CONCERT REPORT: Ottawa, Ontario - December 7, 2012

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sturgess66
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CONCERT REPORT: Ottawa, Ontario - December 7, 2012

Post by sturgess66 »

Ottawa is the nation's capital city located on the south side of the Ottawa River. On the north side is the Province of Quebec.
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The venue is Scotiabank Place is a multi-purpose arena that opened in 1996 and is located in Kanata, a west end suburb Ottawa. It is home to the Ottawa Senators NHL team. The arena contains several restaurants, a fitness complex and some businesses.
Seating capacity for concerts is 20,500.

Leonard Cohen last played in Ottawa November 25-26, 2009 at the National Arts Centre.
http://bit.ly/SQXx6F

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This is another "combination" preconcert article - about the show and the Simmons book.
From Ottawa Citizen -
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/entertainm ... story.html
A Peek Into The Cool Heart Of Cultural Icon Leonard Cohen

By Bruce Ward, The Ottawa Citizen December 5, 2012

Image
Many women have fallen for Leonard Cohen, but a fascinating new book about the masterful songwriter says
he had trouble loving back, as “romantic relationships tended to get in the way of the isolation and space,
the distance and longing, that his writing required.”
Photograph by: Joel Saget , AFP/Getty Images


What: The Old Ideas World tour
When: Dec. 7, Scotiabank Place
Tickets: $29.50 to $250. By phone at 613-599-3267; online at capitaltickets.ca; in person at The Sens Store at Carlingwood Mall and Place d’Oréans, any Ottawa Sports Experts Location, Les Galeries de Hull and at the Scotiabank Place Box Office.


OTTAWA — Here he comes again, the old rogue, wearing a hat pulled low on his brow and “looking like a Rat Pack rabbi, God’s chosen mobster,” in Sylvie Simmons’ felicitous phrase.

Who else could it be but Leonard Cohen — Canada’s most acclaimed songwriter and the womanizer many men would give their left testicle to be, just for one night.

Simmons’ I’m Your Man: The Biography of Leonard Cohen (McClelland & Stewart, $35), is a thorough and engaging examination of the most fascinating figure on the pop culture landscape.

The book was written with Cohen’s cooperation; she interviewed him several times as well as dozens of others connected to his life. But as Simmons makes clear from the first pages, this ain’t no hagiography.

Simmons undrapes Cohen to reveal a man with a sliver of ice in his heart, a man who drove away the beautiful women who loved him.

The most forgiving of these is Marianne Ihlen, the Norwegian model who is pictured draped in a towel on the back cover of Cohen’s second album, Songs From A Room.

Ihlen — the subject of So Long, Marianne, written many months before he left her — says she was fortunate to have Cohen’s love at that point in their lives. “He taught me so much, and I hope I gave him a line or two.”

Cohen was born into a well-to-do Jewish family in Montreal. His father Nathan Cohen worked in the clothing business and died when Leonard was nine.

Simmons says that Cohen didn’t cry over his father’s death but grew closer to his mother Masha, the daughter of a highly regarded rabbi and Talmudic scholar.

At 13, Cohen studied a book on hypnotism and soon tried out what he had learned. In one session, he got the family’s maid to take off her clothes.

That incident says a lot about Cohen’s messianic voice and his relationships with women.

In some ways, Cohen’s life has been a daily battle with words. It took him five years to write Hallelujah, paring back 80 draft verses until each line rang true.

Cohen, who plays Scotiabank Place on Dec. 7, was still a struggling poet when he set out his plan for becoming famous in a letter to publisher Jack McClelland.

“I want an audience,” Cohen declared, promising to make his work accessible to “inner-directed adolescents, lovers in all degrees of anguish, disappointed Platonists, pornography peepers, hair-handed monks and Papists, French-Canadian intellectuals, unpublished writers, curious musicians, etc.”

Cohen was likely half-kidding, but he was right on the money.

In all, Simmons writes, Cohen’s list of future admirers turned out to be “a pretty astute, and remarkable enduring, inventory of his fan base.”

