CONCERT REPORT: Ft Lauderdale, October 17

October 17 - November 13, 2009. Concert reports, set lists, photos, media coverage, multimedia links, recollections...
ssan
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Ft Lauderdale, October 17

Post by ssan »

Hello all,

I've posted a few pictures from last night on my flickr page. You can check them out at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/h_ssan/set ... 611955238/

I also recorded The Partisan and First We Take Manhattan (video) and I Tried To Leave You (audio) which will be up on youtube in near future.

cheers
ssan
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sturgess66
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Ft Lauderdale, October 17

Post by sturgess66 »

ssan wrote:Hello all,

I've posted a few pictures from last night on my flickr page. You can check them out at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/h_ssan/set ... 611955238/

I also recorded The Partisan and First We Take Manhattan (video) and I Tried To Leave You (audio) which will be up on youtube in near future.

cheers
ssan
Thanks ssan!! Um - number 3 - Dino - just put my neck completely out of joint. Haha! Amazing!!! :lol: :lol:

Looking forward to your video. :D
Rian Fike
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Ft Lauderdale, October 17

Post by Rian Fike »

JSA wrote:Sunrise, Florida (BankAtlantic Center) October 17, 2009

First Set
• Dance Me To The End Of Love
• The Future
• Ain't No Cure For Love
• Bird On The Wire
• Everybody Knows
• In My Secret Life
• Who By Fire (with long Spanish(?) guitar intro)
• Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye
• Waiting For The Miracle
• Anthem (with introductions of band members)

Second Set
• Tower Of Song
• Suzanne
• Sisters Of Mercy
• The Gypsy’s Wife
• The Partisan
• Boogie Street
• Hallelujah
• I'm Your Man
• A Thousand Kisses Deep (spoken)
• Take This Waltz

First Encores
• So Long, Marianne
• First We Take Manhattan

Second Encores
• Famous Blue Raincoat
• If It Be Your Will (Leonard spoken verses, Webb sisters sung)
• Closing Time

Final Encores
• I Tried To Leave You
• Whither Thou Goest (tutti a cappella)

It was just spectacular.
Check out that show. I still have tears in my eyes. I especially loved the drastic shift from the first set to the second. The first was driving bubbling lava, the second soothing soul syrup.

Ahhh...
MaryB
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Ft Lauderdale, October 17

Post by MaryB »

I'm in heaven again with these reviews and tweets (thanks Linda)!

ssan - Thanks for the brilliant photos! The light on Javier is always fantastic and Dino's photo, what can I say, it really captures his essence on stage!
1993 Detroit 2008 Kitchener June 2-Hamilton June 3 & 4-Vienna Sept 24 & 25-London RAH Nov 17 2009 NYC Feb 19-Grand Prairie Apr 3-Phoenix Apr 5-Columbia May 11-Red Rocks Jun 4-Barcelona Sept 21-Columbus Oct 27-Las Vegas Nov 12-San Jose Nov 13 2010 Sligo Jul 31 & Aug 1-LV Dec 10 & 11 2012 Paris Sept 30-London Dec 11-Boston Dec 16 2013 Louisville Mar 30-Amsterdam Sept 20
MaryB
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Ft Lauderdale, October 17

Post by MaryB »

Rian Fike wrote: I especially loved the drastic shift from the first set to the second. The first was driving bubbling lava, the second soothing soul syrup.
I love this!
1993 Detroit 2008 Kitchener June 2-Hamilton June 3 & 4-Vienna Sept 24 & 25-London RAH Nov 17 2009 NYC Feb 19-Grand Prairie Apr 3-Phoenix Apr 5-Columbia May 11-Red Rocks Jun 4-Barcelona Sept 21-Columbus Oct 27-Las Vegas Nov 12-San Jose Nov 13 2010 Sligo Jul 31 & Aug 1-LV Dec 10 & 11 2012 Paris Sept 30-London Dec 11-Boston Dec 16 2013 Louisville Mar 30-Amsterdam Sept 20
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sturgess66
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Ft Lauderdale, October 17

Post by sturgess66 »

Wheeeeeee!

From "mayormyq" on YouTube. Thanks!!

Like - WOW WOW WOW!

Waiting For The Miracle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVdNF5tq294

Who By Fire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l-5NJr7Fgg

Bird on The Wire - beauuuutiful Leonard!!! And Bob Metzger - OMG!!!!!! Dino - :D :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX87x9OB4uk
naf nehoC dranoeL
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Ft Lauderdale, October 17

Post by naf nehoC dranoeL »

sturgess66 wrote:Wheeeeeee!

