Yes a fantastic night last night in Dublin despite the chilly weather and rain but as others have said we were captivated by the man.He looked really happy and relaxed and some wonderful moments-the group singing of 'So long Marianne'- the beauty of 'If it be your will' and just the general feeling.
Never saw any problems except a cross guy having a go at a perfectly ok guy for being a bit merry.Everyone otherwise very friendly and just mesmerised by being in the presence.Out doors will have a different atmosphere-so heres loking forward to Manchester and then the 02.
Enjoy every moment....
He seemed to have trouble with his tickets an a young security guy didnt seem to have a clue what to do, so perhaps he was put in the wrong seat. Was that colin farrel jumping around like a mad thing in a white jacket in the second row ?
I don't know i didn't see anyone in a white jacket there was a bloke with collar length hair, quite wavy who came and sat with the Bono family for a while but the next time i turned around they were all gone. There were quite a lot of faces there weren't there? I have just looked at a photo of colin farrell on imdb and it does look like the bloke i saw so very possibly. The guy I saw was larking about a bit and laughing quite crazily
"I needed so much, to have nothing to touch - I've always been greedy that way"
I'm a 55 year old married woman and should know better but last night - last night I fell in love with a 73 year old man.
From the moment he stepped on stage and thanked us for sitting inthe rain (what rain?) and for being cold and called us "friends" - and that didn't sound fake or phoney because it wasn't - I was lost.
"Dance Me to the End of Love" began the love affair between Man and Audience. His voice is as deep and resonant and beautiful as I have ever heard.
Through song after song he frequently and fondly name-checked the band - Alex Larson on keyboards, the Webb sisters, Dino, Raphael--- and of course the incomparable Sharon Robinson. "Back on Bogie Street" is a voice-match made in Heaven.
"Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in"
Wit, wisdom, the throwing up of lovely words and singing them as they fall - and always that subtle, self-deprecating erotic underlay.
With his poem "A Thousand Kisses Deep" the only thing you could hear was many thousand people listening.
Behind me a young couple half my age knew every word, beside me a woman of my vintage was misty-eyed and smiling - that's how a lover leaves you.
As we left, enriched, seduced, bowled over, our admiration ran deep - about a thousand kisses deep.
You know what they say - there ain't no cure for love. Thankfully.
Last Friday I attended my first ever Leonard Cohen concert and what a magical experience it was...Leonard had the audience in the palm of his hand from the opening bars of "dance me" to the last note of "I tried to leave you" with everything in between absolute perfection especially "Boogie Street" "Anthem" and "That don`t make it junk".....Leonard has charisma in abundance and oozes genuine warmth with his audience. I enjoyed meeting Catherina and Eileen (strangers before the show, but friends 3 hours later)...I hope to travel to my second Leonard Cohen show later this summer.
Marie E Nolan wrote:Worshipping at the Temple of Leonard
What a great weekend I have had... did a triple bill THE most brilliant concerts I have ever been to in my life.
Leonard was superb, what can I say that has not already been said! Do have a look at the video of the Man signing
The Future thanks to my husband Albert, it turned out rather well even if I say so myself.
It did indeed!!! Thanks for that!!!! Particularly glad you captured the "white man dance" the two times it came up in the song!!!