That’s a bit sneery. You could also say Cohen’s fans are those who delight in the masterful songs he has written about religion, sex, love and loss — among them If It Be Your Will, Dance Me to the End of Love, Famous Blue Raincoat, Bird on a Wire, Sister of Mercy and Suzanne.

For a renowned ladies’ man, it’s surprising how frequently Cohen was a flop with chicks.

Nico, the icy blond model who was part of Andy Warhol’s inner circle, spurned Cohen for the much younger Iggy Pop. Judy Collins, who gave Cohen his first break as a songwriter by recording Suzanne in 1966, wasn’t interested in bedding him. Janis Joplin told Cohen she preferred sex with handsome men but would make an exception for him, just once, because she felt sorry for him.

Suzanne Verdal — the Suzanne of the famous song — tells how making eye contact with Cohen was the “most intimate of touches and completely visceral.” But things never went beyond longing gazes.

Joni Mitchell took up with Cohen but ended the affair after a year, dismissing him as “a boudoir poet” who had copped his writerly stance from Camus and Lorca, a Spanish poet.

Still, it was Cohen’s face that she drew across a map of Canada in her song A Case of You. After the affair ended, Mitchell remarked that, “I’m only a groupie for Picasso and Leonard.”

Cohen says he has always longed for the “company of women and the sexual expression of friendship.”

He admits that falling in love with him is no picnic.

“I had wonderful love but I did not give back wonderful love. I was unable to reply to their love.”

Simons writes that for Cohen “romantic relationships tended to get in the way of the isolation and space, the distance and longing, that his writing required.”

That seems to be as true for Cohen now, at 78, as it was in his youth.

“I don’t think anyone masters the heart,” he says. “It continues to cook like a shish kebob, bubbling and sizzling in everyone’s breast.”

Cohen deals with his lady-killer rep in a few lines from Book of Longing: “My reputation /as a ladies’ man was a joke / It caused me to laugh bitterly / Through the ten thousand nights / I spent alone.”

One of the book’s telling moments has Cohen returning from a triumphant 1985 tour to his empty house in Los Angeles. He opens a bottle of wine and heats up a TV dinner.

In his writing, Cohen has a “flair for fusing the erotic with the spiritual,” Simmons writes, but his quest for spiritual enlightenment is genuine and enduring.

Like wolves prowling outside the glow of a fire, depression has pursued Cohen throughout his life. For a writer like Cohen, Simmons notes, depression “means solitary confinement in one’s personal Turkish prison, cornered by black dogs.”

During a tour of the U.K. and Europe in 1970, Cohen gave concerts he paid for himself at several mental hospitals. “Fellow-feeling had something to do with it,” Simmons says. As Cohen puts it, “I’ve always loved the people the world used to call mad.”

After his engagement to actor Rebecca de Mornay ended, Cohen disappeared into a Buddhist retreat in California, where his spiritual guide Roshi, now 105 years old, still serves as a sort of camp commandant.

The rituals of the retreat were a balm for Cohen’s melancholy. He got up in the middle of the night and meditated for hours, striving for non-attachment of the self.

Cohen, dressed in his monk’s robes, did handyman jobs and worked in the kitchen during the day. He earned a state certificate that allows him to work as a chef, waiter, or busboy in California.

It took four years, but Cohen’s depression finally lifted, with the help from another holy man in Mumbai.

Serenity came to him in his early 70s, just when he needed it most. Cohen learned that his manager had betrayed him and spent her way through his money, leaving him on the brink of bankruptcy. It was the kind of pesky little problem that could “put a dent in your mood,” he joked.

The financial upheaval, Simmons writes, “forced the old monk back on the boards with his begging bowl.”

Luckily, the time was ripe for Cohen to go on tour. In the U.S., the Internet chat rooms were buzzing about Jason Castro’s performance of Hallelujah on American Idol. As well, Jeff Buckley’s haunting version of the song was at the top of the charts in the U.K. and Europe.