From "mayormyq" on YouTube. Thanks!!

Like - WOW WOW WOW!

Waiting For The Miracle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVdNF5tq294

Who By Fire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l-5NJr7Fgg

Bird on The Wire - beauuuutiful Leonard!!! And Bob Metzger - OMG!!!!!! Dino - :D :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX87x9OB4uk

This is a brandnew version of Bird on the wire , for me that is !
Thanks for posting this one !
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sturgess66
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Ft Lauderdale, October 17

Post by sturgess66 »

"Who By Fire" and "Waiting For The Miracle" have different arrangements as well - OMG. When oh when did they find the time! Haha! :lol: :lol:

A bit of Hallelujah from "wwlevin" on YouTube -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27daVWJyAYc

And a whole lot of Hallelujah from "wavemaeve"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiPHwsj0VGU
Last edited by sturgess66 on Mon Oct 19, 2009 1:40 am, edited 1 time in total.
sue7
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Ft Lauderdale, October 17

Post by sue7 »

sturgess66 wrote:Wheeeeeee!

From "mayormyq" on YouTube. Thanks!!

Like - WOW WOW WOW!

Waiting For The Miracle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVdNF5tq294

Who By Fire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l-5NJr7Fgg

Bird on The Wire - beauuuutiful Leonard!!! And Bob Metzger - OMG!!!!!! Dino - :D :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX87x9OB4uk
Just amazing, Linda: thanks, as always. So far I've only listened to Bird on the Wire: so incredibly beautiful. They seem to be playing from the center of themselves: hard to believe they could have gotten any better, but they have. And Leonard's voice just gets better and better.
Five nights to go for me, only four for you.
Sue
sue7
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Ft Lauderdale, October 17

Post by sue7 »

Fantastic that 1000 Kisses Deep and The Partisan are both back on the setlist, but I was so looking forward to hearing Lover Lover Lover. It's one of my current favorites. Guess we can't have everything!
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sturgess66
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Ft Lauderdale, October 17

Post by sturgess66 »

From Miami Herald -

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breakin ... 88887.html

(See the link - I'm not sure if that is video - or a series of gorgeous pictures. I couldn't get video to play but I could see the pictures.)
Leonard Cohen Concert: His songs Still Resonate

* Leonard Cohen performs for South Florida

By JORDAN LEVIN
jlevin@MiamiHerald.com

Suzanne and Who By Fire, Zen monk, raconteur, ladies' man and man of faith. But what ultimately matters is the depth of experience he transmits from onstage.

``It's been 15 years since I've been on tour,'' he told the adoring audience Saturday. ``I was 60, just a kid with a crazy dream . . . I've rigorously studied philosophy and religion, but cheerfulness kept breaking through.''

A gaunt lounge lizard in black suit and black fedora over snow white hair, Cohen frequently dropped to his knees or skipped impishly offstage, with an apparent delight that leavened the often profound gravity of his music.

Cohen's voice is now a subterranean foghorn, but with a depth and timbre that makes up for its near monotone lack of range (unfortunately, given an irritating echo on the BankAtlantic Center's sound system). His terrific nine-piece band (which he acknowledged frequently and affectionately), also in black suits and headgear, embedded his songs in a rich, bordering on florid, soundscape: Dino Soldo on jazzy sax, harmonica and clarinet solos; Javier Mas with fluttering, emotional riffs on laud and 12-string guitar; Neil Larson on shimmery Hammond B3 organ; songwriting collaborator Sharon Robinson with Charley and Hattie Webb on soaring, gospelish back-up vocals; and others on bass, pedal steel and drums.

Ah, but the songs. Whether it's the power of Cohen's performance, or hearing them one after the other, they seemed almost endlessly layered with meaning. The romantic illusiveness of songs like Suzanne or Hey, That's No Way to Say Good-bye, which could have been mired in the mostly discredited '60s freedom's-just-another-word-for-nothing-left-to-lose philosophy, were tremendously poignant and evocative.

Cohen's persona is big enough to encompass frank sensuality -- ``if you want a doctor I'll examine every precious inch of you,'' on I'm Your Man -- to the spiritual mystery of Who By Fire, modeled on a Jewish prayer from Yom Kippur, the Day of Repentance.

