new poster to the forum here, so go easy on me
. I'd like to share my feelings of the Lucca gig, if for no other reason than that I promised one one forum member at the gig that I would... Seeing mountains does the funnies to me (makes me all poetic), and the text below came from Lucca...
The setting, the venue, could not have been more beautiful and more "tuning-to-the-mood-for-leonard" than it was. The dark blue velvet sky, the statue on the middle of the piazza, the occasional aerial effect of pigeons flying and leaves blown by the gentle summer wind over the audience. And myself in Italy for the first time, doing my best to keep good company to four lovely ladies (
to the party of five mentioned by happygirl), which did really affect my mood... in the most positive way imaginable.Yes... the first 3 songs were marred by organizational issues. 'nuff said on this forum already.
The first cold shivers crawled their merry way up and down my spine at the first beats of "Who by Fire".
And they just wouldn't go away afterwards.
Songs that had not moved me too much (only in comparison to other LC songs, that is) before suddenly filled my conciousness with new ideas. I'd been a fan of the modern, wistful, slightly-sarcastic-but-nonetheless-optimistic LC for about 11 years now. I'd been a fan of the outsider and the commentator of the late 80's and the early 90's. "I'm Your Man" and "The Future" had been Cohen for me.
Now "Hallelujah", "Gypsy's wife", "If it be your will"... and many more impacted me in strange and beautiful ways. I learned to appreciate the music of Leonard Cohen all over again.
Was fantastic to meet other fans at the forum members meeting before and after the show, thanks to everyone.
During the interval, three words filled my mind: Dove sta memora. "Where the memory resides", or, the place were emotion is at one with intellect... that place might as well be called "Leonard Cohen-land".
The set was simply too perfectly crafted - more than half the time I felt like I just knew what was coming next (had not read any setlists of the tour!), on the few songs that I did not know, I could feel the lyrics, could know the next line... too much to put down to simple synchronities. That was Leonard exerting his persona, his influence on the crowd, and me. That was place, the mindscape, away from the "darkness and chaos" of the world, as LC so eloquently put it.
Helsinki gig next, and while I do not dream that the setting could be even half as good, there's one request: volume, up, up, up and then some
Mille grazie, signor Cohen. Your words and your voice are in my pulse, my heart, my breath.
Ville
*edit*
was I the only finn there?
