Only Paul Simon could command the sound of silence like this.

During the first of five sold-out shows of his comeback tour at NYC’s Beacon Theatre, the music legend began with the performance of his entire “Seven Psalms” album from 2023. This album was designed to be enjoyed as a complete seven-part piece.

Simon entered the stage to a standing ovation, arms wide open, and the audience respected the no-phone policy by refraining from taking pictures or videos, complying with the requirement to keep their devices secured in Yondr pouches.

The atmosphere was a mix of the eerie quietness created by the unfamiliar songs and a deep respect for the artist’s return to the stage at 83 years old after what was supposed to be his final show in 2018 at Flushing Meadows Corona Park.

That was the end of a farewell tour that really seemed like a real goodbye — especially after the double whammy of the pandemic and then Simon revealing that he had suffered near-total hearing loss in his left ear in 2023.

But — after working with the Stanford Initiative to Cure Hearing Loss and revamping his entire stage setup to make performing viable again — Simon is back with his “A Quiet Celebration Tour,” which lived up to its billing.

Although he sounded frail and fragile at times in the nakedness of the quiet — no doubt so he could hear better—he was still very much the Paul Simon that everyone was waiting for in the second act, which was all about his solo hits as well as some with Art Garfunkel.

It kicked off with “Graceland,” the title track from his South African that won the Album of the Year Grammy in 1987. The jaunty shimmy immediately energized the crowd, which all of a sudden became much more vocal.

Meanwhile, “Slip Sliding Away” took on new meaning in the delicate deliverer of a man who not so long seemed like he was doing just that — not only professionally but perhaps personally too.

Any pathos faded away when Simon’s longtime wife Edie Brickell joined him for the bit of whistling whimsy on “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard,” ripping a wave of hand-clapping and singalong joy throughout the theater.

Likewise, the communal crooning to the easy-grooving “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” was both soulful and spiritual.

And by the time he did Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Boxer, it was clear that he was no longer alone, shining a spotlight in the audience during the chorus to amp up the engagement.

But for the final song, “The Sound of Silence,” it was all him. No band, no audience, just Simon bathed in white light, singing and strumming in the still of the quiet that the S&G classic has always celebrated.