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

July 25 - December 11, 2010. Concert reports, set lists, photos, media coverage, multimedia links, recollections...
MaryB
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Re: CONCERT REPORT:Wellington, New Zealand, Oct. 31/Nov. 1, 2010

Post by MaryB »

MasterThief,
You lucky, lucky person. How wonderful for you! Did he say anything in response to the fact that you lost the autograph from 30 years ago?
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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MasterThief
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Re: CONCERT REPORT:Wellington, New Zealand, Oct. 31/Nov. 1, 2010

Post by MasterThief »

MaryB wrote:MasterThief,
You lucky, lucky person. How wonderful for you! Did he say anything in response to the fact that you lost the autograph from 30 years ago?
No just a smile. Not sure he would have understood my weird Aussie/Kiwi accent. The set list is already framed and hanging proudly on the lounge room wall.
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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neo
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Re: CONCERT REPORT:Wellington, New Zealand, Oct. 31/Nov. 1, 2010

Post by neo »

Image

And night two is a go.

* TSB Arena - Wellington, New Zealand
What sad religions they want us to believe.
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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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“I’ll stand right here before the lord of song with nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah”

*TSB Arena - Wellington, New Zealand
What sad religions they want us to believe.
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neo
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Re: CONCERT REPORT:Wellington, New Zealand, Oct. 31/Nov. 1, 2010

Post by neo »

Image

Thousand Kisses Deep into Take This Waltz and that’s the second set. The encore’s, that’s anyones guess tonight.

*TSB Arena - Wellington, New Zealand
What sad religions they want us to believe.
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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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A couple of encores seem in order before we wrap Wellington.

*TSB Arena - Wellington, New Zealand


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And that would be the Wellington run done and done. House lights up Ryan Patrick Murphy if you please, it’s time for load out.

*TSB Arena - Wellington, New Zealand

Thank you very much Joey!
What sad religions they want us to believe.
dce
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Re: Travel Around Australia and New Zealand

Post by dce »

Photos from Wellington, Night 1 (31 October 2010)

After having seen a few shows now, my gf Cathy (from Adelaide) now knows a lot more about when to expect things to happen on stage. She was able to use this to catch a few more dynamic photos at the two Wellington shows, despite the fact that we were much further away from the stage:

Outside TSB Arena:
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The Webb Sisters lead into some acrobatics
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Leonard thanks Sharon for her stellar performance:
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Our Man sings Tower of Song in a tower of translucence:
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Sharon sings her heart out during the solos:
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Rafael blows a kiss to everyone watching his solo on the big screen:
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It doesn't work every time, but tonight Rafael catches his thrown brush with ease:
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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/)
dce
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Re: CONCERT REPORT:Wellington, New Zealand, Oct. 31/Nov. 1, 2010

Post by dce »

MaryB wrote: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
Mary,

Glad that you're enjoying my concert reports ... as I've mentioned in a couple of other threads, I have the good fortune to have been able to snag tickets for quite a few of the Australian shows on this tour. So (all going to plan), you should be seeing several more of my 'dissections' in the coming weeks.

I am also in the process of collecting all these reports and photos -- together with some photos my travels -- into a single location (a blog). This will live at: http://lcdownunder2010.wordpress.com/

If BTW anyone wants to see more photos (I am only posting highlights, so as not to overwhelm the forum), you can see my photo sets at http://www.flickr.com/photos/55200187@N08/


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

Post by neo »

Very nice pix! Thank you Dean!
What sad religions they want us to believe.
dce
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Re: CONCERT REPORT:Wellington, New Zealand, Oct. 31/Nov. 1, 2010

Post by dce »

Wellington, Night 2 (1 November 2010)

As with the first Wellington show, this concert featured an abbreviated set list almost certainly due to curfew limitations posed by the venue. This time around, however, the trimming of the normal set list was done slightly differently -- instead of cutting time from all sets more or less equally, the second show included a more-or-less normal length Set 1, an abbreviated Set 2 and a very much shorter encore set. Personally, I think this arrangement worked a lot better as it maintained a good flow to the performance without leaving the main sets feeling too brief. The show was about the same length as the previous night's show (started 8:15PM, finished 11:15PM with a 20 minute break) this one felt -- to me at least -- longer.

Here's the full set list. Notably the poem got moved back to Set 2 and there was a suprise additon of That Don't Make It Junk (which, according to Maarten's set lists has only been performed once on the 2010 tour to date as an encore at Sligo).