Thanks to the rigours of his spiritual retreats, Cohen was in great shape. For the first time since he was a teenager, Cohen had stopped smoking. He also gave up drinking and drugs.

The 2008 tour was an artistic and commercial success, replacing Cohen’s lost fortune and more. Since then, he has been skating along from one triumph to the next.

Simmons mocks Canada’s music industry and cultural elite for giving Cohen so many prizes over the years. Only in Canada, Cohen says, could he win a prize for best vocal.

It’s a fair point. In his homeland, Cohen has won everything but the Stanley Cup.

So maybe the governor general should present Cohen with the Cup when he comes to Ottawa. That’s the sort of gesture that would appeal to Cohen’s puckish sense of humour.
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen
Last edited by sturgess66 on Fri Dec 07, 2012 6:27 am, edited 1 time in total.
VELOVERMONT
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Ottawa, Ontario - December 7, 2012

Post by VELOVERMONT »

sturgess66 wrote:Ottawa is the nation's capital city located on the north side of the Ottawa River. On the south side is the Province of Quebec
Rightly corrected by sturgess66
Last edited by VELOVERMONT on Sat Dec 08, 2012 6:06 am, edited 1 time in total.
montreal 2008; montreal 2012x2
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sturgess66
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Ottawa, Ontario - December 7, 2012

Post by sturgess66 »

VELOVERMONT wrote:
sturgess66 wrote:Ottawa is the nation's capital city located on the north side of the Ottawa River. On the south side is the Province of Quebec
It is the opposite.Ottawa is on the south side, in the province of Ontario, and the province of Québec is on the north side.
Oop - sorry - you are right - I'll fix it!! :lol:
Thanks!
MaryB
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Ottawa, Ontario - December 7, 2012

Post by MaryB »

I really like the lines Bruce Ward lifted from Sylvie Simmons biography. They add quite a bit of heft to his article.
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sturgess66
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Ottawa, Ontario - December 7, 2012

Post by sturgess66 »

‏@ScotiabankPlace PIC: Great image of Leonard Cohen performing tonight @ScotiabankPlace. Photo courtesy @SENSphoto. pic.twitter.com/cZPCIP0b
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sturgess66
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Ottawa, Ontario - December 7, 2012

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Some comments from Twitter. Not from forum members (although some *could* be) - but they are real people/fans at the show.
@cohenistheman Bank of Canada Governor, future Bank of England Governor casually at a Leonard Cohen concert, no one bothers him. #carney #ottawamoments
@jengilbertis Leonard appears. Standing ovation.
@jengilbertis Leonard Cohen: "I'm just 2 hours down the road... From a good bagel."
‏@miss_beeree Half time @ Leonard Cohen! Why does no one make music like this anymore?! (@justinbieber ) Also, the lights are supa pretty ^_^
@satensteve Leonard Cohen and his band of incredible music makers amaze at Scotiabank place. Top comment heard at the half "nice that it's not so loud"
@Nezchan Only Leonard Cohen can get a standing ovation just for walking on stage...and deserve it!
@OttawaSunDenisA Leonard Cohen is absolutely great tonight. Fabulous setlist and funny too. Just sang Suzanne. Waiting For a Miracle.
Last edited by sturgess66 on Sat Dec 08, 2012 5:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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sturgess66
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Ottawa, Ontario - December 7, 2012

Post by sturgess66 »

From Camp Cohen/Notes From The Road/Joey
Image
Well Mayor, turns out…
He’s a poet and a singer.
I guess he just couldn't stay away .... :D

http://blogs.ottawacitizen.com/2012/12/ ... od-on-him/
Ottawa mayor no fan of Leonard Cohen, and good on him

December 7, 2012. 4:38 pm

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson made the surprising admission on Friday that he’s not a fan of Leonard Cohen. Sacre bleu!

It seems almost blasphemous to express anything but adulation for Canada’s elder statesmen of music, especially on the day when Cohen is performing in Ottawa (he plays Scotiabank Place tonight). Watson knows that, which is why he prefaced his confession on CBC by saying it would probably cost him some public support.

