CONCERT REPORT: Bucharest, September 22, 2012

Concert reports, set lists, reviews, photos and You Tube links. Fan meet-ups before and after the concerts.
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sturgess66
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Bucharest, September 22, 2012

Post by sturgess66 »

Uploaded by Gabi I. - Thanks!

Amen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L-Xp_HOoj4
tigrib
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Bucharest, September 22, 2012

Post by tigrib »

thanks for the videos!
2008 Berlin, Hamburg, Oberhausen, Cologne, Berlin, Colmar, Barcelona, Las Vegas, San Jose, Salzburg, Berlin, Strasbourg, Marseille, Dortmund, Stuttgart, Las Vegas 2010
2012 Ghent (x2), Berlin, Moenchengladbach, Lisbon
2013 Berlin ... Pula ... ?
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bridger15
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Bucharest, September 22, 2012

Post by bridger15 »

Laura wrote:
Hallelujah (to prove it was indeed Bucharest!)
http://youtu.be/Yc21JzQTxcs
:D
---Arlene
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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sturgess66
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Bucharest, September 22, 2012

Post by sturgess66 »

From the Bucharest Herald -
http://www.bucharestherald.com/dailyeve ... n-audience
Leonard Cohen Knelt Before The Romanian Audience

Monday, 24 September, 2012
Last Update 22:51

Image

Leonard Cohen knelt before the Romanian audience on Saturday evening, enchanted by the warmth he was received with by the over 15,000 people who attended his concert in Constitution Square. Although the show was scheduled to last three hours, the artist could not turn fans down who insisted for several encores and left the stage after almost four hours, also ending his third performance in the Romanian capital.

Songs such as In My Secret Life, Suzanne or Democracy were warmly applauded by those present in the Constitution Square while during the two encores the audience stood up and sang along.

The concert to promote the album Old Ideas was divided in two parts. In the first half, the artist sang 13 songs, "Dance Me to the End of Love", "The Future", "Bird on the Wire", "Everybody Knows", "Who By Fire", "Darkness", "Sisters of Mercy", "Amen", "Come Healing", "In My Secret Life", "Going Home", "Waiting For the Miracle" and "I Can't Forget" and at the end, after almost one hour and a half, he also inserted the words I didn’t come to Romania to fool you. He presented his musicians with his hat off, in sign of respect. Cohen is accompanied on this world tour by an international team made of Roscoe Beck – bass and vocals (musical director), Alexandru Bublitchi – violin, from the Republic of Moldova, Rafael Gayol – percussion, Neil Larsen – organ, accordion, keyboards, Javier Mas – acoustic guitar, string instruments, Mitch Watkins – guitar, Sharon Robinson – soloist, and sisters Charlie and Hattie Webb, or The Webb Sisters – vocals, guitar, harp.

The second part of the concert consisted of songs off older albums and off the new album. The program included "Tower of Song", "Night Comes On", "Suzanne", "Heart With No Companion", "The Gypsy's Wife", "The Partisan", "Democracy", "Coming Back To You" (sung by Webb Sisters), "Alexandra Leaving" (sung by Sharon Robinson), "Hallelujah", "I'm Your Man" and "Take This Waltz", which ended the concert.

At the two encores, Cohen sang “So long, Marianne,” “First We Take Manhattan,” “Famous Blue Raincoat,” and “Save the Last Dance for Me.”

On his knees and with his hat off, Cohen thanked the Romanian audience for attending and for the “privilege and honor of singing in Romania.”
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sturgess66
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Bucharest, September 22, 2012

Post by sturgess66 »

This - at a site called "Virtual Bass Player" -
http://www.virtualbassplayer.com/music_news_4863.html
Gianna Nannini, to attend Leonard Cohen’s Bucharest concert
The famous Italian singer Gianna Nannini, due to perform in Bucharest on Monday, will attend Leonard Cohen’s concert on Sunday as a viewer, the organizers announced.
And from NineOclock.ro -
http://www.nineoclock.ro/impressive-leo ... n-concert/
Impressive Leonard Cohen Concert

