CONCERT REPORTS:Wellington, NZ, Oct. 31 & Nov. 1, 2010

July 25 - December 11, 2010. Concert reports, set lists, photos, media coverage, multimedia links, recollections...
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sturgess66
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CONCERT REPORTS:Wellington, NZ, Oct. 31 & Nov. 1, 2010

Post by sturgess66 »

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It's still Saturday for me here in Philly, but it is almost 12:30 p.m. in Wellington, New Zealand - already Sunday, October 31st.
That's a view of Wellington above. It is about 56 degrees F. there presently I think - a bit colder than yesterday - like 10 degrees colder. :lol:

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The venue, the TSB Bank Arena serves as an indoor-sports arena, rock concert venue, public trade-show facility or for hosting large gala-dinners. It is within easy walking distance from Wellington's central business district.
http://www.wellingtonconventioncentre.c ... bank-arena

From Joey:

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Welcome to Wellington.
• Wellington, New Zealand
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Crisp wind and brilliant sun on the waterfront for show day morning.
* TSB Arena - Wellington, New Zealand
http://leonardcohen.tumblr.com/post/144 ... rfront-for

I hope we get some video from this show. Pleeeeeeeeeease! :lol:
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sturgess66
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Re: CONCERT REPORT:Wellington, New Zealand, Oct. 31/Nov. 1, 2010

Post by sturgess66 »

http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=28983
For two nights only: Leonard Cohen in Wellington
October 30, 2010

Wellington.Scoop
by Lindsay Shelton

The great Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen is in Wellington for the next 48 hours, with shows tonight and tomorrow night at the TSB Bank Arena on the waterfront.

When Big Runga was announced on September 2 as the supporting act, the promoters said that both Wellington shows were sold out. That represents sales of more than 9000 tickets. Wellington is overflowing with Cohen’s admirers.

But when I checked at Ticketek’s Cuba Street booking office today, a few seats had been made available. So I bought two of them.

Michael Field’s review from Cohen’s Thursday night show in Auckland makes his Wellington appearances irresistible. Depending of course on whether there are any seats still in the system, and whether you want to pay the price of $203.

Reviews from his two Wellington shows last year were unanimously enthusiastic. The organisers had even fixed the notoriously-dreadful acoustics of the building formerly known as the Events Centre. And for the hard-to-please Simon Sweetman, it was “the best show I have ever seen.”

Read more:
Leonard Cohen: on the road
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/arts/ ... nard_cohen
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sturgess66
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Re: CONCERT REPORT:Wellington, New Zealand, Oct. 31/Nov. 1, 2010

Post by sturgess66 »

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Keys tech Dan Weingartner is dialing in Dino’s rig.
* TSB Arena - Wellington, New Zealand
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UHTC soundcheck has wrapped and Bic Runga gets in a couple numbers before doors open.
* TSB Arena - Wellington, New Zealand
http://leonardcohen.tumblr.com/post/144 ... ga-gets-in
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Re: CONCERT REPORT:Wellington, New Zealand, Oct. 31/Nov. 1, 2010

Post by bridger15 »

from Twitpic by Joyce Setzinger
catspyjamasnz
October 31, 2010

Image
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Re: CONCERT REPORT:Wellington, New Zealand, Oct. 31/Nov. 1, 2010

Post by sturgess66 »

Banter is good - :lol:
Ahhhhhhh - we want some video - with banter!!!

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A pattern of levity to the in-between song banter seems to have emerged since we’ve gone under the equator and crossed the date line.
* TSB Arena - Wellington, New Zealand
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neo
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Re: CONCERT REPORT:Wellington, New Zealand, Oct. 31/Nov. 1, 2010

Post by neo »

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First set down:

Dance Me To The End of Love The Future Bird on a Wire Everybody Knows Who By Fire The Darkness Chelsea Hotel Waiting For The Miracle Thousand Kisses Deep - poem Anthem

And that’s intermission.