It’s not a big issue — really, who cares whether Watson does or doesn’t like the music of Leonard Cohen? — but it does reveal something about the mayor as a politician. Most politicians, when suddenly faced with a microphone, would instinctively say that they are a fan of Cohen or whichever other popular musician was the subject of the inquiry.

Watson, however, said without hesitation that he’s not a fan. Even if his explanation seemed a tad shallow — he said he can’t figure out if Cohen is a singer or a poet and therefore doesn’t understand the artist’s “shtick” — at least it’s an honest answer.

I can’t recall the last time I heard a politician publicly state a dislike for a beloved, national figure such as Cohen, but many times I’ve heard or read of politicians unconvincingly professing to admire this or that artist. Watson’s response is refreshing.

It’s unlikely to affect Watson’s public support, but if it did it’s more likely to increase than decrease his support. As Cohen sings on his latest album, “Have mercy on me baby, after all I did confess.”

P.S. For the record, I’m a big fan. When Mrs. Big Beat and I got married, our wedding included Cohen’s song Dance Me To the End of Love.
Leonard Cohen plays Scotiabank Place in Ottawa tonight, even without the mayor's adulation. (Canadian Press photo)

Leonard Cohen plays Scotiabank Place in Ottawa tonight, even without the mayor’s adulation. (Canadian Press photo)
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sturgess66
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Ottawa, Ontario - December 7, 2012

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Ottawa Sun -
http://www.ottawasun.com/2012/12/07/leo ... bank-place

[CLICK ON LINK TO SEE A SLIDESHOW OF TWEETS AT THE END]
Leonard Cohen entrances at Scotiabank Place

By Denis Armstrong ,Ottawa Sun

First posted: Friday, December 07, 2012 10:54 PM EST | Updated: Friday, December 07, 2012 11:06 PM EST

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Leonard Cohen Leonard Cohen performs with his band at Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta on November 18, 2012. The singer and poet is on a cross-Canada tour in support of his 2012 album Old Ideas. (IAN KUCERAK/QMI AGENCY)

Back in 2009, at age 74, Leonard Cohen was reluctantly back playing concerts because his longtime manager had stolen $10-million of his savings.

This time around, Cohen seems to be doing it again, but this time it's for the fun and glory, the same fun and glory he had when he rediscovered, or at least came to terms with the joys of playing live concerts on that historic 2009 tour.

If he was good then - his show was voted the top concert in Ottawa that year - he and his band were even better Friday night at Scotiabank Place, a place not really well known for performances as nuanced as Cohen's.

After running onto the stage wearing the same black suit and fedora he wore in 2009, Cohen and his eight-piece band broke the ice with a slow and sexy version of Dance Me to the End of Love, at times Cohen's voice barely above a whisper

"We'll give you everything we've got tonight," he promised before freezing the audience in shocked silence with his shopping list for the apocalypse, The Future, and the more reassuring classic Bird on a Wire, with guitarist Mitch Watkins supplying a lovely solo.

After Everybody Knows and stumbling slightly through Who By Fire, it became apparent that the 78-year-old Cohen looks like he's having a good time.

He flirted with backup singers and longtime muses Sharon Robinson and The Webb Sisters, Hattie and Charley, falling to his knees like someone receiving the Lord.

"Sometimes I stumble out of bed and go to the mirror and say, 'Lighten up, Leonard.' " It was a good chuckle before Ain't No Cure For Love, sung with his warm eyes closed tight. Cohen, who's baritone voice is, at times, so deep and resonant that only dogs can hear him, threw himself into a dramatic monologue on "Amen" from the new album "Old Ideas".

Then, slyly, Cohen would disappear for a moment leaving his angelic Webb Sisters and Sharon Robinson alone to sing Come Healing with fiddler Alexandru Bublitchi, or Cohen singing My Secret Life to Robinson as if reliving a romantic scene together.