September 23rd, 2012 at 9:00 PM

Image

Leonard Choen gave a concert on Saturday evening in Bucharest’s Constitutiei Square, in front of 15,000 fans, enational.ro informs. The concert lasted for over three hours, giving fans of all ages the chance to sing along. The artist came up on stage in his classic black suit and hat, singing, apart from his beloved hits, songs from his new album “Old Ideas,” an album he came to promote in Romania. In the first part of the concert the artist sang 13 songs: “Dance Me to the End of Love,” “The Future,” “Bird on the Wire,” “Everybody Knows,” “Who by Fire,” “Darkness,” “Sisters of Mercy,” “Amen,” “Come Healing,” “In My Secret Life,” “Going Home,” “Waiting For the Miracle” and “I Can’t Forget.” At the end of these songs, after approximately one hour and a half, the artist inserted among the stanzas the message “I didn’t come to Romania to fool you” and presented his stage colleagues in laudatory words and with his hat off, in a sign of respect. The second part of the concert included both songs from his old albums and songs from the new album with which the fans seemed to be familiar. Without seeming affected by the cold temperatures registered after 9 PM, the fans sang along and enjoyed every song interpreted by Leonard Cohen and the members of his band in the second part of the show: “Tower of Song,” “Night Comes On,” Suzanne,” “Heart With No Companion,” “The Gypsy’s Wife,” “The Partisan,” “Democracy,” “Coming Back To You” (sang by the Webb Sisters), “Alexandra Leaving” (sang by Sharon Robinson), “Hallelujah,” “I’m Your Man” and “Take This Waltz.” The fans called for an encore several times. In the end, after well over three hours of singing, Leonard Cohen said “goodbye” to the Romanian fans, taking his hat off in front of the audience that applauded him for minutes on end.
cripkd
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Bucharest, September 22, 2012

Post by cripkd »

http://imageshack.us/a/img9/2104/lclevels.jpg - the image, beeing a panorama, was too large in size to upload here.
Also, excuse the quality, it's been taken with a phone and since it was dusk the exposure difference between the various areas of the sky was large.

I was there ;)
It was perfect!
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Laura
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Bucharest, September 22, 2012

Post by Laura »

Lovely panorama! Hey Crip, are you the Crip I know? Where were you hiding?! ;-)

Laura
Päivi from Finland
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Bucharest, September 22, 2012

Post by Päivi from Finland »

Bucharest 22nd September 2012

We will give here our message together, like some kind of ”doubleopinion”.

This year after two Ghent- and the only Helsinki concerts we arrived to Bucharest very openminded, hopeful and eager! We were also a little bit wistful: will this be our last Leonard Cohen concert?? We hope that we will get another possibilities!

The concert – thanks to Leonard and the band – was as always magnificent! The setlist is already published. So it is not necessary to tell about it. I tried to write this at the concert evening, but thanks to iPad, everything disappeared: so let's try again at home by oldfashioned computer...

We have NO thanks to say to Eastern European Eventym!! We bought the tickets early in June, paid 462 Romanian Leus which is approximately same price as the best seats in Finland. Our seats were mentioned to be at the first raw of a so called Tribuna VIP stanga. What did we get? There were 9 raws at that VIP tribuna. Of course the raw was the first, but it was also the 9th last raw in the whole area of Piata Constitutiei!! The officer showing us the places was sorry and told that there are so many disappointed people and that the map of the Piata was not real in the advertisement of Eventim!

Well we thought it's better to adapt to the situation! The music IS most important. But what happened:

The Romanian public was like a cow herd wandering around the area long after the band had started at 8.04 pm! They were wandering also after half an hour, after the interval and BEFORE the concert was over!!! And they were hungry and thirsty, we think they were also BLIND and DEAF, because all the time they were wandering, disturbing and racketing!
Naturally the pop corns, hot dogs, beers and mobile phones are most important for starving people to stay alive BUT NOT IN COHEN'S CONCERT!!

Our first raw seats offered us the possibility to see and hear the worst wandering DURING THE WHOLE CONCERT! I think they really did not know if they were at cinema or at department story or in a pub! People behind us seemed to be in pub because they had to talk during the whole concert!