* TSB Arena - Wellington, New Zealand
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CONCERT REPORT: Wellington, New Zealand, Oct. 31-Nov 1, 2010

Post by kaczor47 »

I wept. Enough said.
Halifax 12.05.2008, 13.05.2008; Wellington 20.01.2009; Wellington 31.10.2010
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Wellington, New Zealand, Oct. 31-Nov 1, 2010

Post by kaczor47 »

...that said, it was perhaps a slightly abbreviated show compared to the recent ones;
no: Born in Chains, Avalanche / Night Comes On, Feels So Good, Ain't No Cure for Love, If It Be Your Will, no third encore

no complaints, however.

pawel
Halifax 12.05.2008, 13.05.2008; Wellington 20.01.2009; Wellington 31.10.2010
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Re: CONCERT REPORT:Wellington, New Zealand, Oct. 31/Nov. 1, 2010

Post by neo »

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Second set straight off the list and we’re into the encores.

* TSB Arena - Wellington, New Zealand

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Encore set: So Long Marianne, Famous Blue Raincoat & wrapping up First We Take Manhattan.

*TSB Arena - Wellington, New Zealand

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Tried to Leave You and a audible into Closing Time and that looks like it’s a wrap on night one in Wellington.

*TSB Arena - Wellington, New Zealand

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G’night Wellington.

*TSB Arena - Wellington, New Zealand

Thank you very much Joey!
http://leonardcohen.tumblr.com/
What sad religions they want us to believe.
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Re: CONCERT REPORT:Wellington, New Zealand, Oct. 31/Nov. 1, 2010

Post by sharon.e »

sturgess66 wrote: Image
UHTC soundcheck has wrapped and Bic Runga gets in a couple numbers before doors open.
* TSB Arena - Wellington, New Zealand
http://leonardcohen.tumblr.com/post/144 ... ga-gets-in
I don't know if the pink background and woman were in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but if so - hats off to Ryan Patrick Murphy for taking a stand.
--Sharon
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dce
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Re: CONCERT REPORT:Wellington, New Zealand, Oct. 31/Nov. 1, 2010

Post by dce »

Wellington, night 1 was an abbreviated show ... and in a far smaller venue than the previous couple of shows. But the overwhelming warmth from the audience (particularly at the beginning of the show and right at the end), made for a memorable evening.

The most notable thing was the cut-back set list ... 23 songs instead of the 30 songs played in Auckland on October 28. This was obviously a deliberate stripping back of the show, almost certainly as a result of a curfew by the venue. After a prompt start at 8:15PM and the obligatory 20 minute break after set one, the show was all wrapped up just a few minutes after 11:00PM. Two of the three new songs were dropped, as was a second solo song by Leonard, and the normal first and second encore sets were kind of merged together into a single "Encore 1". The poem got moved from Set 2 to Set 1.

Here's the full set list for the night:

Set 1

01 Dance Me To The End of Love
02 The Future
03 Bird on the Wire
04 Everybody Knows
05 Who By Fire
06 The Darkness (with a spoken intro)
07 Chelsea Hotel #2
08 Waiting For The Miracle
09 A Thousand Kisses Deep
10 Anthem

Set 2

11 Tower of Song
12 Suzanne
13 Sisters of Mercy
14 The Gypsy's Wife
15 The Partisan
16 Hallelujah
17 I'm Your Man
18 Take This Waltz

Encore 1

19 So Long, Marianne
20 Famous Blue Raincoat
21 First We Take Manhattan

Encore 2

22 I Tried To Leave You
23 Closing Time

The TSB Arena is a much, much smaller venue than the Vector Arena in Auckland .... which in some ways gave the show a bit more of an intimate feel. I'd have to say that the venue's arrangements for letting people in could do with some tweaking, however -- funnelling several thousand people through two front doors is not a quick process, and the massive snaking lines the stretched out from these doors across the plaza out front were almost worthy of a photo in themselves!

Overall the standard of the performance offered up by Leonard and the band was, as always, very high. I did think that the time pressures caused by the (I assume) enforced curfew did seem to give Leonard's performance a bit more of a hurried complexion in places. In a couple of places I think this added some edginess to the deliver (see my comment on Everybody Knows, below), but in others I had a slight sense that the band had switched slightly into auto-pilot, adding fewer of the more recent embellishments in favour of playing the tried-and-true deliveries that are a 'sure thing' from a timing perspective. But maybe that's just me.

