Curfews

[Paul Zagreb]

What happened in Amsterdam last night added another brilliant scene - Leonard hugging the clock. It is also perfectly acceptable if LC decides that 4 hour concerts should be the exception rather than the norm. However, it all looked accidental .. only one encore of three songs. The question, then, if curfew times are known in advance, why not start concerts earlier? - say, 7.30 pm in the Amsterdam case. I understand the Verona concert will start at 9 pm ... if the curfew is midnight, this might mean that we get a much shortened concert. I don't want to sound spoilt - even 2.5 hours of Leonard is more than you get at most concerts. In a tour company seemingly marked by brilliant organisation, I was just wondering, that's all.
Paul

[musicmania]

What happened in Amsterdam last night added another brilliant scene - Leonard hugging the clock. It is also perfectly acceptable if LC decides that 4 hour concerts should be the exception rather than the norm. However, it all looked accidental .. only one encore of three songs. The question, then, if curfew times are known in advance, why not start concerts earlier? - say, 7.30 pm in the Amsterdam case. I understand the Verona concert will start at 9 pm ... if the curfew is midnight, this might mean that we get a much shortened concert. I don't want to sound spoilt - even 2.5 hours of Leonard is more than you get at most concerts. In a tour company seemingly marked by brilliant organisation, I was just wondering, that's all.
Paul

If the concerts in Ireland start as they did before at 8pm they will be 3 hours as the Dublin curfew for outdoor concerts is 11pm. However this year Bruce Springsteen wanted to give us his usual long concerts so he started at earlier so I'm guessing Leonard will too. Maybe Amsterdam doesn't allow concerts to start earlier. Or maybe indeed 4 hours will be the exception which given Leonard's age is most certainly acceptable. I don't think I'd ever leave a Leonard concert not satisfied as he always gives us what he can, and if it was a shorter show for whatever reasons so be it!

[jarkko]

In Helsinki the curfew will be 11 pm. That's why the concert begins at 7 pm. Unfortunately this means that half of the concert will be done in daylight. The September weather here and in all Nordic countries is inestimable - it may be a nice late summer evening with 15-16 C, OR the temperature may fall down to some 5 C + heavy rain. Or anything between! That's why I find open air concerts at this time of the year very risky.

[TonVH]

After Dortmund (previous tour), Gent (last week) that both finished at 24:00 (or slightly after) it was a disappointed that Amsterdam (the so called Liberal City) enforced this curfew. It meant that some grat numbers could not be song.

The blame is with the City so certainly not Mr. Cohen.


That said, it was a great show!

[Prospera]

The curfews can be related to public transportation.
With 13.000 visitors who with a 4 hour concert leave at the same moment in the city, that's a logistical problem.

I stayed in a hotel in Amsterdam south. There was one bus/cityliner at 23.47 and the last one left at 00.17.
in each bus/liner fits about 50 people.
So I left early during his last song, hoping to fetch the 23.47 bus.

A few extra busses/liners were heading Central station and another busy busline.
But the place outside is just too small to harvest so many people.
Ofcourse extra shuttle busses to the parkingplace in the Rai.
just googlemap on Stadionplein Amsterdam and see how small it is.

This was the first concert in the Olympic stadium since 8 years.
Being there and seeing the infrastructure/transportationlimits I can understand that the concert has had this curfew.
I think Amsterdam has solved the problem very well.
Luckily many dutch from Amsterdam have bikes

After midnight during the week there's limited transportation (night shift).
13.000 people is a lot in half an hour to transport at a triple bus/metrostop!

Anyway, I loved the ride with him, the Webbsisters were like angels, he joked, kneeled a lot, I thought 'ouch those old bones'.
He learned us a lesson in dignity, having so much respect for his fabulous team and for the public.
Wonderful things happened.

I sat on the fourth row, right in the middle!
Wish I could attend the concert once more.

[TonVH]

I am afraid the reason for the curfew is not intelligent thinking c.q. because of transportation.

In Gent there was no public transportation in the direct vicinity at all. The only transportation was to the large parking place in the vicinity of the city and people staying overnight and no car had to walk about 20 minutes to find a taxi.


So I do not think that Amsterdam deserves any credit for the curfew but Leonard deserves all the credits for compressing his performance.

[musicmania]

In Helsinki the curfew will be 11 pm. That's why the concert begins at 7 pm. Unfortunately this means that half of the concert will be done in daylight. The September weather here and in all Nordic countries is inestimable - it may be a nice late summer evening with 15-16 C, OR the temperature may fall down to some 5 C + heavy rain. Or anything between! That's why I find open air concerts at this time of the year very risky.

Hopefully our concerts will start at 7pm too but whenever they start I won't be complaining! Our weather can be four seasons in one day on any given day in the year but I agree outdoor concerts at this time can be risky here too. Hopefully the weather won't be bad for any of the concerts!

[Murphy575]

^^ to me the Gent concert seemed fine. I stayed in the Holiday Inn Gent Expo. It was cheap and it was nice, and this carpark you speak of was on the other side of the road, so it turned out perfect, we simply crossed the road and got on the free shuttle bus (although it was incredibly hot but that's another issue entirely)

Those I spoke to seemed to be staying in the local area (ie they said "I am walking to the concert" or "I am staying at the Expo" or "I live 20 mins drive away" or something like those answers) however you are correct, I doubt there was any public transport if you do not fit into any of those categories, we where simply lucky (I didn't now about this carpark shuttle bus thing until we got there and saw an advert for it while driving in to Gent).


I though the curfew was because of noise regulations...

[Prospera]

I am afraid the reason for the curfew is not intelligent thinking c.q. because of transportation.

In Gent there was no public transportation in the direct vicinity at all. The only transportation was to the large parking place in the vicinity of the city and people staying overnight and no car had to walk about 20 minutes to find a taxi.


So I do not think that Amsterdam deserves any credit for the curfew but Leonard deserves all the credits for compressing his performance.

Indeed he does, but Gent and 13.000 in A'dam is a difference.

[Paul Zagreb]

Gent was, reportedly, 8,000 people a night! Having just seen Joey's setlist on Notes From the Road it reinforces my sense that there was no clear awareness of the curfew until too late ... the encores were considerably cut back from what was planned I think.

[tomsakic]

I believe that the Amsterdam start was announced months in advance on tickets and that LC realised it's 2330 curfew, not 00:00, only later or when he arrived...

I don't know about Verona, but show in Lucca in 2008 ended 40 minutes after midnight, and Venice was also after midnight if I recall well.

EDIT: I think that the setlist picture proves it was in the last moment...

[musicmania]

I've just checked and there is no start time on the Dublin tickets. It only says doors open at 4pm so that definitely leaves plenty of time for an earlier start.

[TipperaryAnn]

It only says doors open at 4pm so that definitely leaves plenty of time for an earlier start.

Hope so, Gwen - it would be sad if Dublin got a whole hour less than Ghent !

[Mabeanie1]

EDIT: I think that the setlist picture proves it was in the last moment...

Odd that because people in the audience knew that there was a 11.30 pm curfew well before the show.

Wendy

[Mazal]

Last night at the second Amsterdam concert, curfew time was extended for an extra 15 min. Very happy & grateful that the concert didn't end so abruptly and that we got to enjoy the show including LC's blessings. Looking back at two magical concerts here in Amsterdam. Very much in awe again of LC!