gaby&paul wrote:Obviously this thread needs to be revitalized. Just returned home from the first Paris concert. Again it was a great evening as for Leonard`s performance and the intimicy of the venue. On the other hand during the whole show we again found ourselves deeply missing Dino and Bob, imagining how perfect this evening would have been with the old band line-up. We have to admit we´re still not accustomed to the "new sound" (and as it seems we never will). In fact yesterday evening we found the violin highly disturbing, appreciating every interval it was not heard. As we mentioned in a previous post it does not concern Alex, who certainly is a virtuous player, but the violin sound on the long run was obtrusive and far too much dominating. For our taste there were only few songs where the violin fitted to ("Dance Me To The End Of Love", "Going home"), while a lot of other songs were close to be ruined by the new arrangement (e.g. "Sisters Of Mercy", "The Darkness"). Maybe it was not representative but we also had the impression that Javier´s stage presence has in a way "faded" and was not as perceptable as in the old line-up. Beside the violin he obviously did not have the space to unfold, and violin AND bandurria in our ears rather compete than complement each other. We never had this feeling in the former interactions between Javier and Dino. In former post we could read about the perfect unit between Mitch, Alex and Javier, sparking off each other. Yesterday we were far away from perceiving something like that. The right wing of the stage rather seemed to be depressive in a subtle way, the three protagonists without any apparent contact.
Hopefully expecting Dino´s (and Bob`s) return to the UHTC,
Gaby & Paul
So in all seriousness and in the way you talk about the old band (old band being from 2008-10) as the one band that you like to see with Leonard, then can I ask you, was 2008 the first time you took to LC?
I ask this because to some of us, the band sound was different to any previous tours, namely Dino Soldo. Although I was not greatly put out by Dino playing in the band, indeed on occasion his playing was very good but it was not what I had come to expect from seeing a LC gig. The Violin has played a large part in Leonard's history and after the violinist booked for the last tour said they could not commit to a lengthy tour (sorry I would have to look up who it was to be) I wondered how the band would sound without a violinist. Well I have to say I really did miss the violin but Dino did take the opportunity to show off his undoubted talent and of course LC allowed him to, as he does others in the band, to show those attributes off but somehow to me, it wasn't what an LC band is all about.
As for the three on the right not doing it for you, well of course it's all about one's own musical taste, those three are much more to me what a Leonard Cohen backing band is about and I do get the feeling that those that believe Dino should come back, were not fans of LC much before the last tour because if they were, they would recognise that on LC tours, apart from always having exemplary instrument playing members, it was him and his choice of backing singers that many were interested in because at the end of the day, it is the words we want to hear, the songs that are steeped in history, how many people have shed a tear for those words in the songs that for some, he first sung some 45 years ago and to hear them now is just incredible.
I would miss Roscoe, Javier, Neil, Rafael and a violin player but others may come and go but there is just one person we go to see and as long as he has good backing singers and for goodness sake, of course he would! (mine as some people may know are Julie and Perla) but Sharon and the Webb Sisters are fine by me and no, I do not miss Dino because he is so very recent in LC history and his style of playing for me, sorry it was just not what I honestly wanted to see on an LC tour.
PS. After the Sunday night gig at Wembley, several of us though that that nights version of Sisters of Mercy was amongst the best we had ever hear him sing. As I say, musical tastes differ, I wonder if you have seen enough, or heard enough older "stuff" to know how the Sisters of Mercy sounds best?
Anyway, of course you are entitled to your opinion and so is anyone else and as long as people want to offer their views, then they should be allowed to do so.
I guess it all started for me sometime around Christmas 1967 and now, goodness me, it's.........2018 and over fifty years later.
No one ever listens to me. I might as well be a Leonard Cohen record.
Neil from The Young Ones