MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin — Paul Simon and Brian Wilson presented a study in contrasts during their tour stop Friday at Milwaukee's Summerfest, with one pop legend reinterpreting his classics while the other offered album-perfect renditions of his hits. Their approaches were different, but the crowd of nearly 20,000 responded with as much fervor to Simon's experimentation as to Wilson's faithfulness.
With the sometimes reclusive Wilson, it was a surprise to see him look so comfortable onstage. Though he sat stone-faced, only occasionally letting a grin cross his face, and though he rarely touched the keyboard in front of him, the Beach Boys' mastermind was talkative and playful, even launching into an impromptu rendition of "On Wisconsin" early in his 90-minute set.
Wilson and his 10-piece band covered the gamut of the Beach Boys catalog, from early surf classics like "Fun, Fun, Fun" and "I Get Around" to a suite of complex, almost orchestral tunes from the 1966 classic Pet Sounds, including "God Only Knows," "Sloop John B." and the instrumental title track. He also touched on lesser-known material such as 1973's "Sail on, Sailor" and "Love and Mercy" from his self-titled 1988 solo album.
Wilson's been at odds with original Beach Boy Mike Love since the '70s — ironically, Love's version of the group played another Summerfest stage the night before — but Friday's show left no doubt as to who the band's classic music really belongs to. While Love and his hired hands delivered workman-like renditions of the group's pop hits, Wilson and his backing band offered up spot-on harmonies and nailed the complex arrangements in ways that the other "Beach Boys" simply couldn't.
Instead of faithfully re-creating the singer-songwriter's recordings, Paul Simon's group helped their diminutive frontman re-invent Simon & Garfunkel classics like "I Am a Rock," solo hits like "Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard" and his more recent world music explorations.
Wearing a red button-down shirt, black slacks and a Birmingham Black Barons Negro League baseball cap, Simon opened with the gently percolating "That's Where I Belong," from his 2000 album, You're the One. While he'd play several more cuts from the Grammy-nominated disc, the show was the best kind of greatest hits revue: Fans got to hear the songs they expected, but not always in the styles they're used to.
Simon and band offered up "I Am a Rock" as a full-on blues rocker, as well as a Bo Diddley-on-speed version of "Mrs. Robinson" and a rendition of "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard" that traded in the original's rapid-fire salsa for a slower-burning tempo. Only once did Simon lose the crowd with his revisions, when he took the propulsive "Kodachrome" and presented it with Afropop polyrhythms that actually detracted from the original's rhythmic punch.
For the most part, though, Simon showed that he knows when to leave well enough alone. He offered up both "Sounds of Silence" and "Homeward Bound" as solo acoustic numbers fairly true to the originals, and let the crowd sing along to the "lie-la-lie" choruses of "The Boxer." It's hard to tell when an artist of Simon's stature is honestly moved by a crowd response, but the audience's thunderous and relentless applause between encores seemed to genuinely take him by surprise. Slapping hands and taking roses from the front row, Simon basked in the glow after his solo hit "Still Crazy After All These Years" before ending his two-hour-plus set with an a cappella, gospel quartet-style version of "Loves Me Like a Rock."