Our distance from the stage was about 70-80 meters and there were only two screens just next to the stage! The audio was suffering from the noise of those idiots. So in addition that we could hardly hear anything, we could not see Cohen or the band, not even on the screen! All this chaos and noise of starving, drunk jerks! And all this was at the same price as the FIRST RAW pleasure in nearly perfectly organized Ghent and Helsinki!! For me this was 11th concert. Even in the Ice Hall of Helsinki 1993 it was more pleasant!

In our homeland, Finland we respect Cohen very much! When he arrives at the stage, all the public stands and applaud! Very seldom if ever there are a few persons being late. In Bucharest the only thing they did in time, was LEAVING the concert! They started their leaving just after Take this Waltz and that's why the only encore was short: Leonard patiently telling it's closing time. We could have got the Closing time, but because of the”cows” wandering for dear life it was impossible!

All those 30 wonderful songs Leonard and the band gave us were sung in record time: 3 ½ hours the interval included in stead of Ghent 4 hours, Helsinki 3 hours 50 minutes! There were no extra clapping (only for violinist propably because of his fatherland) and there were no extra speeches. We blame the stupid public! Romany was the only eastern European country for Leonard Cohen this year. We don't believe that he will come back to Bucharest...perhaps neither other eastern countries.. At the first page of Cohen files Leonard says: ”One by one the guests arrive”... Let's never ever let it happen that he has to think: ”One by one the guests leave”! That kind of behavior for the genious artist is a sin!

WE THANK LEONARD COHEN AND THE BAND especially for Miracle, which would be nice to listen even once more without noise of public! Cohen with his perfect band made us once again happy, but WE DON'T THANK ROMANIAN EVENTIM NEITHER ROMANIAN PUBLIC!

FOR LEONARD: Never stop singing!! Never become too old to sing although while oldening – as wine - Your voice becomes better and better! Give us still possibilities to enjoy that lovely music also in 2013, 2014 and so on! Thank You!!



Päivi and Juhana
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
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Hartmut
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Bucharest, September 22, 2012

Post by Hartmut »

Päivi, your report is very saddening and at the same time a bit funny.
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regensburg
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CONCERT REPORT: Bucharest, September 22, 2012

Post by regensburg »

This is really sad. I can't believe that people behave this way. I am glad that I was no there because I would have been very upset. This "wandering" around is very disrespectful and all the other things they were doing, I hope he never goes there again. It really hurt me and I was not even there. Thank you for your report.
cripkd
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Bucharest, September 22, 2012

Post by cripkd »

@Päivi
I'm sorry for your experience.
Regarding the seats issue, I can understand what you say. When LC was here (Romania) for the first time I too had what I thought to be better (than the lowest price) tickets. However the reality was different than what I had seen on the ticket map. I ended up standing up in the cheap tickets area. Don't remember if Eventim was to blame then too.

Regarding the public, there's too sides for that I guess.
I was there at 6:30 PM, very few people, no queues at the gates. The concert started as you say a few minutes after 8 and I too was very annoyed about the people rushing in at the time and wandering around for at least 30 minutes after that. At the first concert I might have been one of those because since they searched everyone for cameras and dagerous stuff they kept us for too long in the street so they realised in the end they're not going to have to time to search everyone so they rushed us all in at once.
On this Saturday i thought the same and I was just annoyed that people didn't get there earlier.
But then I found out somehting strange. The time on the ticket said 8:30 !!! You can check yours, I did AFTER the concert and I was amazed. I knew it was 8 PM from an email from Eventim 2 days before so I never bothered to check the hour on the ticket in the first place.
So most of the people that appeared to be late were not actually, according to the tickets. Remember, lost of people bought their tickets in real store, not online, so there was no way for Eventim to email them. This does not excuse Eventim however, I have no idea why the time on the ticket was different.

This is to excuse the LC fans that were there and who also respect him.
Of course they were not all "fans", there's always people that get brought along, who buy tickets out of curiousity or snobbery and they do tend to not arrive 3 hours before the concert because it's not really an Event for them as it was for me ;)

As for the hot-dogs, I thought they were a bit strange and funny to have around at a LC concert, but after all it's only food and we are all beeings who need food :) I didn't had any, I had 2 earlier at an Ikea store :)))
Maybe people traveled from another location to get to the concert, maybe they were tired. Who draws the line between water, coffee, cola, hotdogs and pop-corn and how?
As long as they don't get up mid-song 10 times an evening to get hot-dogs and I have to let them pass then I guess it's ok.