The crowd at this show was extremely enthusiastic, offering up bigger applause and a lot more standing ovations than either of the Auckland nights. There were even a few people up and dancing in the Aisles for parts of the second set and the encores. I was seated much further back than I was on the last few shows, so had a great opportunity to crowd-watch. I would, say, however that there were a couple of folks standing by the entry doors at the back of the floored area who looked ... shall we say as though they had fought against the bottle (and lost), and whose Woodstock-era dancing through several of the numbers was a little distracting.

Some specific notes:
  • Everybody Knows: Leonard's vocal deliver seemed a lot more 'aggressive' and edgy in this performance, giving the song a more menacing kind of feel. He was still singing something (deliberately) inaudible under a couple of choruses.
  • The Colossal squid: Just before he played Chelsea Hotel, LC spoke to the audience saying how great it was to be back in Wellington. He said, however, that there was one disturbing item that he hastened to relate ... "The Colossal Squid", he said, "isn't dead. It's just sleeping ... waiting to get out." This is a reference to the recent capture and dissection of a Colossal squid in NZ waters and a museum display (see http://squid.tepapa.govt.nz/). The local reference got a LOT of audience applause and laughter.
  • The Darkness: This song got a brief spoken intro: "Sometimes it starts in the night .. and sometimes the night just don't give up"
  • A Thousand Kisses Deep: As noted in the set list, this poem got moved to much earlier in the performance ... as a result of this I think the audience response was quite different. Normally when performed somewhere after Hallelujah the audience is quite keen to laugh in a couple of spots and applaud during the recitation. Last night was one of those nights where it was almost reverentially quiet during the reading, almost like we were hearing Leonard offering up a sermon (which, in way, I guess he is).
  • Anthem: During the band intros, LC went to particular pains to point out Bob's orange electric guitar, which Cohen said he was playing specifically for Halloween evening. Rafael is apparently no longer cutting its toenails (but doing everything else).
  • Suzanne: I thought LC's performance of this standard was a fair bit faster than usual ...
  • Hallelujah: Obligatory place name check ... "I did not come to Wellington to fool ya." There was also a minor lyrical embellishment around the line "not some pilgrim who has seen the light."
  • Take This Waltz: There was no "Te Caro, Te Caro, Te Caro" ... we're back to "I want you"
  • Closing Time: The spoken outro to this song was similar to those delivered on previous nights. But this time it was clear that this was (deliberately) the end of the show.
Photos later ... and another concert tonight to look forward to!


Dean (from Adelaide)
(For most of November 2010, I followed Leonard and the band as they toured around Australia and New Zealand. You can read about my wanderings on the blog I created to collect them all in one place: http://lcdownunder2010.wordpress.com/)
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Re: CONCERT REPORT:Wellington, New Zealand, Oct. 31/Nov. 1, 2010

Post by bridger15 »

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Re: CONCERT REPORT:Wellington, New Zealand, Oct. 31/Nov. 1, 2010

Post by bridger15 »

From a Blog post by "Talula", Nov 01, 2010
http://jennitalula.wordpress.com/2010/1 ... live-2010/
Leonard Cohen live 2010
When I saw Leonard Cohen perform last year I didn’t really think he’d every come back to our little island. But he did, because he is awesome, and I went to the first of two sold out shows he put on.

I was very tired. Very very tired going in but Bic Runga was an excellent warm up act, starting and finishing with her first hits (Drive and Sway) and testing out new material on us. I loved her new song Darkness all Around Us which resonated very well with Leonard Cohen’s new song The Darkness. She had some technical trouble, but handled it with grace and charm. Loved her to bits, actually. I must remember to buy tickets next time she tours.

I ran to the merch stand in this break and bought a grey low necked T shirt with a variation on the heart knot symbol on it, and two pins (one for Mum and one for Frank.) Finally the man himself took the stage and the crowd went first wild, and then very very quiet. Everyone was there to really *listen* and appreciate Leonard. Which, to me, is pretty important. I go to concerts to hear the artist perform their songs live, sometimes in new ways. I don’t go to concerts to hear the crowd sing the songs.