What radiated most powerfully was Cohen's sense of faith in forces beyond love or music that fill his life and his art.

``I ache in the places where I used to play,'' he sang in Tower of Song. ``But I hear these tiny voices in the tower of song . . . you'll be hearing from me, baby, long after I'm gone.'' On Anthem he urges us, and probably himself, to ``forget your perfect offering, there is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in,'' advice that could be applied to life, faith or music-making. ``I'll stand right here before the lord of song,'' Cohen offered in Hallelujah, ``with nothing on my tongue but hallelujah.''

For Cohen and those who have found his music, that imperfect but full-hearted and full-minded offering has been enough for over 40 years.
This version by Jordan Levin was in the "Living" section today (the one above was in "Breaking News.) A couple of new paragraphs at the beginning of this one.

http://www.miamiherald.com/living/story/1289241.html
CONCERT REVIEW
Leonard Cohen Continues to Deliver Powerful Messages Through Song
BY JORDAN LEVIN
jlevin@MiamiHerald.com

You could certainly call him old school, except that, even at 75, Leonard Cohen is in a class by himself: randy and religious, filled with deep irony and an equally profound sense of faith and wonder.

On Saturday night the poet, musical philosopher and perpetual enigma enthralled an audience that, while made up mostly of his white-haired contemporaries, included various younger generations of the pop-romantic-intellectual faithful, and he did so for three hours and four encores, miraculously turning the cold commercial cavern of the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise into a magical, transformative place.

It would take a book to tell Cohen's story: a true poet (before he ever wrote songs), composer of definitive '60s songs like Suzanne and Who By Fire, Zen monk, raconteur, ladies' man and man of faith. But what ultimately matters is the depth of experience he transmits from onstage.

``It's been 15 years since I've been on tour,'' he told the adoring audience Saturday. ``I was 60, just a kid with a crazy dream . . . I've rigorously studied philosophy and religion, but cheerfulness kept breaking through.''

A gaunt lounge lizard in black suit and black fedora over snow white hair, Cohen frequently dropped to his knees or skipped impishly offstage, with an apparent delight that leavened the often profound gravity of his music.

Cohen's voice is now a subterranean foghorn, but with a depth and timbre that makes up for its near monotone lack of range (unfortunately, given an irritating echo on the BankAtlantic Center's sound system). His terrific nine-piece band (which he acknowledged frequently and affectionately), also in black suits and headgear, embedded his songs in a rich, bordering on florid, soundscape: Dino Soldo on jazzy sax, harmonica and clarinet solos; Javier Mas with fluttering, emotional riffs on laud and 12-string guitar; Neil Larson on shimmery Hammond B3 organ; songwriting collaborator Sharon Robinson with Charley and Hattie Webb on soaring, gospelish back-up vocals; and others on bass, pedal steel and drums.

Ah, but the songs. Whether it's the power of Cohen's performance, or hearing them one after the other, they seemed almost endlessly layered with meaning. The romantic illusiveness of songs like Suzanne or Hey, That's No Way to Say Good-bye, which could have been mired in the mostly discredited '60s freedom's-just-another-word-for-

nothing-left-to-lose philosophy, were tremendously poignant and evocative.

Cohen's persona is big enough to encompass frank sensuality -- ``if you want a doctor I'll examine every precious inch of you,'' on I'm Your Man -- to the spiritual mystery of Who By Fire, modeled on a Jewish prayer from Yom Kippur, the Day of Repentance.

What radiated most powerfully was Cohen's sense of faith in forces beyond love or music that fill his life and his art.

``I ache in the places where I used to play,'' he sang in Tower of Song. ``But I hear these tiny voices in the tower of song . . . you'll be hearing from me, baby, long after I'm gone.'' On Anthem he urges us, and probably himself, to ``forget your perfect offering, there is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in,'' advice that could be applied to life, faith or music-making. ``I'll stand right here before the lord of song,'' Cohen offered in Hallelujah, ``with nothing on my tongue but hallelujah.''

For Cohen and those who have found his music, that imperfect but full-hearted and full-minded offering has been enough for over 40 years.

