CONCERT REPORT: NYC Madison Square Garden, October 23

October 17 - November 13, 2009. Concert reports, set lists, photos, media coverage, multimedia links, recollections...
MaryB
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: NYC Madison Square Garden, October 23

Post by MaryB »

sue7 wrote:http://www.earvolution.com/2009/10/mond ... adison.asp
he’s never drifted far from the collective unconscious of cerebral thinkers.
So that's what we are, 'cerebral thinkers'? :D Appreciate you posting this review Sue.

And Diana, I guess you enjoyed the show :D . I loved reading your beautiful review - thank you so much for letting me enjoy it with you if only in spirit.

Warmest regards,
Mary

Edit - Can someone please post the setlist? Eagerly waiting.
1993 Detroit 2008 Kitchener June 2-Hamilton June 3 & 4-Vienna Sept 24 & 25-London RAH Nov 17 2009 NYC Feb 19-Grand Prairie Apr 3-Phoenix Apr 5-Columbia May 11-Red Rocks Jun 4-Barcelona Sept 21-Columbus Oct 27-Las Vegas Nov 12-San Jose Nov 13 2010 Sligo Jul 31 & Aug 1-LV Dec 10 & 11 2012 Paris Sept 30-London Dec 11-Boston Dec 16 2013 Louisville Mar 30-Amsterdam Sept 20
sue7
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: NYC Madison Square Garden, October 23

Post by sue7 »

Linda,
I chuckled as I posted this early this morning: it's the only time I've got something in ahead of you, I think (there may have been one other). LOL.
You enjoyed the same lines as I did from the review. I almost highlighted the lines:
"A spiritual soul, Cohen’s passionate delivery evokes a powerful emotional response, shaming all inferior singers who feel theatrics and multi-octave ranges are a substitute for the true ability to convey the beauty of a song."
but you did it for me. :)
Mary, thanks for point it out, I missed noticing that line about us being cerebral: I guess we are. So much is about the words, and it shows in the absolute silence in audience all through the show. I think it must be particularly noteworthy to people who go to a lot of concerts where people chat, eat, buy stuff, walk in and out... I was a little worried about the show being at MSG because of that, but there was no need.
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sturgess66
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: NYC Madison Square Garden, October 23

Post by sturgess66 »

My YouTube friend and I have been putting together clues and chasing down memories and threads and he has just confirmed that it is in fact "The Flood" that Leonard is reciting before "Anthem" Ahhhhh - it is the last poem - on page 229 - of his Book of Longing ("The Cheater" is on page 228 :lol: :lol: )

"The Flood"

The flood it is gathering
Soon it will move
Across every valley
Against every roof
The body will break down
And the soul will break loose
I write all this down
But I don't have the proof.
[Sinai, 1973]


Sue - just saw your post. I was glad to see that you had already found that good article and put it here. And - I just sent it to a friend who saw Leonard for the first time at the Tower (and shares his last name)! Little story - at intermission, I found her and looked at her face and said "Have you ever?" I got only as far as the "ever?" - when she said "NO!!" The sequence was repeated three times. "Have you ever?" "No!!" [x 3] :lol: :lol: :lol: Anyway - she was telling me after the show about how an arena was no place for Leonard Cohen. While that may be true - in a way - and theatres are ever so much nicer - Leonard Cohen can tame the beasts. Leonard Cohen can do arenas. :lol: :lol:
Last edited by sturgess66 on Mon Oct 26, 2009 9:09 pm, edited 3 times in total.
MaryB
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: NYC Madison Square Garden, October 23

Post by MaryB »

You're so right Sue, the spiritual soul line caps what he does to a 'T'. Did you happen to do a setlist during your euphoria?
1993 Detroit 2008 Kitchener June 2-Hamilton June 3 & 4-Vienna Sept 24 & 25-London RAH Nov 17 2009 NYC Feb 19-Grand Prairie Apr 3-Phoenix Apr 5-Columbia May 11-Red Rocks Jun 4-Barcelona Sept 21-Columbus Oct 27-Las Vegas Nov 12-San Jose Nov 13 2010 Sligo Jul 31 & Aug 1-LV Dec 10 & 11 2012 Paris Sept 30-London Dec 11-Boston Dec 16 2013 Louisville Mar 30-Amsterdam Sept 20
ladydi
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: NYC Madison Square Garden, October 23

Post by ladydi »

:lol: :lol: :roll: :roll:

Mary,
I'm beginning to think we were all in a state of euphoria and have failed to come up with a setlist! I "think" I can remember the order all the songs were in but then that's not official, and this time I was no where near the stage to snag a copy!

Linda,
I was just going to comment that I'm 99% sure it was "The Flood" but see that you now know definitely. It is an incredible intro...I'll have to search out YouTube to see if someone did capture it. Yes, wish you could have been there too! And one addendum to my comments on MSG. I was overwhelmed by the standing ovation, but conversely, when he was reciting "A Thousand Kisses Deep" you could have heard a pin drop. I scanned the audience and it was as if 20,000 plus people were holding their collective breath!

All the best,
Diana
goldstei
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: NYC Madison Square Garden, October 23

Post by goldstei »

just to add to diana's report that this reverential silence was also true (as it usually is) when the webbs worked their "will" on us all. in fact, the massive crowd paid great attention throughout the concert--as the review posted above notes, the concessionaires apparently gave up after intermission because no one there was paying any attention to anything other than the stage (at a recent bruce concert in jersey, other folks in my row crossed in front of me at least a collective 40 times in 2 1/2 hours--at LC MSG I think it was twice in three hours).

also to be noted was that Sharon R. was in terrific voice. but then, the whole group was, as usual, truly extraordinary. and judging from the cleveland reviews posted here, LC is continuing to "give it all we've got" night after night.

most of us are likely younger than LC and probably can't even sleep for three hours straight--at 75, to be doing these concerts at this level for three hours 3/4 times a week--holy cow!
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sturgess66
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: NYC Madison Square Garden, October 23

Post by sturgess66 »

Question - was there "early entry" - "meet & greet" - in NYC? Or in Cleveland?
sue7
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: NYC Madison Square Garden, October 23

Post by sue7 »

MaryB, I did put up a setlist on Maarten's setlist thread: forgot about Chelsea Hotel (after my afternoon at the hotel, that was particularly funny), but someone corrected me. I think it was exactly the same as the Philadelphia show.
Linda, there was early entry, but it didn't really work out. We all (many of us from that afternoon's plaque celebrations) gathered at the point where they told us they would let us in, and then it seemed as though the MSG staff were waiting for word from the management about where they would meet us. Eventually they just let us in, around 6:45, but there was no "meet and greet," sadly. It may have been because of the challenges of MSG: there is no inside lobby, as in a theater, where you'd enter and then be able to meet the band members. That worked well at Radio City, but once you're inside MSG there are only circular passages, punctuated by entrances to the stadium. Sad, but who could be sad when we were lucky enough to be at a concert?
And you're right about the stadium. I found it draughty and cold in spirit, but Leonard filled it to the rafters, and it really didn't matter. How can one human being touch so many people with his voice and his presence and keep them so lightly in the palm of his hand for more than three hours, and do it seemingly effortlessly, just by being himself? It blows me away. And then, watching him do essentially the same thing all those years ago at the Isle of Wight, and realizing that he had that quality and ability back then... it's extraordinary.
Still coming down,
Sue
goldstei
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: NYC Madison Square Garden, October 23

Post by goldstei »

This story suggests that Cohen is retiring, but based on numerous hints from well-placed sources, I think the conclusion of this article is just as wrong as their "quote" from the concert; maybe it's picky, but he didn't say the band intended "to give you the best" but rather "to give you everything we've got." Which is better than the best!


Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen Suggests He's Retiring

10/26/09 5:05pm

by Kate Harper (CHARTattack)
2 comments
1

love it
1

hate it
Leonard Cohen, who's 75 years young, has spent most of 2008 and 2009 on the road, but his days of being a touring musician may end soon.

During a show in New York City on Friday night, Cohen hinted that he could be retiring at some point in the near future.

"I don't know if we'll pass this way again, but it's our intention to give you the best," Cohen told a sold-out crowd at Madison Square Garden, according to Spinner.ca.

Cohen returned to the road last year, saying he'd been forced to tour because his former manager had taken $5 million U.S. from his retirement fund, leaving him with only $150,000 U.S. His 2008 tour resulted in the release of the Polaris Music Prize long listed Live In London CD/DVD and he's still playing to sold-out audiences.

Touring's taken its toll on him, though, since he collapsed on stage during a show in Valencia, Spain in September. He was taken to hospital and treated for food poisoning.

Cohen released Live At The Isle Of Wight 1970, a live CD/DVD set documenting his performance at the 1970 Isle Of Wight Festival, earlier this month.
Damfino
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: NYC Madison Square Garden, October 23

Post by Damfino »

goldstei wrote:This story suggests that Cohen is retiring, but based on numerous hints from well-placed sources, I think the conclusion of this article is just... wrong.
Perhaps this topic belongs in a thread of its own, but I noticed this, too. It's really a non-story. Apparently, a writer from an online publication or blog attended the MSG show and picked up on the "I don't know if we'll be passing this way again" comment that Leonard has made during so many of the shows over the past 18 months -- and used that comment as the basis for something he or she presumed was news. At least one other blog picked up on the same idea. No one has really schooled the author yet.
2-19-09 - Beacon, NYC / 5-14-09 - Palace, Waterbury, CT / 5-15-09 - Webb Sisters - Webster Hall, NYC / 5-16-09 - Radio City, NYC / 5-30-09, Boston, MA / 10-17-09 - MSG, NYC / 11-5-09 - Nashville, TN / ??
holydove
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: NYC Madison Square Garden, October 23

Post by holydove »

Actually, in the 7 concerts I've been to so far, I think Leonard usually says, "I don't know WHEN we'll be passing this way again. . . ", not IF. At least, that is what I remember, so though it may be wishful or selfish thinking, I prefer to think that there is still hope. . . But really, if Leonard would prefer to lay low after this humongous (don't know if I spelled that right) tour, even if it be for the rest of his life, I will certainly miss him painfully, but I'm sure he has all our gratitude for all he has done, and all our blessings for whatever he chooses to do. (But I'm 99.99% sure that the word is when, not if. . .)
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sturgess66
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: NYC Madison Square Garden, October 23

Post by sturgess66 »

I think Leonard says it both ways and I think there is little to be taken from either way he says it? Probably he does not know whether or not he will come to that place again. The "given" and the great thing is that they do give you all they've got at these shows.

