CONCERT REPORTS: Ghent, Aug 12, 14, 15, 17 & 18

Concert reports, set lists, reviews, photos and You Tube links. Fan meet-ups before and after the concerts.
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musicmania
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Re: CONCERT REPORTS: Ghent, Aug 12, 14, 15, 17 & 18

Post by musicmania »

Thanks Wybe, I enjoyed your picture show as always. awaythelads, your photos are outstanding, I want your camera!!
2009 Dublin 2010 Lissadell Katowice LV x2 2012 Ghent x2 Dublin x4 Montreal x2 Toronto x2 2013 New York x2 Brussels Dublin x2

Gwen's Leonard Cohen Journey: http://myleonardcohenjourney.wordpress.com/

"I did my best, it wasn't much"
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Stamatina
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Re: CONCERT REPORTS: Ghent, Aug 12, 14, 15, 17 & 18

Post by Stamatina »

Wybe wrote:My picture show from Gent is ready, you find it here:

Picture show Gent 2012

2012-08-25_202606.jpg
Enjoy,
Wybe and Willy
Wijbe, thank you very much for this, I loved it.
Especially the photo at 01:17. Thanks so much for that one. :)
"Oh chosen love, Oh frozen love
Oh tangle of matter and ghost
Oh darling of angels, demons and saints
And the whole broken-hearted host
Gentle this soul..."
Doris
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Re: CONCERT REPORTS: Ghent, Aug 12, 14, 15, 17 & 18

Post by Doris »

Thank you all again for your photos and videos. It´s so great to have the opportunity to look at them all.
Awaythelads, your close-up photos are soo beautiful, many thanks for sharing.
And all I´ve said
was just instead of
Coming back to you.
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majmunka
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Re: CONCERT REPORTS: Ghent, Aug 12, 14, 15, 17 & 18

Post by majmunka »

Dear friends,

as many of you in Ghent asked me to do it, I posted the "How to make your own band bracelet" instructions here:
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=32639

I hope you can understand my English and make your bracelets succesfully :)

Eva
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joyezekiel
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Re: CONCERT REPORTS: Ghent, Aug 12, 14, 15, 17 & 18

Post by joyezekiel »

Well.... as someone else here said, there's not much else to add! Thanks to everyone who's contributed such moving reports (Rachel - you brought tears to my eyes again!), photos, and videos. The opening concerts were indeed amazing, and it seems as if Leonard is gaining energy and inspiration as this wonderful tour progresses. I just can't wait for my next experience.

A special thank you to Maarten for organizing the meetups and the "goodie bags". You worked so hard for us all and it paid off beautifully....... I haven't stayed up so late since Las Vegas!!

Joy
1976 Leicester 2008 London O2/Cardiff 2009 NYC/Austin/Weybridge/Nashville 2010 Ghent x 2/Las Vegas x 2 2012 Ghent x 2/Austin/Montreal/Quebec City/Boston x 2 2013 Memphis/New Orleans/Winnipeg/Birmingham/London O2/Amsterdam/Auckland
glaux
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Re: CONCERT REPORTS: Ghent, Aug 12, 14, 15, 17 & 18

Post by glaux »

There are two more videos from the first part of the concert on August 17, posted by glauxath

Going home:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtGaN5No ... ure=vmdshb

Banjo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lavIIw-9 ... ure=vmdshb

;-)
sebmelmoth2003
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Re: CONCERT REPORTS: Ghent, Aug 12, 14, 15, 17 & 18

Post by sebmelmoth2003 »

tim de lisle reviews concert in the mail on sunday :

When Leonard Cohen last set off on a world tour, in 2008, he was 73, he had been off the road for 15 years and he was a superstar only in his native Canada and Norway. By the end of the tour, two years later, he was transformed from a cult figure to an all-time great.

Now, after going home to Los Angeles to record a fine new album, he is on the road again. This could be the difficult second lap of honour.