Hamilton Place April 1993, O'Keefe Toronto July 1993, Center in the Square Kitchener June 2nd 2008, Hamilton Place June 3rd 2008, Copps Coliseum, Hamilton May 19th 2009, Labatt's London May 24th 2009, ACC Toronto December 4th & 5th 2012, Labatts London Dec 11th 2012 Copps Coliseum Hamilton April 9 2013 Tower of Song, Centre Bell November 6th 2017
thinking of starting a petition to bring leonard to belfast , we could get gerry adams on board i,m sure. sign here.......... 1 ..........fisherinbelfast
(A fan from Barcelona, travelling to see his favourite poet and singer)
Dear Cohenite friends, here is my chronicle of the long-awaited Friday the 13th in Dublin:
Wake up in the capital of Ireland with the first results of the day before vote which re-affirm the rebel character of the Irish with their NO to the European Treaty... Before the concert, we have a long and intense touristic day before us so in order to gather the required energy we have an acceptable and abundant early meal at our Bed & Breakfast. Once we get going, the first goal is a trip on the railway along the coast to Sandycove where the famous book “Ulysses” by James Joyce also commences and, three days to go before the festivity of Bloomsday, it is a good symbolic point to start. Myself, I was particularly interested in visiting what my guide said to be a nudist small beach (The Forty Foot Pool) and I even had considered skinny-dipping there in order to relax my nervous and euphoric state but the sky was menacing rain and the sea was rocky and getting brave so I resigned this idea... The place was certainly nice and indeed there was a group of old people in the water, but though I do not doubt that is s nudist spot in the good summer days, they were all equipped with their swimming suits and bathing caps. We go back to Dublin downtown and continue our visit to more or less all the typical places and have lunch at a famous and crowded Fish & Chips near the cathedral. Then, I wanted to go to The Brazen Head Pub which was supposed to be the central gathering point of Leonard Cohen fans from all over but at that hour in the afternoon I could not see much activity. Nonetheless, I could drink a fine and authentic Irish Coffee and my first Guinness so as to begin cheering myself up. Afterwards, it was obliged to visit the Guinness Storehouse where the beer itself is made, but sincerily what I was mostly interested in those moments besides the very interesting process of brewery was the house-made drink included in the price of the ticket and the panoramic vista from the seventh floor. Also, in a lower floor, there is a quality testing lab for professionals and also for visitors so on my way up and down, two more glasses of beer I drunk... It was four o’clock and the gates of the venue would open very shortly, so I could not keep from getting more excited and impatient. We took a taxi to the hotel, a quick shower and an attempt at a nap (the famous “siesta” in Spanish) until quarter past five, just when I receive a SMS message from my friends Antonio and Chema: “We have seen Leonard Cohen at the soundcheck!”. I was already late, so we hurried up and meet them all at the entrance. At last I was where I had to be!
The gardens of the Kilmainham Hospital are very nice but certainly bigger than I had suspected. We already knew it was an open-air event but somehow I imagined a kind of smaller courtyard. Not the case, since that was an enormous space surrounded by fences and several bars, parades and pic-nic wooden tables. Our first obsession was the merchandising stand where we bought some of the T-Shirts. I was wearing mine from the previous tour fifteen years ago so it was a good time for it to be replaced. Then let us go for beers, what else, and even a bottle of champagne which we shared all of us, the six of the Catalan brigade. I knew of the English tradition of queuing but it seems it is also rooted here in Ireland or maybe the organizers did not foresee such a demand, but the fact is the queues to buy anything were exasperating. My friend Antonio himself, along with half of the audience, remained in the queue for Chinese food during the whole of Damien Rice performance, the support act. This talented and successful singer-songwriter is one of the young white wonders of the Irish scene but surely that was not his best musical evening. In fact, he was just arrived from a trip to Barcelona (where he attended a Radiohead concert) and the beautiful town of Cadaqués (seeking inspiration for his next album), so maybe this and the vertigo of playing in front of his al-time idol and also the over-dimension of the venue for his solo-acoustic renditions made him a little bit uncertain. He sang four or five of his well-known hits and there was a moment when he began strumming his guitar and confessed “I don’t know what I’m doing, any requests?”, and then finally finished off