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 [spoken intro]
07 Chelsea Hotel #2
08 Waiting for the Miracle
09 That Don't Make It Junk [spoken intro]
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 A Thousand Kisses Deep [recitation, extra stanza]
19 Take This Waltz

Encore 1

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

Encore 2

23 I Tried To Leave You

The performances seemed a lot more relaxed and flowing throughout on Night 2 ... there was a lot more spoken banter, and Leonard seemed to be taking his time a little more. That's not to say that there weren't places where the pace was ramped up -- there were, most notably First We Take Manhattan -- but these instances overall seemed to complement rather than detract from the performances. The song changes in Set 2 were extremely rapid with the technicians and roadies almost sprinting around to get the instruments changed over quickly enough -- obviously they'd been told to make it snappy!

The audience response to this concert was sort of mixed ... while the crowd were very appreciative and loud when it came to offering up applause, they otherwise seemed to abstain from any other kind of interaction with the band. There were a few folks who shouted out comments at a couple of spots, and a few pockets of fans who gave standing ovations early on. But overall it was a more muted audience response than at the first Wellington show. There were standing ovations at the end of each set, though, which were suitably loud and demonstrative, so I'm sure Leonard and the band got a good sense of the love that the Wellington audience holds for him (particularly since the venue put lights on the audience during these ovations, presumably so the band could see everyone on their feet).

[one minor gripe ... and this is with the venue and/or ticketek. I bought my tickets as Gold class seats sold as presale for the touring company. I pretty much snapped these up within a few minutes of the presale coming online. How, then, did I end up sitting seven rows from the BACK of the venue? ... do people really think these seats are Gold class. I'm sure I wasn't the only person peeved by this. The only good thing about sitting so far back was the opportunity to snap some good photos of the crowd offering up their standing ovations to Leonard (photos to come)]

Some specific points I noticed:
  • The Future: When Leonard sang about the "White man dancing", tonight it wasn't LC doing the dancing but rather Roscoe giving a little twirl (while still playing)
  • Everybody Knows: Leonard continues to play around with his vocal delivery of this song. It's good to see him comfortable enough to experiment like this.
  • Who By Fire: This song was played a little slower at this concert and more deliberately. Javier's lengthy introduction got big bursts of applause at about 3 mini-climactic points (maybe because the crowd thought it was finished ... maybe just because they recognized the technical brilliance of the performance).
  • The Darkness: In the spoken intro, LC said "This is a new song. Sometimes a songs like this begins at night and sometimes the night just won't give up."
  • That Don't Make It Junk: For this unexpected addition, LC gave a spoken intro something along the lines of "Friends, you've been so kind and generous I feel that I can confide in you. Is there's a lot of resistence to this confidentiality? Because I will not burden you with my deepest anxieties if that is the case. I want to tell you friends that I did have a drinking problem .. and I'm going to tell you how it was resolved. I confessed to Sharon Robinson -- I said 'Sharon I have the drinking problem'; she said 'get a life.' And this is what we came up with."
  • Anthem: In the band intros ... back by popular demand ... Rafael is once again "cutting its toenails".
  • Tower of Song: LC thanked everybody for coming back from the break ... "I won't keep you up too late ...", he said, "it's a school night."
  • Hallelujah: Lyrical elaboration: "It's not a cry or complaint you hear tonight, it's not the boast of somebody who claims he has seen the light". The name check was again "I didn't come to Wellington to fool ya."
  • I'm Your Man: Lyrical elaborations ... first time around we got "If you want another kind of love, ok I'll wear a leather mask for you" ... second time it was "If you want to try another kind of love, I'll wear an old man's mask for you".
  • A Thousand Kisses Deep: The recitation again, as at one of the Auckland shows, included an added couplet towards the end: "Well That's my story I admit it's broken and it's bleak, but all the twisted pieces fit A Thousand Kisses Deep."
  • Take This Waltz: "Te Caro, Te Caro, Te Caro" is back.
  • So Long, Marianne: Due to a minor lyrical mis-step (I think), LC ended up singing a slightly different version of a couple of lines (which sort of changes their meaning a bit): "your fine spider web, your fine spider web is fastened to my ankle like a stone"
  • Famous Blue Raincoat: While LC played the intro, a man at the back of the auditorium cried out "Come to Picton!" For those who don't know NZ, Picton is a (beautiful) small town just on the northern tip of the South Island. Now that would be an intimate venue for a concert :D
  • First We Take Manhattan: The band played a rendition of this song that was a reasonable amount faster than usual. It ended up being a kind of funky, almost dancey number ... which I actually think worked pretty well.
The tour moves next to Christchurch on NZ's South Island ... but sadly I need to return home to Adelaide (to earn some more $$$ to pay for the next leg of the holiday). I will be rejoining the tour on Saturday in Brisbane.

Good luck Leonard and the UHTC for Christchurch on Wednesday ...


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

Post by dce »

Photos from Wellington, Night 2 (1 November 2010)

As I mentioned in my other post, tickatek put me in an awful seat for Night 2 of the Wellington shows ... but Cathy (from Adelaide) made use of this distant location to snap a few wider shots and a couple of action pictures. When the ticket company gives you lemons, ...

A different side of the TSB Arena -- the back
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Leonard moving ... so graceful and so free
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The Webb Sisters mid-cartwheel (not an easy photo to get)
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The arena has a few glass-fronted balconies separating the upper level from the lower ... apparently, these reflect quite well ...
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Leonard skipping off stage:
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LC in solo mode: "Suzanne takes you down ..."
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Everyone in the TSB Arena is on their feet ...
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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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MasterThief
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Re: CONCERT REPORT:Wellington, New Zealand, Oct. 31/Nov. 1, 2010

Post by MasterThief »

Thanks again Dean. I will post the Christchurch set list after I drive back to Dunedin (which won't be until Thursday evening) if nobody else has done it by then. Really hoping there is no curfew at this show as I so much want Born in Chains and Feels So Good, not to mention Boogie Street and If It Be Your Will.
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
ambok
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Re: CONCERT REPORT:Wellington, New Zealand, Oct. 31/Nov. 1, 2010

Post by ambok »

this is really a great concert. .
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bridger15
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Re: CONCERT REPORT:Wellington, New Zealand, Oct. 31/Nov. 1, 2010

Post by bridger15 »

Fron another Blog post, KnowIT
http://knowit.co.nz/2010/11/leonard-coh ... isite-meal
Leonard Cohen concert: satisfying like an exquisite meal
1 November 2010

Leonard Cohen’s Wellington concert on 31 October 2010 was absorbing and satisfying.

The other night we attended the Leonard Cohen concert at the TSB Arena in Wellington, New Zealand.

I went along more because my partner really enjoys his music. If she hadn’t been going I would probably have stayed home and missed what was a rich, layered, exquisitely textured couple of hours.

Bic Runga
Bic Runga opened with a set lasting around 20 minutes. I enjoy her music, and her performance was thoroughly enjoyable.

Cohen and co
After a short intermission Leonard Cohen and his ensemble of musicians appeared. There were about 10 musicians in total, and as the performance went on it was very clear it wasn’t Cohen and a backing group, but Cohen as leader of a group of equals.
...
Apart from the performers live on stage there were a couple of large screens to either side showing the performance from several camera angles...

Clearly the entire show was carefully scripted. The lighting picked up feelings and pointed our attention. The video screens showed careful shots, closeups on individuals or juxtapositions of multiple angles. The performance itself was flawless and seamless.

Intriguing instruments
Most of the instruments were pretty standard: various drums, guitars, keyboards, a double bass. But over on the right as I looked at the stage were a couple of performers who played unusual instruments.

One performer was Javier Mas, playing strings I couldn’t recognise. Another performer, Dino Soldo, played sax, and various wind instruments I’d never seen or heard before. I suspect one might have been an electric oboe, if such a thing exists.

Those two were my favourite performers because I was so intrigued by the instruments and their unusual sounds.

Exquisitely satisfying
The whole was rich and textured.

At one point each performer had a brief solo. It was immediately obvious that any one of them could be a solo performer in their own right.

As they made music together each contributed their own flavour to the larger work, creating something much more than just the sum of its parts.

If you’ve ever dined at a fine restaurant, not just a good one, but one where the chefs excel, then you’ll know what I mean.

The Cohen concert was like one of those meals where each course is a small portion of exquisitely prepared food. You can taste each separate flavour, but brilliantly combined, the whole item carries its own subtlety and delight. You leave feeling not full, but rather totally satisfied.

I didn’t leave the Cohen concert bubbling with excitement. Instead I felt satisfied, as though I’d dined well. It’s the satisfaction of nourishment, rather than the fullness of empty popcorn.
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2010-Gothenburg|Berlin|Ghentx2|Oaklandx2|Portland|LVegasx2
2012-Austinx2|Denver|Los Ang|Seattle|Portland

Arlene's Leonard Cohen Scrapbook http://onboogiestreet.blogspot.com
minierf
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Re: CONCERT REPORT:Wellington, New Zealand, Oct. 31/Nov. 1, 2010

Post by minierf »

the old redbud's
blooming branches sing
young girl dances


http://theartofhaiku.com/

thank you, Mr. Cohen
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