The last tour began cautiously with 18 nights in rural Canada. This one, which comes to London on September 8 and 9, starts with five shows in Ghent, a serene Flemish city of cobbles, churches, bikes and boat trips.

A temporary arena stands in an ancient square, much like the Olympic beach volleyball on Horse Guards Parade. The crowd of 5,000, basking in a blazing evening, ranges from grandfathers in checked shirts to students in denim shorts.

Cohen, a grandfather himself, is now 77, the age Elvis would be if he had lived. He trots on at the beginning and skips off at the end. He has defied the past few years by taking up Pilates and giving up smoking and drinking. (He says he’ll resume smoking at 80.) It probably helps that his mentor, Roshi, head of the Buddhist monastery in LA where Cohen used to live, is going strong at 105.

The tour, like the new album, is entitled Old Ideas. Cohen could hardly make this show better than the last one, so he has made it longer: it stretches from 8pm until midnight, with an interval. He uses the extra time to include six tracks from Old Ideas. Songs such as Amen and Going Home, bluesy and simple enough to work on first hearing, slot in smoothly next to classics such as Everybody Knows and Who By Fire. He also finds room for more songs from The Future (1992). Witty, hardhitting and lethally prescient, The Future now stands as tall as its more famous predecessor, I’m Your Man.

As a showman, Cohen has three trademarks: his hat, his knees and his manners. His black fedora comes off only when he feels the urge to doff it to the crowd or his backing singers. He may be the pop world’s greatest old doffer.

His knees come into play when he sinks to them. He kneels either towards an amp, possibly to read lyrics off an autocue, or to the guitarist Javier Mas and his mysterious arsenal of instruments.
As in 2008, the band, put together by Roscoe Beck, conjures up a warm folk-soul sound that cleverly unites the two main strands of Cohen’s oeuvre, acoustic ballads and tinkly synth-pop, as well as nodding to his Yiddish roots.

Cohen’s manners, as ever, are those of a ‘parfit gentil knight’ with a wicked gleam in his eye.

He thanks his crew by name; he pays lavish tribute to each musician, twice; and he thanks the crowd with a modesty that is beyond most big names.

‘We’re very aware of the distances travelled, the finances compromised,’ he tells the fans. Well, yes and no. The best seats were £69 (€88): Madonna charges twice that.

The courtliness has always been partly a cover for something more salacious. On one new song, Darkness, Cohen’s great adenoidal rumble has an unabashed whiff of dirty old man.

By the end of the last tour, women were throwing their underwear at him, confirming his place in the scheme of things, halfway from Tom Jones to Federico Garcia Lorca.

Take This Waltz, adapted from Lorca and now the title of an acclaimed film, stands out here. So do Waiting For The Miracle, with its swampy ruminations; Hallelujah, with its gravity and grit; Bird On A Wire, reborn as a country-soul ballad, almost a Ray Charles song; not to mention the gorgeous Suzanne, the stately Anthem, the touching Tower Of Song.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_de_Lisle
yoeri
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Re: CONCERT REPORTS: Ghent, Aug 12, 14, 15, 17 & 18

Post by yoeri »

Report of someone who went to a concert in Belgium in 2008, 2009, 2010 and now recently in august 2012. Not a fan in 2008, now one of the many. Favourite concert of him: in 2010, when he watched from a tree to the concert in Ghent.

Fighting against the tears:
http://focus.knack.be/entertainment/muz ... 893908.htm
2008: Athens
2009: Madrid
2010: Gent, Lille
2012: Gent, Berlin, Madrid
2013: Antwerp, Brussels, Pula, Amsterdam
Ron1984
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Re: CONCERT REPORTS: Ghent, Aug 12, 14, 15, 17 & 18

Post by Ron1984 »

Not sure if I'm late to the party here, but I just noticed the 15th and 17th shows are up on Dime! ^_^
Complete shows, audio only.

