CONCERT REPORT: Tel Aviv, September 24

Europe and Israel (July 1 - September 24, 2009). Concert reports, set lists, photos, media coverage, multimedia links, recollections...
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sturgess66
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Tel Aviv, Israel, Ramat Gan Stadium 9/24/09

Post by sturgess66 »

A whole lot of pictures from Mike Darnell on flickr -
(DigitalArtPrintGallery.com)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/israeli-ar ... 448221666/
Leonard Cohen Live in Tel Aviv on the 24th of September 2009

On the 24th of September 2009 Leonard. Cohen gave an incredible three hour concert in Ramat Gan's stadium.

It was an event I will never forget. The man somehow succeeded in granting the audience of 50,000 people that came to hear him in the Ramat Gan stadium, the feeling that we were all in some intimate venue and Cohen was singing just for us, his closest friends.

Although he turned 75 this week, he gave a generous 3 hour concert, multiple encores, and ended by skipping off the stage in funky little dance steps : )

It was especially comforting as he had collapsed at a concert in Spain earlier this week.

There was a special reason Lihi and I went to the concert - it was my gift to Lihi for celebrating the birth of our daughter Or, has just turned 3 months old. Or's favorite "soothing song" is Leonard's - "Marianne"

Leonard's is legendary, so it was no surprise that to experience him was incredible but it was a real treat to discover how amazingly talented his band is.

The current ensemble features Sharon Robinson and the Webb Sisters (background vocals), Roscoe Beck (musical director & bass), Neil Larsen (keyboards & Hammond B3 accordion), Bob Metzger (electric, acoustic & pedal steel guitar), Javier Mas (bandurria, laud, archilaud, 12-string acoustic guitar), Rafael Gayol (drums, percussion), Dino Soldo (sax, clarinet, dobro, keys).

"Everything is cracked, that's where light comes in" - Leonard Cohen

...to top it all off Leonard signed off with "Birkat Cohanim" - The traditional Jewish blessing that Cohens (the literal Hebrew word for "priests") give unto the congregation.

Wow! ...
---
These images are all available for use as CC.
Feel free to publish, use, change,etc. All I ask is that you give me (Mike Darnell) credit and link to DigitalArtPrintGallery.com
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Tel Aviv, Israel, Ramat Gan Stadium 9/24/09

Post by sue7 »

Thank you so so much to all who are posting on this thread. A special thank you to sturgess66: you are just amazing, collecting links from all over the place and sharing them.
Oh to have been there, in this extraordinary place, at this concert, at this time of the year.
What a way to mark this time between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.
Augusta Bertram
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Tel Aviv, Israel, Ramat Gan Stadium 9/24/09

Post by Augusta Bertram »

Cohen in Tel Aviv tonight: I've already seen him a year ago in europe, but this was rather different. in this concert he was, above all, unbelievely thoughtful. this was a three hour long sincere, sometimes amazingly touching, and of course successful, try to make us well. i think part of what made him sing the way he did tonight (wonderful, didn't see him sing so well yet), was, maybe, the fact that he knew, really, how much we loved him & how long we've waited, and he loved us back. there was so much anticipation and gratefulness in the air. when he spoke, you could just feel how very, very closely everyone listened, so eager to hear him. his kind, frank way of doing everything he did on stage tonight is a memory to cherish. i'll never forget you, you know.
Thank you Jarkko very much for helping us get good tickets in a fair way.

now i got home but i don't want to change clothes or brush teeth or do anything that would confirm that this day ended.

attached the setlist.
Attachments
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Last edited by Augusta Bertram on Fri Sep 25, 2009 3:29 am, edited 7 times in total.
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sirius
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Tel Aviv, Israel, Ramat Gan Stadium 9/24/09

Post by sirius »

Review Jerusalem Post

Leonard Cohen builds a glorious, spiritual Tower of Song

By DAVID HOROVITZ AND DAVID BRINN

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite? ... 2FShowFull

Leonard Cohen, 75, the Canadian singer-poet sometimes derided for making music to slit your wrists to, energized and transported a packed Ramat Gan stadium to a vibrant spiritual high on Thursday night.

"I don't know if we will pass this way again," he told the audience early in the concert, but then promised "to give it everything tonight."

And so he did, with a set list drawn from throughout the decades of his career.

Live, however, and backed by a sumptuous group of musicians, his songs transcended their recorded versions. A magnificent "Who By Fire," for instance, began with an oriental flourish and featured an exquisite harp passage.

The biblical basis of songs like that one have always resonated uniquely in the Israel psyche, and hearing them delivered with such poignancy and conviction, in these days ahead of Yom Kippur, made for a particularly unforgettable experience.

On a warm summer evening, with a light breeze, the crowd applauded ecstatically when Cohen played favorites like "Bird on the Wire" and "Dance Me to the End of Love," but were utterly, respectfully silent in the quieter passages of songs, responding to Cohen's obvious passion and sincerity.



Cohen's voice was strong, and gravelly, as ever, his delivery clear, and his eyes closed in concentration during key verses.

Cohen spoke admiringly of the The Parents Circle-Families Forum group, to which part of the proceeds from this concert are going, praising bereaved Israeli and Palestinian parents for "the nobility of this exercise" in reconciliation.

Their effort, he said, represented a "holy holy holy response to human suffering" and "God willing" it could mark the beginning of a process toward peace.

Earlier in the evening, Cohen's manager Robert Kory, novelist David Grossman and other local dignitaries inaugurated the Fund for Reconciliation, Tolerance and Peace in a tent outside the stadium.

The fund will be financed with proceeds from the concert, which are estimated at $2 million, and will be directed to organizations working with Israeli and Palestinian organizations committed to reconciliation.

Besides The Parents Circle, the initial recipients of the funds include the Palestinian Center of Research and Information, Radio Kol Hashalom and Saving Children-the Peres Center for Peace.

"Leonard decided that if he was going to play in Israel, he wanted the money to stay here," Kory said. "We've met so many Israelis and Palestinians in doing this who are committed to peace."

Grossman, whose son Uri, 20, was killed in the Second Lebanon War in August 2006, praised the initiative.

"It seems so easy to believe that war is the only possibility and that Israelis and Palestinians will continue to kill each other," he said. "But those gathered here tonight know what we have inflicted upon each other and the price we have paid. Leonard Cohen, through his art, indicates that he understands this suffering."

Ali Abu Awwad, an activist in the Parents Circle from the village of Beit Umar, whose brother was killed by the IDF, said that the common bond of the gathering was a group of broken hearts.

"We are stuck in being right; we came here to be successful," he said.

Talking about pressure from Palestinians that led to a boycott of a proposed show in Ramallah, Awwad said, "I can't boycott a heart as big as Leonard Cohen's."

Upon leaving the event to go to the concert, Kory told The Jerusalem Post, "That was the hard part. The concert is going to be easy."
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Tel Aviv, Israel, Ramat Gan Stadium 9/24/09

Post by goldstei »

Just to underline a quote from the previous Jerusalem Post account:


Grossman, whose son Uri, 20, was killed in the Second Lebanon War in August 2006, praised the initiative.

"It seems so easy to believe that war is the only possibility and that Israelis and Palestinians will continue to kill each other," he said. "But those gathered here tonight know what we have inflicted upon each other and the price we have paid. Leonard Cohen, through his art, indicates that he understands this suffering."
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Tel Aviv, Israel, Ramat Gan Stadium 9/24/09

Post by sturgess66 »

From CBC News -
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/music/story/2009 ... cohen.html

At the link there is video -
http://www.cbc.ca/clips/mov/evans-cohen090924.mov
Cohen's Tel Aviv concert a plea for peace

Last Updated: Thursday, September 24, 2009 | 7:35 PM ET

CBC News
CBCNewsLCIsrael.jpg
CBCNewsLCIsrael.jpg (18.52 KiB) Viewed 6473 times
Canadian poet and singer Leonard Cohen performs at the Montreux Jazz Festival
on July 8, 2008.Canadian poet and singer (Keystone/Laurent Gillieron/Associated Press)


Canadian music legend Leonard Cohen is in Israel bearing an olive branch after a concert Thursday night to fund the movement for peace.

Cohen was greeted with an adoring audience for the concert at Ramat Gan stadium in Tel Aviv that included some of his most beloved songs. The 47,000 tickets sold out in a few hours earlier this month.

The Montreal singer-songwriter showed no effects of the collapse he suffered in Spain on the weekend, reported to be the effects of food poisoning.

Planning the concert, like everything to do with Middle East politics, was fraught with dangerous politics.

Cohen called the gig A Concert for Reconciliation, Tolerance and Peace and plans to give the expected profits of $1.5 million to $2 million to a charity he has created of the same name.

The singer has run into problems from the moment he announced the show in Israel, where he had not played for more than 20 years.

The Palestinian Committee for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, the same group opposed to the recent spotlight on Tel Aviv at the Toronto International Film Festival, asked him to cancel the concert.

"We're asking Leonard Cohen to respect our boycott against Israel, our cultural boycott against Israel, similar to what artists were asked during the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa," said Omar Barghouti, one of the committee's founding members.
Buddhist background

Cohen, who is Jewish and was ordained as a Buddhist monk, responded by offering to perform in the West Bank, but that offer was rejected by the same Palestinian group.

He had asked Amnesty International to help him distribute the funds, which Cohen hoped would advance smaller groups that work for the co-existence of Israelis and Palestinians.

But Amnesty backed out of that arrangement and Cohen had to start his own charity, run by a board of Israelis and Palestinians, to distribute money to community groups.

There is no guarantee that Palestinian groups will accept it. Palestinians who are against what they call the "normalization" of relations with Israel are urging small groups to reject the funding.

The Parent's Circle, which unites Israeli and Palestinian families who've lost loved ones to the conflict, is one of the groups set to benefit from Cohen's peace fund.

Member Ali Abu Awadd , whose brother was killed by Israeli gunfire at a checkpoint in 2000, says he doesn't see how refusing Cohen's money would help Palestinians.

Awadd said he doesn't believe hatred will bring back his brother, nor does he agree with banning Cohen from the West Bank.

"Leonard Cohen is not coming to play to encourage the settlement, and he's not coming to encourage the attack against Israel. He's coming to say there is no other choice [but to seek peace]," he said.

In the audience for Thursday's concert were 200 bereaved Israeli and Palestinian families who had lost relatives in the ongoing conflict.

Among them was Israeli novelist David Grossman, whose son was killed in Israel's 2006 war in Lebanon.

"We are here today to show that with a joint effort, we can redeem each other from this hate," Grossman said at a fund-raising event ahead of the concert.

Cohen has said he wants to inspire fellow musicians to donate to Israeli-Palestinian groups focused on reconciliation.

With files from CBC's Margaret Evans
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Tel Aviv, Israel, Ramat Gan Stadium 9/24/09

Post by sturgess66 »

sue7 wrote:Thank you so so much to all who are posting on this thread. A special thank you to sturgess66: you are just amazing, collecting links from all over the place and sharing them.
Oh to have been there, in this extraordinary place, at this concert, at this time of the year.
What a way to mark this time between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.
Thank you sue7 but no special thanks needed. I can't help myself right now. :lol: :lol: And it is a pleasure to share - and I appreciate everyone else here in their "sharing." Last night I happened to notice at the bottom of the main forum page that the number of members here at the forum is close to 20,000! That is amazing!

I am so in awe of this wonderful man - Leonard Cohen - in every way - as an artist, a musician, a singer, a poet, a song writer - and as a human being.

I hope he enjoys every minutes of his little rest coming up!

New video from "noyalooshemusic" (whose description is "Wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww." ) :D :D :D
Hallelujah
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYK8pnEr4d0

And this is a sweet tweet from "NiviC" - who appears to be a young fan who lives in Tel Aviv -
Tonight holiness landed on Ramat Gan stadium as Leonard Cohen gave a moving, intimate concert to 50,000 people.
http://twitter.com/NiviC

And - from "evilcronos" - short clips

I Tried To Leave You
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD_koMO-V5Q

Closing Time
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8mw7SYfwG8

Ain't No Cure For Love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUwoo_lOTVY
Last edited by sturgess66 on Fri Sep 25, 2009 4:04 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Tel Aviv, Israel, Ramat Gan Stadium 9/24/09

Post by lizzytysh »

Reading these four pages and reading/viewing/watching/listening to the links so generously provided by everyone has given me chills and a kind of trembling inside.
Ali Abu Awwad, an activist in the Parents Circle from the village of Beit Umar, whose brother was killed by the IDF, said that the common bond of the gathering was a group of broken hearts.

"We are stuck in being right; we came here to be successful," he said.

Talking about pressure from Palestinians that led to a boycott of a proposed show in Ramallah, Awwad said, "I can't boycott a heart as big as Leonard Cohen's."
Praise G~d for Leonard's integrity and for the measure of his heart. This is the concert I've been praying for and it happened. This thread of reports is immensely gratifying. Thank you to everyone. Thank you, especially, to Leonard.


~ Lizzy
"Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken."
~ Oscar Wilde
vered
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Tel Aviv, Israel, Ramat Gan Stadium 9/24/09

Post by vered »

hello every one! just got back from my second show this week it was great im in heaven!!
Berlin 2008 - Barcelona 2009- Tel-Aviv 2009
goldstei
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Tel Aviv, Israel, Ramat Gan Stadium 9/24/09

Post by goldstei »

This blog has some bits of information which I found disquieting about an earlier Cohen, and which I suspect others will not much enjoy reading, but I think that in the end it shows that Leonard has grown and matured with time, as we all, hopefully, do. I've been to four concerts so far, and am going to four more, and they have probably been the most amazing experiences in my 62 years on this planet. But I think we all need an occasional reminder that, in the end, LC is a human like the rest of us, albeit one blessed with prodigious and remarkable gifts, and that, as humans, we all make errors; what counts is to try to learn from them.

Another Cohen in Israel
September 24, 2009 - 9:34 AM by David

After all the months (years?) of speculation, rumors, false starts, boycott calls and health scares, Leonard Cohen will finally be performing on Thursday night before 50,000 fans in Ramat Gan Stadium.

It was almost as if someone – or something – didn’t want this show to take place. As Ethan Bronner wrote in The New York Times, “Leonard Cohen’s path to his sold-out concert here Thursday night has been strewn with obstacles. Those seeking to ostracize Israel through an international boycott demanded that he call it off. When he offered instead a matching concert in the West Bank, Palestinians said no thanks. Amnesty International agreed to help him distribute the concert’s proceeds to peace groups; Amnesty International withdrew. Then last Friday, three days before turning 75, Mr. Cohen collapsed onstage in Valencia, Spain, in the middle of his classic “Bird on a Wire” and was rushed to the hospital.”

Thankfully, Cohen has recovered, performed in Barcelona on Monday, and arrived in Israel on Tuesday looking dapper as ever. He’s “in great shape,” Cohen’s manager Robert Kory told The Times. And indeed, last night, Cohen was seen onstage at the stadium testing out the sound system and getting his bearings for the show, which is being billed as “A Concert for Reconciliation, Tolerance and Peace.”

Cohen is giving the expected profits of $1.5 million to $2 million to a new charity he has created of the same name, run by a board of Israelis and Palestinians, which will distribute money to groups focused on coexistence here – particularly organizations composed of people who have paid a great personal price because of the dispute and yet are working for peace, like the Parents Circle — Families Forum, made up of Israelis and Palestinians who have lost close family members to the conflict.

Why has the Cohen concert, which sold out in record time, generated so much controversy and coverage? My colleague Ben Jacobson, one of the country’s foremost Cohen fans and scholars, had some interesting insights in a recent essay in The Jerusalem Post.

Why is everyone so up in arms over a folk singer from the ’60s entertaining some civilians with large wallets? Perhaps Cohen’s appearance in Israel was taken to be a potentially partisan threat because of the perception that he is “one of ours,” having grown up in the upscale Montreal neighborhood of Westmount, where he attended Herzliah High School and Camp Mishmar in his teens and played in the Hillel Band at McGill University.

But Cohen’s world view is hardly oriented towards taking sides in any given conflict – it is, rather, strictly a vehicle for expressing his artistic ideas. Cohen’s oft-uniformed “Field Commander Cohen” persona, which has informed several works and inspired the title of a 1979 concert tour, grew out of his posturing as a guerrilla of verse, a rogue revolutionary who champions the cause of the underdog.

“Field Commander Cohen” only came into his own in the fall of 1973, when Cohen, facing crises in his career and family life, dropped everything to participate in the Yom Kippur War. Arriving in Tel Aviv from his habitual haven in Hydra, he announced to the press that he had come “to make my atonement” – and to entertain the troops.

He also noted that while he had once advocated an unconditional return to the 1967 borders, recent events had inspired a change of heart. Cohen joined a group of local musicians that included Ilana Rovina and Matti Caspi on an informal performance tour of bases close to the front in Sinai, at one point even pocketing a firearm so that he could feel like he was ready to participate in the battles.

In his unpublished memoir, The Final Revision of My Life in Art, Cohen reflected on having shared a bottle of cognac with General Ariel Sharon at a makeshift desert wilderness fort. “I want his job,” he wrote of the 1973 meeting, in a sentiment more significant for its self-conscious romanticism of military strength than for its political alignment. After all, the trip to Israel was possibly more about personal redemption for the artist than anything else. In Cohen’s mind, Israel was “a place where you may begin again,” he would write.

To this end, he was determined to perform a pilgrimage from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on foot before his return to Hydra; he ended up wandering back to the cafes of Dizengoff Square after a few hours, of course.

Later, he would be known for having played impromptu sets for IDF troops during the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Eleven years later, Cohen’s public Middle Eastern anti-politics surfaced once again, this time in the context of his compilation of personal psalm-like essays, The Book of Mercy. The work includes several references to the nation of “Ishmael,” and in one passage, Cohen tears down all of the region’s constructs of alignment: “Israel, and you who call yourself Israel, the Church that calls itself Israel, and the revolt that calls itself Israel, and every nation chosen to be a nation – none of these lands is yours, all of you are thieves of holiness, all of you at war with Mercy… Therefore the lands belong to none of you, the borders do not hold, the Law will never serve the lawless.”

For the perpetual Canadian-American-Jewish-Zen-Greek exile, traditional trappings of nationalism and alignments are to be scoffed at and simply employed as tools for conveying one’s own artistic statements.

As Cohen wrote in “Democracy,” a 1993 song, which, based on recent set-lists, he’s likely to perform on Thursday, “I love the country but I can’t stand the scene / And I’m neither left or right / I’m just staying home tonight / getting lost in that hopeless little screen.”
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Tel Aviv, Israel, Ramat Gan Stadium 9/24/09

Post by lizzytysh »

I love the setlist, Augusta... such a treasure for you! And the photo of Leonard in the article you posted, Sturgess, and I'm so HAPPY for you, Einat, Siempe, Augusta, Vered, Inna, Reneny, and everyone else who got to go to this phenomenal concert!!!


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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Tel Aviv, Israel, Ramat Gan Stadium 9/24/09

Post by imaginary friend »

This thread is so moving.

...as are the reviews and that outstanding YouTube video of Hallelujah...
Leonard's generosity, sense of fairness, and determination is matched by the activists from The Parents Circle. It is not hard to be a pacifist when you live in a country at peace, but to commit to peace when your family has been killed in a war that continues still, is both humbling and inspiring.

Leonard must be so happy for what he gave and received at the Tel Aviv concert.
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sirius
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Tel Aviv, Israel, Ramat Gan Stadium 9/24/09

Post by sirius »

Thursday, 24 September 2009

A message from the Leonard Cohen Boycott Israel campaign

http://leonardcohenboycottisrael.blogsp ... spite.html

Well the day has arrived! Tonight despite all our efforts and the efforts of many other groups and individuals, Leonard Cohen has performed his concert in Tel Aviv. Thanks to all who signed the petition and commented on the blogs. We did not stop the concert, but think it still worthwhile to ask you to sign the petition if you haven't done so yet and to continue to circulate it for a while in order to provide a place where people can voice their concern and disaproval.

It is the fact we think that it is due to his integrity and the deep respect and affection in which Leonard is held, that makes it all the more disappointing that he has chosen to ignore the appeals to him on this issue. That however is his choice and it does seem that he sincerely believes it to be the right thing to do. Obviously we can now only accept that decision.

As you probably know Leonard was stricken with a bout of illness recently and had to come off stage at Valencia and discontinue the performance after collapsing. Happily he has recovered and is said to be fit and well. I'm sure, despite our differences with him and his management, we all wish him continuing good health and when this marathon tour finally comes to an end in the U.S. that he can retire and enjoy a long and full life.

The proceeds of tonight's concert will go to charity, in particular to a worthy organisation called The Parents Circle which is both a support group for parents who have lost children to the violence in both Israel and Palestine and a peace and reconciliation group which connects people on both sides of the divide. A very worthwhile cause, ultimately though no matter how good the intentions of the people involved, and they certainly are good, there can be no real and lasting peace for everyone and justice for the Palestinians until all the walls, real and metaphorical, are torn down and the Palestinians can be assured of their place alongside the Israelis with all their lands restored to them. Therefore a continuing international boycott of Israel is unfortunately necessary.

The New York Times has published an informative but bland article on the concert today at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/24/music ... nhtml?_r=1

Watch this space and presumably many other spaces for reports and reviews of the concert.


Please post up your own reviews and opinions on the concert too.

Thank-you.
We are so small between the stars, so large against the sky
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Tel Aviv, Israel, Ramat Gan Stadium 9/24/09

Post by Nurit »

I got home about 2 hours ago and since then have been trying to write here and share with you the magical experience, but I can't seem to find the words (especially the English ones...).

So for now just a heart felt thank you to Leonard and the band, who kept the promise Leonard had made at the beginning of the concert - to give us everything they've got. At a certain point (Anthem) I was swept to tears by a wave of feeling of grattitude to this man who was so much giving himself to us.

And also thank you, forum people, for your help in making this evening possible for me (I had a great seat, bought at the pre-sale). T H A N K S.
Jerusalem 1985; Tel-Aviv 2009.
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Re: CONCERT REPORT: Tel Aviv, Israel, Ramat Gan Stadium 9/24/09

Post by sharon.e »

It's been a few good hours since I got back from the concert and I am still overwhelmed with emotions..

Imagine a breezy end of summer/beginning of autumn evening and a soccer stadium filled with 48,000 people who’ve been anticipating this concert for a very long time. Imagine the famous Israeli warm hospitality welcoming Leonard and the band to the stage- the great warmth, sing-along, repeated hands clapping and numerous standing ovations. Imagine this concert, the Cohen lyrics, taking place in Israel during this special time of the Jewish High Holidays. Imagine the theme of this concert that’s so unique and rare and you got yourself a potion of pure magic. This is what we had tonight – pure magic.

A few minutes into “Dance Me to the End of Love”, people found the sticklights that were put on their seats and tens of thousands of green lights were sparkling from one end of the stadium to another, creating one of a kind scenery that lasted till the very end of the concert. I was fortunate to sit in the front, and kept on turning sideways and backwards to take it all in. The sight was so magical and unique, I kept on thinking how amazing it must look from the stage.

After “Waiting for the Miracle” , Leonard spoke about the ‘Parents’ Circle -Families Forum group’ (http://www.theparentscircle.com), about the Israeli & Palestinian parents who lost their children in the course of the conflict, and through all the agony, had found it in their hearts, to reach out a hand to their enemies, in a "holy holy holy response to human suffering" and "God willing" it could mark the beginning of a process toward peace. It takes a lot of courage to take the road not taken. The parents took it, Leonard took it, showing he isn’t just a great artist, but an exceptional human being, larger than life yet so so humble.
‘Anthem’ followed and the lyrics “Ring the bells that still can ring, Forget your perfect offering, There is a crack in everything, That's how the light gets in” received a very special meaning, moreover when the stage was flushed with golden hues.

The last thing one can say about Ramat-Gan stadium is that it’s intimate and yet it was that moment that I’ve realized that Leonard Cohen and the amazing band are probably the only ones who can make 50000 people feel they’re in an intimate forum.
Oh the band, just amazing - Each and every one with their soul-filled solos, and all of its members together. Sharon Robinson, the Webb Sisters, Roscoe Beck, Neil Larsen, Bob Metzger, Javier Mas, Rafael Gayol and Dino Soldo – you all deserve being mentioned personally.

Hallelujah was a climax of the concert: a ~50,0000 people choir, when literally everyone sang along. I’m replaying in my head this roar of Hallelujah only to have the goose bumps reappear.. I’m Your Man and Take this Waltz that followed, were just the same.
So long Marianne & First We Take Manhattan developed into a standing choir. The entire crowd, on their feet, singing and clapping and waving those precious green lights. And not only that Leonard thanked us all, you could see how magnificent the sight looked from the reflections on the band members’ faces.

This was for sure one of my best moments ever. totally unforgettable. I feel privileged to have attended this concert..
Thank you Robert Kory, Rob Hallett from AEG Live and our own Jarkko for making it happen – it’s so very much appreciated.

A worthy conclusion would be repeating Leonard’s quote of 'Blessing of the Priests' (Birkat Kohanim) with which he closed the concert and wish you all a very happy and blessed year:
May God bless you and guard you.
May God make God’s face shine upon you and grant grace to you.
May God lift up God’s face to you and give you peace

--Sharon

---------------------------------------------------------------
Set list:

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
• Chelsea Hotel #2
• Waiting for The Miracle
• Anthem

Second Set
• Tower of Song
• Suzanne
• Sisters of Mercy
• The Gypsy’s Wife
• The Partisan
• Boogie Street
• Hallelujah
• I'm Your Man
• Take This Waltz

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

Second Encores
• Famous Blue Raincoat
• If It Be Your Will
• Closing Time

Final Encores
• I Tried To Leave You
• Hey, That’s no Way to Say Goodbye
• Whither Thou Goest
Last edited by sharon.e on Wed Sep 30, 2009 8:20 pm, edited 6 times in total.
2009 Tel Aviv; San Jose
2010 Sligo [x2] ; Las Vegas [x2]
2012 Berlin; Paris; New York, Brooklyn
2013 London (Sept); Amsterdam
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