Paul Simon has played stadiums and festivals. He’s done Central Park. So it was a treat Monday to see one of the most venerated songwriters of the last half-century turn the relatively intimate, sold-out Vic Theatre into his living room.

The 69-year-old singer-songwriter dressed for the occasion in loose-fitting jeans and black T-shirt underneath an unbuttoned shirt. His eight-piece multi-culti band framed him, with Simon at times resembling a crossing guard at a three-way intersection as he directed musical traffic. His foot tapped, his arms waved, he crouched and jutted a guitar toward his musicians, he even played an air washboard solo.

In one sense, the two-hour, 24-song performance played like a mini-history of rhythm, spiraling out from the doo-wop of Simon’s native New York to West Africa down the coast to Capetown and then out to the Caribbean, into Brazil, Memphis and New Orleans. His band of multi-instrumentalists was versatile enough to keep pace with Simon’s game of continental hop-scotch, the singer demonstrating how he synthesized his rhythm journeys into durable pop songs.

Paul Simon: On the heels of his best album in two decades, “So Beautiful or So What,” the singer-songwriter has been digging deep on his current tour, exploring the hits and then some, 8 p.m.  Monday at the Vic Theatre, 3145 N. Sheffield,  $51 (sold out), etix.com;  and 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Chicago Theatre, 150 N. State St., $48.50, $68.50, $88.50, $128.50 (sold out), ticketmaster.com.

greg@gregkot.com

3 stars (out of 4)

Paul Simon will turn 70 in October, and mortality figures heavily on his first album in five years, “So Beautiful or So What” (Hear Music/Concord Music Group).  Fortunately, he approaches it with a light touch and a skip in his stride. He turns the metaphysical into a series of narratives tinged not just with poignance but humor and groove.

God plays a recurring role in these songs, and he’s blithe, impatient, exasperated -- a hoot, in other words. Simon’s narrators wander from moment to moment hoping for a “glimpse of the divine,” but are just as likely to be left pondering the differences between “Be Bop a Lula” and “Ooh Papa Do.” In Simon’s world, such differences matter, because he’s a master of not just literate wordplay, but of the transformative effect of a nonsense phrase or tail-feather-shaking rhythm.

His melodies are sent skipping and bobbing along by a percolating matrix of Asian and African percussion instruments, marimba and celeste. There’s the shivery, shimmering guitar of longtime Simon sidekick Vincent Nguini. And samples of old gospel groups and preachers pepper the melodies, with the Rev. J.M. Gates shaking down the heavens on the irresistible “Getting Ready for Christmas Day.”

The rhythmic bounce eases the potentially debilitating weight of songs that deal with death and the futility of life. The lyrics often feel conversational and brim with wry asides, whether presenting a chicken gumbo recipe or pondering a Jay-Z advertisement. And sometimes, as in the luminous ballad “Love and Hard Times,” Simon simply gives thanks for the small miracle of finding a welcoming hand amid the din and disappointment of the everyday.

greg@gregkot.com

It’s usually a treat to see musical giants in a smaller-than-usual setting, and this Paul Simon news certainly applies: The singer-songwriter has added a Vic Theatre date May 16 to his national tour, promoters announced Monday. He has already sold out a May 17 concert at the Chicago Theatre.

Tickets ($51) for the Vic show go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday via etix.com. There is a two-ticket limit and all tickets are non-transferable.

Simon will be releasing a new studio album, “So Beautiful or So What,” on April 12, his first in five years. The Vic show, an unusually intimate setting by Simon’s standards, is in keeping with his vow to play more wide-ranging shows that draw not only on his standards, but on deeper tracks and possibly a few covers.

greg@gregkot.com