Our seats were excellent, we paid a bit more and were rewarded with elevated seats facing the stage and pretty darn near the middle. It made a big difference, we could see everything that was going on and enjoy the movement.

It was different to the last concert, there were some new songs, and some songs he didn’t play that he played last time. There wasn’t a song for Sharon Robinson to sing on her own, and I missed the Webb Sisters’ rendition of If It Be Your Will but none of that really mattered. The power of the singers, the band, the lyrics and Leonard Cohen himself all made for a fantastic experience.

He played The Sisters of Mercy, which I’m not sure if he did last time. Some lovely person put up his set list here. It looks right to me. It doesn’t look like a whole lot of songs, but when played live the songs stretch out. Leonard takes his time with each song and they last probably 5-7 minutes each. Longer when he lets them all have solos. Speaking of solos, the Webb sisters did something amazing in their solo during I Tried to Leave you, singing over each other and creating something haunting and lovely. All the recordings I’ve found on line they’re doing something else, so it must have been new. It was beautiful and weird. My jaw dropped and I sat there wishing for more…

I especially loved Hallelujah (of course), The Partisan, Recitation (<3), Tower of Song, I'm Your Man (he added some new lyrics in the repeat of the first verse "If you want a curious kind of love I'll wear an old man's mask for you") and also his new song The Darkness, which is very vampiric and made me think of a certain stalky vampire.

...

I may have cried during Hallelujah and Anthem.

I came out of this one less overwhelmed than last time, but no less moved. I felt an utter contentment, a bliss, an understanding of the universe even. I know this sounds like an awful lot to get out of a concert but there's just something about seeing a whole band, four back up singers and a living legend perform as if they are really enjoying themselves. Really witnessing people doing something that they love and are talented at is humbling and wonder inspiring.
...
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Re: CONCERT REPORT:Wellington, New Zealand, Oct. 31/Nov. 1, 2010

Post by MaryB »

Dean,
I am loving all your detailed dissections of the performances. I hope you will be attending more shows so we can get more of your posts.
Best regards,
Mary
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Re: CONCERT REPORT:Wellington, New Zealand, Oct. 31/Nov. 1, 2010

Post by MasterThief »

I have just arrived back in Dunedin from a magical Wellington experience. After I arrived there on Sunday afternoon I headed down to the venue to see if I could hear a sound check happening. No luck so I headed back to my hotel but had to stop when a car pulled out of another hotel in front of me. Leonard was in the back seat on his way down to the sound check I presume. It was such a quick glimpse that I had no opportunity to embarrass myself with some awkward or silly reaction. The dog in me wanted to chase the car but I resisted. I texted some friends about the sighting and returned to my hotel to get ready for dinner before the concert.

We had great centre 2nd row seats, almost close enough to reach out and touch him. I became a little anxious when I realised it was going to be a shortened set list. Particularly missing hearing Born In Chains and Feels So Good. But to still get 23 songs was a blessing. I managed to score a set list off the stage and headed out into the Wellington evening exhilarated. We decided to head round to the hotel where I had seen him earlier to have a drink or two to wind down.

Just as we approached the front entrance, Leonard's car pulled up and he embarked straight into our path. Gently thrusting the set list towards him, I apologised for losing the autograph he gave me in Melbourne 30 years ago and reminded him that he had told me then it wasn’t worth a pinch of shit. I sensed his autograph may have since increased in value and he graciously consented to give me a fresh one on the set list.

As he entered the hotel the small crowd in the lobby have him a big round of applause and he responded with a bow. We sat in the hotel lounge bar having drinks and saw the rest of the band and crew come back in small groups. I also got Sharon's autograph on the set list. Some of the band (Bob, Dino, Rafael and Charley) and crew, came back down to the lounge bar. We stayed until about 1 a.m. soaking it all up before calling it a night.

I drive up to Christchurch for my second and final concert of this tour. I hope there are no curfew issues with the venue there as I would love to hear the other 2 new songs live.

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Melbourne 6 & 7 Mar 1980, Melbourne 25 May 1985, Wellington 20 Jan 2009, Auckland 22 Jan 2009, Melbourne 5 Feb 2009, Wellington 31 Oct 2010, Christchurch 3 Nov 2010, Christchurch 14 Dec 2013
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