My favourite of nearly 200 moments was when a solitary Cohen recited his poem A Thousand Kisses Deep in a hushed whisper as if it were the kind of pillow talk.

Back on his knees, Cohen was summoning up his gospel spirits for a stirring version of There is a Crack in Everything. Then, with the music still playing, Cohen introducing the full band with Javier Mas on 12-string and bandurria, fiddler Alexandru Bublitchi, guitarist Watkins, drummer Rafael Bernardo, bandleader Neil Larsen, and bass player Roscoe Beck. He even thanked the guys running the sound board by name before taking a break. That's class.

After the break and with a discernible twinkle in his eye, Cohen, now at the keyboard, charmed the 9,000 fans with his self-deprecating sense of humour on "Tower of Song ". If he keeps this crooner shtick up, it won't be long until Cohen's playing Vegas.

But the mood quickly turned reverential when he strapped on the guitar and started singing Suzanne with Bublitchi playing a gorgeous violin solo. That was a ground-zero Cohen circa 1967 moment.

Waiting For a Miracle, The Partisan and Robinson singing Alexandra Leaving with Cohen standing in the dark, listening.

Then, it was put the fedora back on tease the girls with a particularly assertive version of I'm Your Man to get one of the biggest ovations of the night. But Cohen was saving his best, or at least his most popular for last. Hallelujah and Take This Waltz.

Nearing three hours on stage and still no sign of slowing down. But I wasn't complaining. This gypsy music, beautifully performed, articulate but not loud, and Cohen singing away as if he was in Paris or Berlin after the war was enough to conjure a most romantic concert. I could have listened to him all night.

I have to admit I had reservations about seeing Cohen inside an arena as large as Scotiabank Place but in the end, it didn't matter. Cohen made the place feel intimate and warm, and hearts feel ready to burst. He's still one of the best.

denis.armstrong@sunmedia.ca
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Ottawa, Ontario - December 7, 2012

Post by thermoman »

Three hours + of rapturous new arrangements of Leonard's old and new songs left the mostly grey haired crowd leaving an arena invigorated and believing that they are still young at heart. The old man still has the magic to make us feel young at heart. The musical arrangements have been modified from the last tour and they work very well with all his old and new tunes. Gone are the horns and in with the strings. They create a more melodic tone that feels like a more aged bottle of wine that keeps getting better and more interesting as it ages. We all expect the olden goodies to go to comfortable places in our minds and heart. For me it was the excitement of hearing his new material and covers of others which made the concert vibrant and exciting to witness.

Another absolutely great concert from a Class A list of great musicians and the master of the golden voice.
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Ottawa, Ontario - December 7, 2012

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Thank you for your report thermoman - the first words from someone who was actually at the concert! I look forward to hearing from others, hopefully with the setlist, as the day goes on.

Wendy
Last edited by Mabeanie1 on Sat Dec 08, 2012 4:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Ottawa, Ontario - December 7, 2012

Post by gardencat »

Leonard was so wonderful last night! He sang La Manic for us. He closed the last (third) encore with Save the Last Dance for Me and of course we all promised to do that. It was different than November 28th in Montreal but at least as good. It was 3 3/4 hours of magic. I sat near the stage entrance/exit and he waved to us each time he danced off the stage. Again he made a huge hockey arena seem like a small intimate club.

I brought a friend who did not know him or his work and she is completely enraptured. Those around me were of all ages and were so impressed with his work and his show. His musicians were in top form last night and the solos were excellent and creative. He named the stage techs this time in addition to the sound and light crew--an amazing gentleman!
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Ottawa, Ontario - December 7, 2012

Post by Mollydog »

What an amazing concert! I don't think I've ever seen Leonard looking quite so relaxed. I really think he would have gone on all night if he could. First I thought Closing Time was the last song but we were lucky to have I Tried To Leave You. Then I was sure that must be the end when he launched into Save the Last Dance For Me! He was very funny (as usual). After the intermission he said something like "Thank you for not going home. Thank me for not going home; I'm just two hours down the road from a good bagel!".

