Garada
April 8th, 2009, 10:23 PM
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/Leonard_Cohen_2187-edited.jpg
So my beautiful and thoughtful lady took me to see the legendary Leonard Cohen at San Diego's historic Copley Symphony Hall last night.
I've been a fan of Leonard Cohen's music for quite a while now [over a decade], but I first became aware of him through a collection of covers on the tribute album 'I'm Your Fan', which I initially bought because of an exclusive Pixies song [they cover 'I Can't Forget]. My love of Leonard Cohen grew and grew as I fully realized the influence he had on other musicians that I love, especially Nick Cave.
Apparently, the almost 75 year old singer was ripped off by his former business manager and has been forced to go back on tour after an almost 15 year break from touring.
I must say, time has not diminished his voice one bit. Cohen is surprisingly spry for a dude in his 70s, and he performed for close to 3 hours [!!!]. He and his band did about a dozen songs, and just when I thought it was over, he told us that they'd be back after a brief intermission for the second half of the show. They played about a dozen more songs, then gave us 7 encore songs.
Amazing.
My only complaint would be that some of the arrangements were a bit 'cheesy', but this was almost 100% due to the guy playing the woodwinds, who added a 'smooth jazz', Kenny G vibe to the show that I certainly didn't dig. But even that couldn't diminish the power of Cohen's voice and the quality of his songs.
Highlight: Tower Of Song [performed with only 2 background singers and a Casio keyboard playing a silly loop]
Bummer: He didn't perform my all-time favorite Cohen song, 'Avalanche'. They also didn't do 'The Miracle', which some folks may know from the Natural Born Killers soundtrack. :cry:
So my beautiful and thoughtful lady took me to see the legendary Leonard Cohen at San Diego's historic Copley Symphony Hall last night.
I've been a fan of Leonard Cohen's music for quite a while now [over a decade], but I first became aware of him through a collection of covers on the tribute album 'I'm Your Fan', which I initially bought because of an exclusive Pixies song [they cover 'I Can't Forget]. My love of Leonard Cohen grew and grew as I fully realized the influence he had on other musicians that I love, especially Nick Cave.
Apparently, the almost 75 year old singer was ripped off by his former business manager and has been forced to go back on tour after an almost 15 year break from touring.
I must say, time has not diminished his voice one bit. Cohen is surprisingly spry for a dude in his 70s, and he performed for close to 3 hours [!!!]. He and his band did about a dozen songs, and just when I thought it was over, he told us that they'd be back after a brief intermission for the second half of the show. They played about a dozen more songs, then gave us 7 encore songs.
Amazing.
My only complaint would be that some of the arrangements were a bit 'cheesy', but this was almost 100% due to the guy playing the woodwinds, who added a 'smooth jazz', Kenny G vibe to the show that I certainly didn't dig. But even that couldn't diminish the power of Cohen's voice and the quality of his songs.
Highlight: Tower Of Song [performed with only 2 background singers and a Casio keyboard playing a silly loop]
Bummer: He didn't perform my all-time favorite Cohen song, 'Avalanche'. They also didn't do 'The Miracle', which some folks may know from the Natural Born Killers soundtrack. :cry: