Sorry for the long delay, blame it to my boss who keeps thinking, the work has to be done, regardless of the time available...
However, at long last, I have managed to provide a translation of the early concert report I had linked to in a previous posting. It has proven to be quite difficult for me as a non-professional translator to solve all the intercultural and interlingual problems the text offers. So, whenever you feel you don't understand what the critic wants to say, assume it's my translation rather than his text.
http://www.regioactive.de/review/2013/0 ... tPc3d.html
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Concert Report: Leonard Cohen in Mannheim's SAP Arena
by Daniel Nagel, published Saturday, 29 June 2013
(Photo, caption: In Mannheim, Leonard Cohen confirms his reputation as an outstanding live performer/artist)
In front of a sold out audience at SAP Arena, Leonard Cohen again proves why he is counted amongst the great entertainers of our time: Charming and full of humour, he takes us through an epic, yet always entertaining evening of more than three hours, which he also uses to honour a great singer who has passed away only recently.
Some years ago, Leonard Cohen realised that his long-time confidant and manager had emptied his accounts meticulously and only left him a small fraction of his huge possessions. To improve his financial situation, Cohen decided to go back on tour after a fifteen-years abstinence/break.
The financial thoughts might have been important for the decision of a comeback [sic!], but nobody forces Cohen in his regular tours since 2008 to stay on stage for three hours and more. And that happened in Mannheim, too, where he was enthusiastically celebrated by 9,000 in the sold out SAP-Arena.
More than three hours music
Roughly from 20:15 to 23:40, Cohen plays two sets and three encores only with a short break between them; he presented a plethora of classics from all phases of his carreer and some new songs. Of the latter, Going home, with the lines "I love to speak with Leonard / He's a sportsman and a shepherd / He's a lazy bastard / Living in a suit", which were greatly applauded by the audience, had the greatest impact by far.
Apart from that, the evening provides [sic!] many opportunities to get to know all of Cohen's facettes. One can lie in each other's arms with the emotional
So Long, Marianne, one can marvel at the seductive, slightly ironic elegance of
I'm your Man, or one can dive into the darkness of
Tower of Song.
First We Take Manhattan, which still remains enigmatic, showcases Cohen's revolutionary side, while
The Future and
Everybody Knows thematise disgust and disappointment with the world.
As a counterpoint there are the slightly too obtrusive esoterics of
Come Healing and the much celebrated
Lover, Lover, Lover - Cohen's biggest hit in Germany. Additionally, Cohen seizes the opportunity to remind us of the country-singer George Jones, who died in April, with his hit
Choices.
Prominent: Violine and Banduria
Cohen's smoky voice carries even a long concert without obvious problems, especially when it is congenially accompanied by such excellent singers like Sharon Robinson and the Webb sisters. However, during the past months, it seems to have lost some of its volume. It might as well have been the mixed sound, which was generally excellent like usual in the SAP Arena.
The band appeared to fit together very well, and they played soflty and emotionally, yet clearly. The prominently featured violin player Alexandru Bublitchli takes on a very important part, and he is given many opportunities to make use of his Balkenesque style. Cohen's long-time companion Javier Mas plays the Banduria most of the time, while the wind instruments, sometimes used in the beginning of his comeback, are completely absent.
"Are you making fun of me?" [sic!]
As usual, Cohen appears as a charming and entertaining/funny host. Right in the beginning, he thanks the audience in the upper circles for having climbed so hig. Then, he honours the audience in the stalls, to remain fair.
When the audience enthusiastically cheers Cohen's rudementary keyboard playing in
Tower of Song, he answers "Are you making fun of me?" [sic! obviously, the author mistranslates "Are you humouring me", which can be mistaken by a German speaker as literally "are you making humour, i.e., fun with/of me"] and continues to show more of his trick on the keyboard. The following "I was born with the gift of a golden voice" is of course cheered as much.
Unique evening
Despite of all the charme, Cohen should mind too excessive use of some habits. He should not go down to his knees in every song or take his hat off for every solo of his fellow musicians. All that ruins the effect of the gestures and reduces them to an empty posing.
Those whims, however, hardly injure the general effect of the concert. Towards the end of the regular set, the audience storms into the inner circle to the stage to be as close as possible for the encores.
When the swinging
Closing Time is followed by the pensive
I Tried to Leave You, it is the right time to state how infinitely important Leonard Cohen's music is -- then and even more today. One nearly needs to be thankful to his ex-manager -- who knows whether he would be touring and offering these unique experiences to his fans.
Setlist
Dance Me to the End of Love | The Future | Bird on the Wire | Everybody Knows | Who by Fire | Darkness | Choices (Billy Yates cover) | Amen | Come Healing | Lover Lover Lover | Anthem || Tower of Song | Suzanne | Sisters of Mercy | Heart with No Companion | Waiting for the Miracle | The Partisan | Alexandra Leaving (Gesang: Sharon Robinson) | I'm Your Man | Hallelujah | Take This Waltz
Encores:
Encores: So Long, Marianne | Going Home | First We Take Manhattan | Famous Blue Raincoat | If It Be Your Will (Gesang: Webb Sisters) | Closing Time | I Tried to Leave You
).
Now my concert summer is over. 
) I would like to write a few words about the Mannheim show.