Also, I took my mom to this show! Two parts of my life that I never thought would meet--family and my taste in music. It seems that's the way with adulthood though; everything that we keep sacred in youth bleeds into the profane. It's better that way.
Leonard Cohen came to town Thursday night, on his tour of Western Canada. He was one of the few elder performers left that I felt I needed to see. Neil Young and Bob Dylan having already passed through, there are few other older acts that I really care to see. I was quite thankful to hear that Leonard was coming. I feared I missed my last opportunity to see him when he last played Toronto about a year ago (I was living in Kingston at the time).
While I had high expectations for the show, I also tempered my hopes. After all, Leonard is pushing 75, playing songs that are either almost 40 years old, or hopelessly 80s-driven. I couldn't help but fear he'd half-ass it, and who could blame him if he did? Bob Dylan sure didn't have a problem phoning his performance in.
The show more than met expectations. Leonard defied his age and silenced any doubters, playing for more than three hours, and oozing such true class and sincerity that you'd swear he'd just penned these songs backstage. I can hardly begin to describe what a pleasure it was to see the man perform. He carries himself in a way that I'm sure many of us only hope to emulate. Surely stealing a page or two from his playbook wouldn't be a bad thing for a lot of us. His band was exceptional, as was the sound that night--if just a bit on the quiet side. Certainly better than being too loud though.
Melissa Martin of the Free Press did her best to capture the evening, and at the very least understood the significance of the performance for those attending, giving the show 5 out of 5 stars.
Over at the Sun, Darryl Sterdan had a slightly different take on the performance. Sterdan's review, which gave the show 4 out of 5, suggested that the sole complaint from the evening was the fact that Cohen's show was almost word for word exactly the same as his previous performances in New York, London, etc.
I don't mean to suggest that anything less than 5 stars would be a slight, and I don't want to come off as a completely unreasonable fan, believing that Field Commander Cohen can do no wrong, but I do take exception to the complaint raised by Mr. Sterdan.
The Sun review (titled Cohen does it again) states:
After all, most arena acts reproduce the exact same set night after night, week after week, month after month. Some bands like KISS do it decade after decade. And while Cohen is a long way from turning into Gene Simmons — now there's a horrible thought — there's no getting around the fact that he's nearing the best-before date on this set.Mr. Sterdan is certainly free to have his opinion on the matter, but he's neglecting to note a key difference between Leonard and most other "arena acts" and KISS especially: Leonard Cohen is a poet. His career has been built not only on his remarkable ability to with language, but on his ability to convey emotion, sentiment, authentic feeling through words especially. The man prides himself on every word that escapes his mouth--and knows well that each of these words will be scrutinized by his audience. It's not just that it's difficult to write unique between-song banter for every city; it's that there is distinct, sometimes quite profound thought that goes into both the order and the setup to each song. To mix it up arbitrarily from night to night would minimize the intended effect--a crime to a poet such as Cohen. The power of a show like this isn't in its spontaneity, it's in the performance, the act, the carefully orchestrated statement, and in this case, the statement was precise.
Beyond even preciseness, the show exhibited something else I wasn't expecting. I've always thought that Leonard wrote remarkable lyrics, and he's done so for years. The music itself, on the other hand, can be hit or miss. The first time I heard Closing Time, I laughed out loud at how terrible it was. Leonard's voice has always been pretty bad too. Anyone who's listened to Bird on a Wire can attest to that, as will Leonard himself. I've always been a fan despite all this, but it was always almost entirely because of the lyrics, the atmosphere, the image his music could create.
Thursday's show got me thinking that perhaps Leonard has finally grown into his lyrics. The songs--songs that are 30+ years old in some cases--sound better, not just musically or vocally, but in their authenticity.
These are songs that have apparently stood the test of time. But they haven't just sustained their meaning. With his sound, and with his presentation, his orchestration, Leonard has added a new level of reflection and understanding to these lyrics. They're no longer coming from a young man with a "crazy dream;" They now come from an elder statesman, who has lived something of what he expounds, and who performs not just thoughts anymore, but perhaps something resembling true, living wisdom through staged yet sincere and empathetic performances.
All this is just to say that Leonard Cohen knows a thing or two about performing, as well as a thing or two about a thing or two, you know?
Rating: 9.94 (a bit quiet! ha!) out of 10, for Lennie, of course
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