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OH MY GOD! I think I just died. Look at this news!

freydis

By freydis,
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freydis Newbie

freydis

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Detroit

Sat, May 9. Lowest ticket pricing around 50 bucks! A STEAL!

Chicago

May 5th, lowest pricing aroung 55 bucks. STILL A STEAL!

HOLY CRAP.

i didnt even know he was still alive..... he's 74. And still going strong, according to articles like this one:

Mr. Cohen, 74, left little room for disappointment in a show that lasted just over three hours (with an intermission) and featured more than two dozen songs. The evening doubled as a preview, coming with the eagerly anticipated announcement of a North American tour this spring. (The tour includes a stop at Radio City Music Hall on May 16.) Mr. Cohen began his return to the road last year, with a slew of dates in Europe and his native Canada; one of them yielded “Live in London,” an album and DVD due out next month from Columbia.

The rigors of performing have reinvigorated Mr. Cohen, whose trademark black suit and fedora conveyed a somber chic. He literally skipped offstage at the end of each half, and after each of his several encores. He sashayed back on, with the slyest of grins. And his voice, that grave and inflexible instrument, occasionally escaped its granitelike restraints. On “Chelsea Hotel #2,” one of the best-received songs of the night, he sang with the resonant candor of his younger self, though that moment was brief and bittersweet.

Comforts are fleeting in Mr. Cohen’s songs, and contradictions are eternal. He was unsparing with his song choice, delving early on into “The Future” (“I’ve seen the future, brother/It is murder”) and savoring the sting of “Everybody Knows” (“Everybody knows that you’ve been faithful/Ah, give or take a night or two”). He fleshed out a liturgical cadence on “Who by Fire,” sounding grim; on “Famous Blue Raincoat,” an encore, he struck a complicated but familiar chord of contempt, compassion and self-pity.

Mr. Cohen’s backing ensemble, led by the bassist Roscoe Beck, matched these songs to a warm, gauzy glow, muting all textures. If anything the band was too polished, evoking smooth jazz and the more homogenized strains of world music. (It should be noted that the flamenco-tinged flourishes by Javier Mas, on bandurria and laúd, were more palatable than the ardently cloying solos by Dino Soldo, on saxophones.) When most of the group dropped out for an austere “Suzanne,” with Mr. Cohen on acoustic guitar, the effect was salutary: suddenly there was flow in the music, a feeling of breath and fluctuation.

But Mr. Cohen, like anyone else who isn’t João Gilberto, would have struggled to cast that spell over the course of the concert. He needed the band for atmosphere as well as support. And what he got from his backup singers, Sharon Robinson and the Webb Sisters, was abidingly deep: their airy harmonies offset Mr. Cohen’s sepulchral tone.

Ms. Robinson, a longtime collaborator of Mr. Cohen’s, also sang a solo feature, “Boogie Street,” with authority. The Webb Sisters had their own moment, claiming “If It Be Your Will” as an ethereal Celtic ballad, with Hattie Webb on harp and Charley Webb on acoustic guitar. (This week they released an EP on StratArt, “Comes in Twos,” which contains that arrangement.)

That was one of a handful of songs with philosophical overtones, befitting Mr. Cohen’s experience as a Zen Buddhist monk. The strongest in this vein was “Anthem,” which he prefaced with an allusion to troubled times; a joke about his medications (he mentioned a litany of name-brand antidepressants); and a quip about how he tried a course of religious study, but “cheerfulness kept breaking through.” Then came the song, and its chorus:

Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack, a crack in everything

That’s how the light gets in.

Mr. Cohen sang these words with a kind of gracious generosity. Then he introduced everyone onstage, with practiced eloquence. And before dashing into the wings to end the first half he stood for a moment, hat in hand, awash in wild applause.

Leonard Cohen’s Beacon Theater concert will be broadcast at nprmusic.org/music on Thursday. Tickets for his tour go on sale Friday at leonardcohen.com.

THREE HOURS.

DAMN.

Edited by munin218
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freydis Newbie

freydis

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FUCK. Wish this was going on while Wreck's here. :X

*still*..... is there anything more quintessentially moody and grey than Leonard Cohen? I dont even know if I'll be able to get to either location on those dates. I am chomping at the bit.... I really, really wanna go.

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LuluVox Newbie

LuluVox

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Well gosh, of course he's still alive!! Can't you just feel it?

Still. I never thought he'd actually tour a town near me, let alone Detroit!

I AM STILL FREAKING OUT ABOUT THIS NEWS! :happydance :happydance :happydance

You don't even know.

OMG SO EXCITED!!!!!!!

And happy to see that other people are flipping out about this, too! Yay!!!!

Needless to say...I WILL BE THERE. Oh yes. I will be there. I have waited such a long time for this.

Edited by LuluVox
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freydis Newbie

freydis

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Well gosh, of course he's still alive!! Can't you just feel it?

Still. I never thought he'd actually tour a town near me, let alone Detroit!

I AM STILL FREAKING OUT ABOUT THIS NEWS! :happydance :happydance :happydance

You don't even know.

OMG SO EXCITED!!!!!!!

And happy to see that other people are flipping out about this, too! Yay!!!!

Needless to say...I WILL BE THERE. Oh yes. I will be there. I have waited such a long time for this.

....and to hear he is still in *excellent* form? And a THREE HOUR show???????

*dies*

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freydis Newbie

freydis

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The lower cost tix are now sold out...

Damn I'm glad I forgot to bring Me cash today.. Which made Me decide to get them online...

Me ditzyness actually worked in me favor this time :rolleyes:

:cry

fuckfuckfuck......

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Rev.Reverence Newbie

Rev.Reverence

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The lower cost tix are now sold out...

Damn I'm glad I forgot to bring Me cash today.. Which made Me decide to get them online...

Me ditzyness actually worked in me favor this time :rolleyes:

:jamin

Where are we sittin'?

I gotta' figure out how brightly I need to dress so that Lenard HAS to wave at me..

..but will not be BLINDED by my brilliance....

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Oh_My_Goth Newbie

Oh_My_Goth

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:jamin

Where are we sittin'?

I gotta' figure out how brightly I need to dress so that Lenard HAS to wave at me..

..but will not be BLINDED by my brilliance....

Gallery B

3rd Level

Kinda far away, but still decent.. i can show you a layout when I get home, or you can go to the Fox web site

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