CONCERT REPORT: Bergen, August 28

Concert reports, set lists, reviews, photos and You Tube links. Fan meet-ups before and after the concerts.
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Geoffrey
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Bergen, August 28

Post by Geoffrey »

Front page of national newspaper 'Dag og Tid' 31 August 2012
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Geoffrey
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Bergen, August 28

Post by Geoffrey »

Centre pages from Bergensavisen 29 August 2012. 'Co hen e' Cohen?' is difficult for me to explain. It is a sort of Bergen area dialect wordplay on 'Kor (Hvor) hen er Cohen?' ['Where is Cohen?']
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Geoffrey
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Re: Concert report, Bergen, 28.August

Post by Geoffrey »

A street scene from Bergen. This is a photograph taken with the camera that is built into my mobile telephone the day before the concert. Bergen is 14 hours south (by boat) of my small home town, and as I rarely travel away you can imagine I felt a little bit apprehensive about being in such a large city with so many strangers.
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Nessus Jr
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Bergen, August 28

Post by Nessus Jr »

The icecream pics made my day ... thanks!

cheers,
Marco
(who couldn't help humming: "I scream, you scream, we all scream for icecream")
2008 Amsterdam
2012 Ghent
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Wirebird
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Bergen, August 28

Post by Wirebird »

The Norwegian humorist, Are Kalvø`s, speechless meeting with Leonard in an elevator in Bergen:
"The old man and the elevator" ("Den gamle mannen og heisen:)
http://www.magasinett.no/index.php?opti ... mid=100001
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Joe Way
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Bergen, August 28

Post by Joe Way »

Hi Geoffrey,
Wonderful pictures, we enjoyed them very much. Bergen looks to be a beautiful place for a Leonard Cohen concert. Anne & I will see him in Roscoe's home town of Austin, Texas.

Joe
"Say a prayer for the cowboy..."
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Geoffrey
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Bergen, August 28

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Joe Way wrote:Hi Geoffrey,
Wonderful pictures, we enjoyed them very much. Bergen looks to be a beautiful place for a Leonard Cohen concert. Anne & I will see him in Roscoe's home town of Austin, Texas.

Joe
wish i could be there. it was nice being in bergen. everybody was talking about leonard cohen. book shops had big selections of books by him and about him on display that i'd never seen before; i bought one or two. record shops filled their windows and shelves with CDs and DVDs that contained his work. posters advertising the concert were glued onto every wall and fence. buskers were on many street corner singing his songs. leonard's official music came out of loud speakers at market places and the newspapers were filled with headlines about him. a sort of 'cohenmania' swept over the whole town. but i kept my wits about me and didn't get caught up in the hysteria. i kept sane by just observing it all and pretending i was an alien from another galaxy come to study human behaviour. i had a money-belt strapped to my upper torso, under my shirt, so that pick-pockets couldn't easily get at the banknotes, and i avoided making eye-contact with people when i walked along the pavement, and when a lady with a map in her hand asked me for directions i just looked straight ahead and brushed past her as if she was air. i know all their tricks, you see. they're as cunning as a cart-load of monkeys but i stayed alert and they didn't get me. during the concert i walked around, absorbing the atmosphere, digesting the impulses and just let my senses receive vibrations and signals that nobody else seemed to be picking up. i looked at all the faces staring in one direction, and it was as if they were hypnotised. in the huge crowd of 12,000 people i felt alone, in a way. thousands of vaginas all around me, and not one of them had i access to. everybody who'd come to hear the music wore a uniform of anoraks with casual clothes; i was dressed in a suit and tie, but that didn't make me less avid an admirer of leonard's work than anyone else. the security guards wore illuminative yellow vests over their coats. those guys were the only ones who didn't seem hypnotised, but they all had a special expression on their faces, a sort of unapproachable expression, a cold and superior expression that made them look important. i wondered how anybody could love someone who could look like that at the flick of a switch. i have never had a boss dictating to me what i should or should not do. i wouldn't accept such a situation. it's not right to let a person govern and own you. well, i did work in a hotel for a few weeks when i was young, so i do know what it is like, i suppose. he was a horrible guy, big fat guy called israel finn. looked a bit like alfred hitchcock, especially those sloppy lips - but hitchcock was an all right guy, at least according to my intuition; i never met him. here is a picture, joe, from my camera at bergen.
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bridger15
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Bergen, August 28

Post by bridger15 »

Geoffrey: Your photographs and your narratives are a delight.

---Arlene
2009-San Diego|Los Ang|Nashville|St Louis|Kansas City|LVegas|San Jose
2010-Gothenburg|Berlin|Ghentx2|Oaklandx2|Portland|LVegasx2
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Arlene's Leonard Cohen Scrapbook http://onboogiestreet.blogspot.com
MaryB
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Bergen, August 28

Post by MaryB »

First, wirebird, sends a link to an article that had me laughing so hard, I almost p--d my pants. Now we should all know what to do in a chance meeting with LC and are at a loss for words.

Then, Geoffrey posts his method of dealing with 'Cohenmania' and brought me even closer to my personal dilema.

You have both made my day! Thank you!

Warmest regards,
Mary
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
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Geoffrey
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Bergen, August 28

Post by Geoffrey »

thank you arlene and mary for these uplifting comments. as you have been so nice to me here is a little bonus. it is a short but very positive review of leonard's concert that i found in a national weekly christian newspaper published on 7th september 2012 in bergen, called 'norge i dag' (norway today'). i have not time to translate the entire article, but it opens with:

"Who can make 11,000 Bergenites sing 'Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah" in unison on a chilly August evening at the Bergenhus Fortress? Yes, a Jew from Canada. His name is Leonard Cohen."

Always remember, Geoffrey is the one who delivers the goods.
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Bushwoman
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Bergen, August 28

Post by Bushwoman »

Love it!
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bridger15
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Bergen, August 28

Post by bridger15 »

Bushwoman wrote:Love it!
Amen!
2009-San Diego|Los Ang|Nashville|St Louis|Kansas City|LVegas|San Jose
2010-Gothenburg|Berlin|Ghentx2|Oaklandx2|Portland|LVegasx2
2012-Austinx2|Denver|Los Ang|Seattle|Portland

Arlene's Leonard Cohen Scrapbook http://onboogiestreet.blogspot.com
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