can't see what the draw would be to watch them live over popping a CD on at home. Imagine my trepidation then when one of Alison's tickets became available and she asked me to come along. My concern at the time was that her appreciation of the concert would be somewhat marred by my apathy or worse yet, criticism. Turns out my fears were justified.

The concert was attended by a decidedly older demographic but they seemed to be prepared to have a good time. Our seats were fantastic for the price we got them for, certainly a benefit of buying our tickets late when Ticketek were trying to flog them off. They started off a little late to give everyone a chance to find their seats, but after ten minutes the lights went down and an aww-inducing montage of a young Paul and Art came up on the screen, chronicling their friendship through life up to the no doubt historic opening at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre.



The opening number wasn't exactly one to get you to your feet (Old Friends) but by the third song we got a crowd pleaser (I am a Rock) that brought a smile even to my lips. For most of the other songs however I just couldn't help but think that these two were showing their age and that I could get a better experience listening to our best of albums at home. I could go on about how they didn't play my favourite instrumental (Anji) or that the sessionists had more charisma than the main act but that would be cruel and miss the point. I didn't class it as a phenomenal concert but that's only because I'm not the target audience, as everyone else in the stands were decidedly unreserved about how much fun they were having.

Still sorry that the ticket was wasted on me, but I'm glad I could share the special night with Alsie. Especially when as I recall that "borrowing" Alison's Simon and Garfunkel CD was my lame excuse to get to know her in the first place.