My GF and I had the thrill of seeing Leonard Cohen perform last night at Madison Square Garden. Rather than try to top what she had to say about it on her own blog, I've chosen to begin by importing her very entry, below:
The night was unforgettable. He played for three and a half hours to a totally packed Madison Square Garden. It was the longest concert BF had ever been to, and he's seen RUSH live. I think it was the longest I've ever been to as well; I think Springsteen in 1984 topped out at three hours.
Leonard Cohen's voice sounded beautiful, and his wit, energy, and showmanship were superb. He's 74, and anyone who thinks old musicians shouldn't perform hasn't seen him. I think his age was an asset to him -- he filled the place with warmth, humor, and the sheer quality of his years and years of experience.
Notwithstanding the performer's age, another notable aspect of the concert was the apparent mean age of the audience. For the first time in a while, GF and I felt we were among the youngest people in a large crowd. Notable too was how many of the male audience members bore a physical resemblance to Leonard Cohen. (GF thought so, too.)
The show opened with "Dance Me to the End of Love," the song with which Cohen has been opening shows now for many years. The first half comprised mostly songs from his second period - the keyboard-oriented period (from 1984's "Various Positions" to the present), in which Cohen has been using the keyboard, rather than the guitar, to compose his songs. A memorable exception was "Who by Fire," which began with an extended, mesmerizing solo by Javier Mas on the archilaud. The second half, however, began with a generous clump of older songs from the guitar period, including "The Gypsy's Wife" and - most unexpected - "The Partisan."
The physical setup of the show was tasteful. The band performed in front of a massive ruffled curtain, onto which various muted colors were projected, and, just occasionally, Cohen's image of the two intertwined hearts. Two modestly sized video screens hung high above the audience at the far right and left edges of the stage. As far as I'm concerned, this handling of screens is far preferable to having a screen directly behind the performers, because it gives the audience the freedom to decide whether to look at the performers or shift their eyes over to their magnified screen images; with a screen directly behind them, performers and screen compete against each other the whole night.
The audience was surprisingly quiet during most of the songs, not including the applause, which was very enthusiastic, but contained to the beginnings and endings of songs, and not including moments of laughter at some of Leonard Cohen's more sly lyrics (for example, "You told me then you preferred handsome men / But for me you would make an exception," from "Chelsea Hotel"). But I suppose the quiet is typical for a Leonard Cohen audience. (Since my other MSG experiences were Roger Waters, Bob Dylan and Tom Petty, and - when I was a small child - the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, I can say it was the quietest experience I've ever had or am likely to have inside Madison Square Garden.) There were some exceptions to the quiet. One very loud man somewhere in the stands behind us belted out a request for "Death of a Ladies' Man," the title song from the one studio album that was not represented in the evening's program. The other exception was an Irish couple sitting next to us who arrived late, plopped down heavily in their seats, never stopped chattering, and never stopped peering down at the screen of their cell phone. It felt too odd to ask them to quiet down. Technically, this was an arena pop concert, not Lincoln Center. But it could have been. On his next tour, it would be entirely appropriate for LC to consider booking LC.
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