But - someone posted that headline in the news - or on their website - in the past week or so - as if it was *news* or a newsflash!! "Leonard Cohen suggests he's retiring." And it has been picked up by many other sites. Leonard has been using one variation or the other all along - throughout the different legs of these tours - I think. And I do not believe it is a statement or suggestion that he is retiring. It is what it is.
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Inne
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: NYC Madison Square Garden, October 23

Post by Inne »

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Silence
and a deeper silence
when the crickets
hesitate
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sirius
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: NYC Madison Square Garden, October 23

Post by sirius »

Shock ! Horror! Someone gives LC and his band a bad review.

Note To Self: Say No To Arena Shows

http://blogs.indiewire.com/tully/archiv ... rena_shows

I was just about bursting with excitement for Friday night’s Leonard Cohen show at Madison Square Garden. Aside from Neil Young, who I still haven’t seen, Cohen was the one favorite artist of mine who I felt would be able to deliver the goods this late into his career. I figured that, in Cohen’s case, age might even add a measure of stature to his music, which had the power to transcend the inherent cheesiness in this risky set-up: playing songs forty years later to aging fans in a gaudy arena. I felt strongly that he would still make it seem classy and first-rate. As the rain fittingly began to fall, my girlfriend and I made our way through the Chelsea streets, up to MSG, where we made it to our seats by 8pm—two sections up but directly in line with the floor’s tenth row—and prepared to take in three glorious hours of majestic music.

Things started well enough, as he played a newer song, coated in the glaze that has always teetered on the edge of becoming too Weather Channel/smooth jazzy for my tastes. But this was the new Cohen, and when he sang the chorus on “The Future,” I was on board. I assumed that when he journeyed into the past, he would make the necessary changes to the musical presentation.

And then came another slightly jazzy groove, which I didn’t recognize until he started singing, “Like a bird, on the wire,” and I had a crushing realization. Nobody else seemed to mind the cheesy new glaze on this classic song—especially those holding lighters in the air—but in that opening line, my balloon of excitement started deflating. Without saying anything, I looked at Holly, who looked back at me with similarly disappointed eyes. She knew it too. We stayed for an hour, then left to catch up with friends back in Brooklyn.

Let it be known: I am not here to say that Leonard Cohen, his band, and basically everyone except us was wrong. Time changes things. But when you have an idea in your head and that idea reveals itself to be the thing you desperately didn’t want, it’s impossible not to feel crushed. In recent years, I’ve sworn off going to see the “old greats” for I understand that the environment, as well as the ticking of the annual clock, will always turn the event into a disappointment. This show was the final nail in that coffin. The next morning, we woke up, laid in bed, and listened to Songs of Leonard Cohen as the overcast sky cast a gray light over our bedroom. This was what I’d wished for all along.

(ADDITIONAL NOTE: I now no longer feel as critical of the documentary Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man. At the time when I saw it, I was outright offended by the overriding cheesiness of the musical presentations, the session players and “noteworthy” singers doing covers of Cohen songs in that Weather Channel style. But after seeing Cohen’s current approach to his own music, replete with a “master” guitarist and “soulful” saxophonist, I realize that the documentary was more accurate than I would allow myself to acknowledge.)

tully posted on October 26, 2009
We are so small between the stars, so large against the sky
goldstei
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: NYC Madison Square Garden, October 23

Post by goldstei »

Sometimes I think those of us on the forum can become overly reverential about Leonard and forget that he's a human being and flawed like all the rest of us, and for that reason alone I think it's good to read some vigorously dissenting views like the above posting by Sirius (of a review I gather written by another person). But certainly this posting is a pretty minority view. I've been a fan of Leonard Cohen for 40 years and I was at the NYC concert and had a totally different reaction. His past stuff has been extraordinary and his current tour has been extraordinary. To me, the changes in arrangements of his songs have been surprisingly minor and have kept their core and much more too intact--moreover, my guess is that Cohen has done so at least partly because he does not want to disappoint his fans who know and love his music. If you want to see an artist trash his songs, go to a Dylan concert, which is in a totally different universe/dimension altogether--you literally cannot recognize his songs until, often, the final line, then (and I mean classics, i.e. "Blowin in the wind" and "Like a Rolling Stone." I've seen one other review of the MSG concert that was very negative and, hey, everyone's entitled. Taste is individual. My experience was different--and I'm still high off it five days later.

Bob Goldstein
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