@Laura, yes it's me ;)
I haven't been hiding, been where I always am for the last 14 years, Iasi :)
cripkd
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Bucharest, September 22, 2012

Post by cripkd »

Ah, and another thing, that also blames the organiser.
Up to the middle of the concert there still were people looking for their seats. That's because thea areas were soemthing like, A, B, C, VIP, etc abut also b was B Left, B Center and B right.
Some of the people either didn't read that carefully on the ticket or the people who showed them to their seats were poorly trained. The areas per se were badly signaled too, to many people thought B center was B right for example or similar.
So they ended up standing up because they thought their seat is already taken and then they started to look for their seat again later when they discovered the misunderstanding.
So yeah, over all the logistics was pretty bad.
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sturgess66
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Bucharest, September 22, 2012

Post by sturgess66 »

Video uploaded by Ciprian Redinciuc - Thanks!

Coming Back To You
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_Ui_yJpxH0
Grig
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Bucharest, September 22, 2012

Post by Grig »

Päivi from Finland wrote:Bucharest 22nd September 2012
...
Päivi and Juhana
Hello, Päivi!

(I must apologize for my bad english, I am not an english language expert)

You are not alone. I also have been very upset. When the performance started I felt a stringent need to kill some idiots. Finally Leonard, the band and The Music healed me.

I think I have some more informations about the 22-nd september evening.
The initially start hour was 20:30 (as printed on the tickets). The City Hall ask for the show to end no later than 23:15. The Cohen team considered the time to be too short and asked for starting hour to be 20:00. Not enough, but better. That's why the first part of the performance have been (somehow) in a hurry, that's why we had only one encore.
So... long live the mayor!

The new starting hour was not a secret but some people did not knew about the change. Why? I do not know, maybe they care less. I was there at 19:00 to fully receive the other "surprises". The place, the rows, the seats dis not look like the diagram I have seen when I bought the tickets. The rows and the seats was not inscriptioned or was marked with impossible numbers. I had plenty of time (and a little help) to find our seats (ten rows back than the seats I thought I have bought, but I was there and that was enough for me). The people that came later did not have my luck.
So... long live Eventim!

I do not know why those hungry coke and beer drinkers was there. what they was looking for. I cannot understand them, I also have been disturbed by their lack of common sense. I hate these bad habits. Anywhere.

But I know very well the reason I was there. You have to consider yourself a lucky man, you had the opportunity to meet Leonard in Ghent and in Helsinki and now in Bucharest. I am glad for you. For me Bucharest was the only chance. I'm happy I did not miss it.
In 2008 I have met Leonard for the first time. In Bucharest. Back in 1970s I have not even dared to dream of such a miracle. In 2010 it was the second time. In Bucharest. The miracle of the miracles. In 2012 it happened for the third time. In Bucharest. I am also a lucky man.
We are the lucky ones, damn those idiots!

Peace to your soul!

---
Grig
antwerp guy
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Bucharest, September 22, 2012

Post by antwerp guy »

Dear Païvi from Finland,
It is understandable that you are very upset because your seats were less than what you expected, and a noisy crowd can indeed be a pest. But insulting a complete country & people, even the complete Eastern Europe? And believing that Cohen “will probably never visit Bucharest or other Eastern countries again”? For someone who says to be a big Leonard Cohen fan, try to absorb more from his wise words and spirit. Calm Down & Cohen On. ;-)
Regards,
Guy, a Belgian living in Budapest, Hungary
PS Wish I were there, in Bucharest
1979 Antwerpen (Koningin Elisabethzaal) - 1993 Gent (Flanders Expo) - 2008 Brugge (Minnewaterpark), Paris (Olympia), Brussel (Vorst Nationaal) - 2009 Antwerpen (Sportpaleis) - 2010 Las Vegas (Caesars Palace) X 2 - 2012 Gent (Sint-Pietersplein) X 2
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