quickly given the tight schedule (“I only have two minutes left so it will have to be half a song this one...”). Anyhow, he was playing home and the audience rewarded him with big applauses and both my friend Eva and the Irish girl on my other side were fans in tears, and it would be a dream for me to be on that very stage. It was almost eight o’clock and still full daylight. It seemed kind of strange for me to see Cohen live in concert without darkness and spotlights, and when he stepped in I very unceremoniously found myself still buying my dinner of Chinese rice with curry. But in a matter of seconds, when I could clearly see the Man in the big screen and his 73 years hidden underneath the suit and fedora, I could not refrain my first cheers of emotion. The time had come and Leonard himself had no time to lose so, after the trademark smiles and bows, he got on his duty: “What a beautiful sky! Ok, friends, let’s get started...”. And that’s how it went:
1st. Part:
---------
Dance Me To The End Of Love
The Future
Ain’t No Cure For Love
Bird On The Wire
Everybody Knows
In My Secret Life
Who By Fire
Anthem
2nd. Part:
---------
Tower Of Song
Suzanne
The Gypsy’s Wife
Boogie Street
Hallelujah
Democracy
I’m Your Man
A Thousand Kisses Deep (Poem)
Take This Waltz
Encores:
------
Waiting For The Miracle
First We Take Manhattan
That Don’t Make It Junk
If It Be Your Will
Closing Time
I Tried To Leave You
Whither Thou Goest
The sound was quite good, even though given the size of the venue I would have preferred more volume so as to concentrate myself on the music and hear less of the background noises. In the mix, Leonard’s deep voice was above anything else and that’s what everybody came to listen to, so I guess the low frequency instruments (bass and drums) were not that present and there prevailed the higher pitch ones (female chorus, Hammond organ and the brilliant guitarrettes of Javier Mas). The female vocalists, including the sublime and angelical Webb Sisters (what a precious rendition of “If It Be Your Will”!), were a perfect response to the lead man but I must affirm that Cohen was in top form, tuning and vocalising each verse with absolute clarity and mastery. It was especially emotional the recitation of the poem “A Thousand Kisses Deep” when the silence was religiously kept by everyone and the sunset and the moon beyond some thin clouds made it for a magical minute leaving everything else behind. The set-list, as you see, held no surprises in comparison to the previous gigs of this tour (for a moment, when he grabbed the guitar before playing “Suzanne” he made some flamenco-style finger-picking that brought to mind “Avalanche”, what a pity) but the set is surely solid and was received with progressive enthusiasm. The uncountable beers also were beginning to take its toll and the proof was that during the brief intermission the general rush to the toilets was epic, and this time many people (gentlemen and ladies too) decided to skip the queues and proceed with their evacuations facing or backs to the limiting fences and trees. Towards the end, it was getting dark at last and a little bit cold but the alcohol level and all the people definitively on their feet and dancing made it up for it. In some songs like “Hallelujah” (a very memorable version sung-along by the ten thousand souls), “I’m Your Man” or “Take This Waltz” people were indeed holding their hands and couples dancing cheek-to-cheek along the corridors between the seats... It’s getting hard for me to extend my review without repeating and repeating the same adjectives because my opinion is totally on the fan-side. So my critic is severely good although I would prefer a more intimate venue for next time and I would ask him please to continue singing “So Long Marianne” (and maybe add some of the songs everybody knows...).
As we left, we did not have the luck to meet Leonard Cohen the man nor any of the musicians in person. But my friend Eva was very happy as we bumped into his admired Damien Rice and we exchanged a few words and he even hug her in a very friendly and generous manner (which could even indicate some hang-over). All in all, as Cohen said “It’s been a privilege to play in this city of great poets and singers” (and I would add “and drinkers...”). We finished the night of that unforgettable day in a nearby pub with some last pints of Guinness and some other glasses of Jameson too, that’s the way it was meant to be. Cheers friends! See you soon, Lenny!!
Last edited by jorcx on Tue Jun 17, 2008 1:23 am, edited 1 time in total.
Barcelona 15th May '93 | Dublin 13th June '08 | Lucca 27th July '08 | London 17th November '08 | Cap Roig 15th August '09 | Barcelona 21st September '09 | Barcelona 3rd October '12
I am a forty-year fan and saw Leonard for the first time in a concert on Friday, second time on Saturday (front row/center), and third time on Sunday.
