Fans missed the memo about Paul Simon’s latest tour being A Quiet Celebration and greeted the songwriter with a loud standing ovation as he walked across the PNC Pavilion stage just after 8 PM in Cincinnati.

Simon soaked it in, smiling broadly. While the Celebration may be a triumph for Simon, who has been able to return to the stage with a full band despite major hearing loss in his left ear, it was also apparent by the end of the two-hour, 10-minute performance that the fans were winners, too.

The concert unfolded in two distinct parts—the first dedicated to 2023’s Seven Psalms. The second half was ostensibly a hits set, but included a handful of deeper cuts, such as “Rewind” and “Spirit Voices.”

A meditation on aging and agnosticism, Seven Psalms found Simon’s multi-ethnic band of 12 men and women—three percussionists, three guitarists, woodwinds, keyboards, bass, violin and cello—meeting the difficult challenge of making so little noise with so many instruments. It was a marvel as Simon’s creaky-but still-recognizable voice delivered the words while song titles—“The Lord,” “Your Forgiveness” and “Wait” among them—appeared on a large screen above the stage as the suite wended its way over 38 unbroken minutes of public self-examination. 

The Psalms were more powerful live. Simon’s aging voice added to the wintertime feel of the songs while Edie Brickell, a figurative angel in white, added a summertime feel when she emerged to duet with her husband on the final tracks.

“Heaven is beautiful/it’s almost like home/children get ready/it’s time to come home,” she sung before Simon joined for the last word:

“Amen.”

After the meditation on death of set No. 1, set No. 2 was dedicated to the celebration Simon’s life in words and music. While the arrangements and vocal phrasing were changed to fit Simon’s modern voice, the audience enthusiastically handled the high notes on “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard” and “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.” And about that band, with members coming and going as the songs demanded, they proved themselves as proficient on the rainforest rhythms of “The Cool, Cool River” as they were on the tender storytelling of “The Late Great Johnny Ace” and “René and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog after the War.” 

The virtuosity onstage allowed for a low-tech presentation. the aforementioned screens were therefore mostly dark, save for photos of the titular characters mention above—plus Johnnys Kennedy and Lennon. The musicians, meanwhile, were bathed in soft white, purple or green lighting and little more save for the lightning bugs that seemed to appear on cue as Simon sang, “Ain’t nothin’ flashin’ but the fireflies” during “St. Judy’s Comet.” 

Now clad in black, Brickell returned to sing Linda Ronstadt’s parts on “Under African Skies” and, overflowing with joy, “Julio’s” whistling refrain.

Wearing jeans and a blue workshirt unbuttoned over his white T, Simon mostly remained seated as he played his familiar black acoustic guitar and used hand gestures to accentuate his lyrics and conduct his band. But he rose and danced a spry jig as most of the band played percussion on the coda of “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes.” 

Following “the Boxer” and a group bow, Simon remained on his feet and, alone on stage in a shaft of white light, concluded this Quiet Celebration with “The Sound of Silence.” 

That didn’t last long. When the house lights shone, the audience showered a beaming Simon in love and gratitude, which he reflected back with outstretched arms. He’d spent nearly 70 years earning that first ovation, he needed only slightly over two hours to earn the second.