Mary
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sturgess66
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Ottawa, Ontario - December 7, 2012

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More from the Ottawa Citizen -
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/entertainm ... story.html

[Click on link to see 26 pictures]
Cohen Refuses To Get Old

Legendary artist wows crowd with near-perfect show

By Lynn Saxberg, The Ottawa Citizen December 8, 2012

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Defying his 78 years, Leonard Cohen put on an outstanding concert with his Unified Heart Touring Band at Scotiabank Place on Friday night.
Photograph by: Jean Levac , Ottawa Citizen/Postmedia News

The deeply resonant voice and downtempo songs of Leonard Cohen have left many a listener wallowing in misery over the last four decades. But at Scotiabank Place on Friday, the legendary Canadian turned despair into catharsis for a rapt audience of about 9,000 fans.

For starters, imagine our surprise when the 78-year-old made his entrance with a spring in his step and apparently unlimited mobility. He sunk to his knees to sing, or rather, purr, in that sub-zero register of his, as if lowering the elevation of his body would facilitate the depth of his vocals. Neither his knees nor his voice would betray him for the next three hours.

Without question, it was a magnificent concert. On a stage warmly decorated with exotic carpets and white curtains, there was the illusion of elegance in the cavernous hockey arena. At centre stage, the suave Montreal native was flanked by his band, nicknamed the Unified Heart Touring Band, which consists of three backing singers, Sharon Robinson and the Webb Sisters, Charley and Hattie, and three stringed-instrument players, with a rhythm section and keyboardist bringing up the rear.

In his suit, tie and hat, the grandfatherly Cohen looked as good as he sounded, and his band was impeccable, their tasteful playing underscoring the melodic nature of his songs. To open the show, the singer-songwriter-poet reached back a few years for the classic, Dance Me To The End of Love, featuring brilliantly subtle flamenco-style guitar work by one of the three string players in the band.

The title track to his 1992 album, The Future, swung, despite its bleak imagery, while Bird On a Wire captured a bygone era with vintage organ licks and evocative guitar work. The 1988 nugget Everybody Knows was superb, following by the lovely Who By Fire, which featured a stretch of delicate plucking, first by the player of an oud-like instrument and then by the bassist.

Cohen addressed the audience fondly, and showed a self-deprecating sense of humour when he told himself to lighten up, offering Ain’t No Cure For Love as an early attempt to brighten the mood. But he also took great care with his best-known songs, as displayed in wonderful renditions of Suzanne, I’m Your Man, Hallelujah and First We take Manhattan, to the delight of the predominantly grey-haired audience.

Of course, since it is a world tour to celebrate Cohen’s 12th studio album, Old Ideas, the most successful of his lengthy career, he was obligated to include at least a few songs from the 2012 release. The setlist included the moody Darkness, the velvety Amen and the deliberate Come Healing, which was coloured by the gorgeous violin playing.
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen
MaryB
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Ottawa, Ontario - December 7, 2012

Post by MaryB »

The title in the article says 'near perfect', yet I couldn't detect anything in what was written to keep it from being a 'perfect' show.
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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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Ottawa, Ontario - December 7, 2012

Post by Tchocolatl »

Why all those politicians can't really be fans of Leonard Cohen? Just because one is saying that he is not? Small evidence if this is one. They can't always go around with mouthfuls of lies, to begin with. Being human, they failed like everybody else, from time to time, and they can let go a little white truth or two by inadvertence, once in a while, 8) and on the other hand, it seems rather plausible to me that he can touch (such) perfect (honorable) buddies with his (master) mind. That they are using this truth - or anything else - in order to do good to they popularity is an entire other matter.

Another before-concert-article that I find interesting.

http://www.ottawasun.com/2012/12/05/hal ... -be-filled

Thanks to people here who writes their comments!! :D Just great to read.
***
"He can love the shape of human beings, the fine and twisted shapes of the heart. It is good to have among us such men, such balancing monsters of love."

Leonard Cohen
Beautiful Losers
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