Halfway though, Paul Simon's set hosts an altercation. "'The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls!' What a line!" screams someone, tears welling. "Will you shut up?" snaps someone else, straining to listen. "Feck off!" For a few dangerous seconds, it seems entirely possible that The Sound of Silence will be accompanied by the noise of violence. However, the magical song calms the pair almost instantly.
Simon is one of the true wonders of the songwriting world; experiencing him in the flesh feels like visiting the Sphinx. He is smaller than you would expect, looking like a mature student in his T-shirt and jeans. Only the baldness-concealing baseball cap hints at his 61 years. But it provides a touch of vulnerability to an artist who can choose Bridge Over Troubled Water as his opening number.
Simon is probably due another creative leap since 2000's so-so You're the One, and he does not tour often. However, this lends age-old standards a renewed vigour that suggests they were written yesterday. His 11-piece band are exquisitely restrained, despite their four percussionists; they paint intricate pictures of sound in which the song is always central. The ethnicity of Graceland was no passing fad; musicians from Cape Town and Cameroon add African twists to songs as ostensibly American as Me and Julio and Late in the Evening.
Simon's endurance is partly due to his genius as a troubadour, adapting experiences and sounds from his travels. The New Yorker has a special affinity with this area, having written Homeward Bound at Widnes station and played Liverpool as a struggling young folkie. Liverpool idolises him in return, and Simon seems genuinely moved by the hysteria. Increasingly, he responds with loose-limbed dancing and drops his shoulder, Everly Brothers-style, to underline his often unrecognised status as a rock'n'roller.
Greatness lies in the details: the percussive segue into You Can Call Me Al; the way someone shouts "Come on Paul, give us Mrs Robinson!" and he obliges within seconds. By the time he reaches The Boxer and The Boy in the Bubble, things have become almost mystical, artists and audience basking in the redemptive power of this tiny man and his continent-sized songs.
· Paul Simon plays the Kilkenny Festival in Ireland tomorrow. Box office: 00 353 1 456 9569.