Keeping my fingers crossed that the show from the 12th will pop up too. :)
cohenadmirer
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Re: CONCERT REPORTS: Ghent, Aug 12, 14, 15, 17 & 18

Post by cohenadmirer »

Ron1984 wrote:Not sure if I'm late to the party here, but I just noticed the 15th and 17th shows are up on Dime! ^_^
Complete shows, audio only.

Keeping my fingers crossed that the show from the 12th will pop up too. :)
I have a good quality recording of the whole of the first show , and i know there are others too. i don't really know how to put on dime or other sites but will look into it
Leonard's work resonates
Brighton 1979; Dublin , Manchester june 2008; glasgow, manchester Nov 2008; Liverpool july 2009 ; Barcelona Sept 2009 ;marseille, lille september2010: Ghent August 2012;Barcelona October 2012;Montreal x2 November 2012: 2013; Saint John NB April 2013; Brussels June 2013;Manchester August 2013; Leeds , Birmingham September 2013; Amsterdam September 2013
Päivi from Finland
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Re: CONCERT REPORTS: Ghent, Aug 12, 14, 15, 17 & 18

Post by Päivi from Finland »

Dear Sturgess66!!!

I just now noticed Your lovely picture where a small boy was asking a signature from Cohen! Lovely, absolutely lovely!! One of the best pictures!!! Thank You for that innosence!! Beautyful picture!!! And always younger and younger people are interested in Cohen's lovely music!!!!

Päivi
Päivi from Finland

1993: Helsinki
2008: Copenhagen, Helsinki
2009: Budapest, Barcelona
2010:Helsinki, Stuttgart
2012:Ghent 17th and 18th Aug, Helsinki, Bucharest
2013:Brussels, Berlin, Pula, Stockholm, Oslo, Amsterdam
codiug
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Re: CONCERT REPORTS: Ghent, Aug 12, 14, 15, 17 & 18

Post by codiug »

I made a playlist called "Leonard Cohen Gent 14-08-2012 selection". In it I've put de best video's I found on youtube of this concert.
But I am still missing the following songs of that day: Dance me to the end of love, The Future, Darkness, Come Healing, Coming back to you and Take this Walz. If anyone has any recordings of the missing songs, please put them on you tube. I would be very grateful.
quetzalcoatl80
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Re: CONCERT REPORTS: Ghent, Aug 12, 14, 15, 17 & 18

Post by quetzalcoatl80 »

Having looked at the series of photos (of august 12 th) taken by Jarrkko? I noticed a funny detail.
On certain photos of the souncheck, we see that Léonard had settled down his nose a 20 euros bill (doubtless to protect it from the sun)
Simple coquetry or humor?
Had anybody noticed it before me?
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sturgess66
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Re: CONCERT REPORTS: Ghent, Aug 12, 14, 15, 17 & 18

Post by sturgess66 »

I think this video belongs here -

Uploaded by Marco van Bergen - Thanks!

It is a video of Leonard's blessings to the audience at the end of the show -

Gracious Lenny
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGXA0OXZLto
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lizzytysh
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Re: CONCERT REPORTS: Ghent, Aug 12, 14, 15, 17 & 18

Post by lizzytysh »

This is what I always pray for at the closure of Leonard's concerts.
It is always so soothing to my heart to hear him give these blessings,
especially the one of blessings finding us in our solitude.
I've been looking for other examples of these blessings, and came across this.

I was so grateful to finally hear them in Europe... the same as I was so grateful to finally hear A Thousand Kisses Deep in Austin.

Thank you SO much sturgess/Linda for all the linking that you do for us on these many threads regarding Leonard's performances.
You literally set the stage for all the reports, bringing extra measures of appreciation for those who attended and those who didn't,
as well as anticipation, beforehand, for what is come for those planning to attend the particular venues.

There used to be someone active here, name of Anne, who would provide various links, and it was always good to have that extra information.

The time you take to post the photos and links are very appreciated!


~ Lizzy
"Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken."
~ Oscar Wilde
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