Leonard Cohen at The Rose Garden Theater of the Clouds Overall▪ I am reluctant to ever go to a sho
Leonard Cohen at The Rose Garden Theater of the Clouds Overall ▪ I am reluctant to ever go to a show at The Rose Garden but it’s L.C. and who knows if he’ll tour again. ▪ Thanks Kink for the tickets! ▪ More 50something+ fedora wearing grey haired men than ever imaginable. ▪ I was excited to read on the tickets, “On stage promptly at 8pm”. I am not an old man but I do enjoy performance punctuality…what can I say? Saw a medical emergency during intermission. ▪ Craziest factoid whilst confirming L.Cohen’s age: His daughter’s baby daddy is Rufus Wainwright. An attempt to create a Canadian musical super-child? Leonard Cohen ▪ The show did in fact begin promptly at 8. ▪ Leonard ran onto stage. He is 78. ▪ He and the whole band were well suited topped with fedoras, the back up ladies too sans the caps. ▪ My expectations were high and he came through. His voice was even deeper than recordings it speaks the sound of his tales and his years. ▪ No lack of passion or sex in this ol’ man’s performance spending much of his time on his knees(no problem getting up or down) singing and speaking his intense poetry. ▪ Playing a large amount of what everyone wanted/needed to hear (“So Long Marianne”, “Suzanne”,“Take This Waltz”, “Tower of Song”,“Bird on the Wire”) until the back up singers went into an adult contempo gospel hoedown. I could have done without that! Respectfully, all fantastic musicians, his collaborator and the Webb sisters to name a few. L.C. tipped his hat to each as the soloed. ▪ Odd note, A was at Brandi Carlile while I was at this show. She covered “Hallelujah”. Of course, he sang it later as well! ▪ So lucky to have seen him. Certainly one of the most important musicians I will ever see. He’s not a washed up rocker- a wise cynical poet, fantastic at any age…perhaps better with age. In Conclusion I give this show 33 stars. Eight stars for being L.C.(an arbitrary number for almost as many decades as he has lived). One star for the dapper band. One star for the first harpist of the year. Ten stars for playing nearly 30 songs! One star for being a full, long show. Minus one star for sitting at the Rose Garden for three and a half hours. Ten stars for the ‘bucket list’(gawd I hate that term)performance factor. Three stars for truly putting on an outstanding show, obviously loving what he’s doing and still having it! Sincerely, C -- source link