Leonard is many things: a guru, a poet, a comedian, a musician, a philosopher, a future-foreteller, a spiritual seeker, an entertainer, a recovered hedonist (a Babylon survivor), a ladies man, a "friend" ... I could go on and on.
When Leonard was inducted into the Rock and Roll hall of fame I was uninterested, and a bit mystified by this imputation of Leonard as a "Rock and Roller". I understood after Sunday's concert that Leonard Cohen is definitely a Rock and Roller! That wasn't a Joni Mitchell performance! Leonard had everyone standing and dancing for the last quarter of the Sunday show, including yours truly (and I don't dance!).
I was shocked by his energy, and strength, and warmth, and humility, and kindness, and gentleness. I don't believe this is due to ageing, but that it is due to the fruits of his 30+ years of serious spiritual searching.
The crowd was predictably inebriated, verbal, rebellious and anarchistic, but what do we expect? The concert was in Ireland, attended mostly by Irish people!
Leonard was not too bothered. He was moved by the crowd and expressed his sincere appreciation for the Sunday crowd's performance (and possibly the Dublin crowd generally), saying that he wished he could bring the whole crowd with him to the remaining concerts on the tour. I believed that was a genuine comment, and that he doesn't say that to every concert crowd. Let's see what the other concert-goers report from the UK, Spain, France etc. I will ask my friends in Canada and Montreal if he said anything similar.
Leonard was playing the crowd like an instrument! (or maybe more like a symphony of instruments... drums... horns...violins saxophones etc.)
Leonard in Dublin! I am glad I saw him in Dublin!
Séan
If you become the ocean you will not become seasick....Jikan (aka Leonard Cohen)
It's comin' from the feel that this ain't exactly real, or it's real, but it ain't exactly there! . Jikan
That was something special. I had some high hopes for it, but this was one of those occasions where my expectations were utterly surpassed.
awe inspiring and emotional , the genius, the lyrics , his collaberators. what a night.
I was at the Saturday evening concert! Took me a few minutes to get over the disappointment of my seat, (I was in block A3 EEE), 2nd row from the back, which had me perplexed as i'd been online and had my tickets purchased at 9.02am on the day they went on sale) but once Leonard came on stage, I forgot about what I thought was a crappy seat and was lost in his charm and his voice. What a truly magical experience, my first time to see Leonard live and although I had reservations about the outdoor gig, he was truly AMAZING!!!
Yes, there were unfortunately obnoxious people there, one particular woman, arrived late, drunk, complained of the poor seat she had (behind me, unfortunately for me) and another guy, roaring at the top of his voice on his mobile, but all in all, a wonderful night, an unforgetful experience, his charisma, his charm, his voice ..... I could go on forever!
A lady I passed, had a little baby in a sling, he was 8 months old. I stopped her and said jokingly "definitely the youngest fan here tonight" to which she replied, "nope, I met another mum with a 5 month old baby just a few minutes ago" Just goes to show, Leonard is loved by all, young and old eh?
Thank you Leonard, for giving me the chance to fulfil a lifelong ambition and hear your sweet voice live, I'm forever grateful to you.
fisherinbelfast wrote:thinking of starting a petition to bring leonard to belfast , we could get gerry adams on board i,m sure. sign here.......... 1 ..........fisherinbelfast
2..........confetti
you have to get the chuckle brothers if you get gerry
"I needed so much, to have nothing to touch - I've always been greedy that way"
harriett wrote:
A lady I passed, had a little baby in a sling, he was 8 months old. I stopped her and said jokingly "definitely the youngest fan here tonight" to which she replied, "nope, I met another mum with a 5 month old baby just a few minutes ago" Just goes to show, Leonard is loved by all, young and old eh?
Thank you Leonard, for giving me the chance to fulfil a lifelong ambition and hear your sweet voice live, I'm forever grateful to you.
Harriett, Clare
There were a good few pregnant ladies there too, they win
Just goes to show, Leonard is loved by all, young and old eh?