I am trying to get off this computer. :lol: :lol: :lol:
Last edited by sturgess66 on Mon Oct 19, 2009 3:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Rian Fike
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Ft Lauderdale, October 17

Post by Rian Fike »

sturgess66 wrote:"Who By Fire" and "Waiting For The Miracle" have different arrangements as well - OMG.
It seemed like the entire first set was sparkly fresh like that. We were blown away, to put it lightly.
ladydi
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Ft Lauderdale, October 17

Post by ladydi »

Linda...you constantly amaze me by your ability to find every tweet and every video possible! I have NO idea how you accomplish this! But from the bottom of my heart I thank you! What treasures you present to us! The new arrangements are fabulous and I also wonder how they had the time in less than 3 weeks to work this out. They all had families, loved ones, and committments to be there for...but somehow, there was also time to bring this newness to the setlist! For me, it simply indicates the awesome inner source that Leonard (and others in the band) draw upon to create more levels upon levels upon levels...

Thanks again...so very very much!
Diana
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sturgess66
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Ft Lauderdale, October 17

Post by sturgess66 »

From Sun-Sentinel - another terrific review.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/entertainme ... 9496.story
Leonard Cohen Holds First-ever Florida Concert in Sunrise

By Sean Piccoli South Florida Sun-Sentinel

8:09 p.m. EDT, October 18, 2009

Singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, 75, considered himself a retiree not long ago. He had not planned on the tour that has occupied the last two years of his life: It was a response to the discovery that he was broke, and by now it has probably met its financial goals, or at least lifted him out of poverty.

Add it up, and circumstances point to Cohen's first-ever concert in Florida -- about 40 years in the making -- also being his last. There was an undeniable sense of hello-and-goodbye to the old pop laureate's performance on Saturday night at BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise.

"I don't know when we'll pass this way again," he said early on, "so we're going to give you everything we've got."

What followed was a remarkable performance lasting more than three hours (intermission included), during which Cohen applied his droll personality and low-key grace to a life's worth of music.

Backed by nine players, all skilled and closely attuned to their frontman, Cohen sang more than two dozen of his emotionally eloquent songs, the centerpiece of every one of them being his unusual voice. Cohen's dusky baritone is anything but trained, but in concert it helped give his confessional lyrics the weight of experience -- good, bad and ambiguous.

Inside the slow, soulful waltz of "Bird on the Wire," Cohen managed to sound both rueful and philosophical -- perched between "I'm sorry" and "Oh, well"-- when he sang, "I have torn everyone who reached out for me." His singing was frank, but not without guile.

Cohen's voice had several uses on Saturday. It was a kind of low musical constant -- a steady undercurrent for compositions that ranged across folk, gospel, blues, cabaret, country-western and classical. It exerted a gravitational tug on the winding-staircase melodies of "Hallelujah" and "I'm Your Man," adding tension to both songs.

It had a way of authenticating language that could be considered archaic ("If It Be Your Will") or abstract ("Famous Blue Raincoat"). To create a vocabulary for his spiritual self, his inner life, Cohen has dipped into poetry and scripture, and chosen words that might sound florid and dated in other contexts. Here -- and partly because he's been so good at getting every syllable to fit his voice -- the lyricism is solid and durable.

Cohen's physical resiliency should be the envy of people half his age. Trim and wispy in a dark suit, buttoned shirt (no tie) and fedora, he trotted on and off stage looking like the Rat Pack's resident beat poet. What's more telling, though, is how well the songs hold up. It's not just trendiness that draws younger musicians to his catalogue for covers and inspiration.

Cohen was also a pleasure to hear between numbers, and an absolute gentleman who kept finding inventive ways to thank the audience -- "for climbing the vertiginous heights to your seats … for braving the menacing, psychotic, abrasive qualities of people you don't know … for the warm and welcoming reception."

He created about as much intimacy as could be had in a converted hockey arena with several thousand empty seats. (A theater or performing arts center would have made more sense.)

He finished up by introducing his technical crew -- a gesture that usually accompanies closing night.

Cohen does have future dates lined up in other cities. And it's not inconceivable that he would play Florida again. But his worldview, as spelled out in his songs, is about the fleeting nature of things. Whether or not he returns here, his thinking on Saturday seemed to be: Play like it's your last time, because after that it's all just memory and hindsight.

Sean Piccoli can be reached at spiccoli@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4832.
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sturgess66
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Ft Lauderdale, October 17

Post by sturgess66 »

Oh my! :D

From "scrutnise" on YouTube. Thanks!!

The Partisan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSrfvDWCLJw

First We Take Manhattan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lAzIaPHvwY
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