Are the reviews always this good?

[Rian Fike]

I am having a hard time believing that one man can cause such bliss everywhere he goes. After three days, our night in Fort Lauderdale is still ringing in my soul and ALL the reviews have been utter hyperbole.

Is it always like this?

[ladydi]

Yes Rian....he can! Leonard reaches deep into our hearts and souls and touches us, somewhere deep where we all live within ourselves. It's love, faith, spirituality, sensuality, conflict, longing, promise, our inner conflicts, and sex. I don't think there is one person who cannot identify with one of these...if not all.

He speaks the language of our souls....

[sturgess66]

Newsflash. Leonard Cohen has now taken Florida.


Still no video from Tampa!!!

[Misty Marie]

I think they will always be this good. I've only been to one other Leonard Cohen concert - at the Dodge Theater in Phoenix back in April - but I (like everyone else) left the concert somehow changed forever. My next stop will be the San Jose concert, and I'm already so excited I can hardly wait! I'm like everyone else - I think about his other concerts going on each night and I'm excited for everyone who has the good fortune to be there. Why? What other artist could possibly make a person feel like that?

I read these statements somewhere on this forum a while ago: "His lyrics put the audience in a Heaven that cannot be explained. This is more than a concert. This is a journey into another level of being." Whoever said that was right on. And hearing now that Leonard and his band have only improved with age ... I'm betting the reviews will only get better!

Misty

[goaskaliceok]

Leonard Cohen owned the Fox Theatre stage and Atlanta, Ga tonight!
Unbelievable concert!
So, I just heard,
Newsflash:
Leonard Cohen has now taken Georgia, also!
oops, forgot the smiley faces:

[Misty Marie]

First he takes Manhattan ... then Berlin ... then Florida ... Georgia .. and now ... back to Manhattan??!! The rest of us wait patiently for our turn to be taken as well ...

[tomsakic]

If I can add, there was ONLY ONE bad review during 2008-2009 tour, and that was not actually "bad" but more cynical and wanna-be-snobbish from one of typical young music blog writers. It was posted somewhere here on the forum; it was very short.

[Hartmut]

there was ONLY ONE bad review during 2008-2009 tour, and that was not actually "bad" but more cynical and wanna-be-snobbish from one of typical young music blog writers.

The strange thing is: In the 80s and 90s a lot of the concert reviews were like that. Despite the fact that the set lists then were pretty much identical to those of today.

So: The only thing that has really changed since then is the singer’s age. Which leads to the sad question: Is Cohen getting some of these good reviews at least partly simply because he’s old?

Another factor might be that a lot of journalists just write what is currently en vogue: 20, 30 years ago it was trendy to regard him as nothing more than an amusing relic of the 60s. Whereas nowadays it is common ground to be in awe of him. So that is what they write. – This thought diminishes my enjoyment of the glowing reviews. So maybe you shouldn’t dwell too long on this.

[sturgess66]

there was ONLY ONE bad review during 2008-2009 tour, and that was not actually "bad" but more cynical and wanna-be-snobbish from one of typical young music blog writers.

The strange thing is: In the 80s and 90s a lot of the concert reviews were like that. Despite the fact that the set lists then were pretty much identical to those of today.

So: The only thing that has really changed since then is the singer’s age. Which leads to the sad question: Is Cohen getting some of these good reviews at least partly simply because he’s old?

Another factor might be that a lot of journalists just write what is currently en vogue: 20, 30 years ago it was trendy to regard him as nothing more than an amusing relic of the 60s. Whereas nowadays it is common ground to be in awe of him. So that is what they write. This thought diminishes my enjoyment of the glowing reviews. So maybe you shouldn’t dwell too long on this.

Absolutely not. The response of those going to see this man, critics/reviewers included, has been overwhelmingly positive - glowing. Over and over again is repeated things like ""stunning" - "brilliant" - "the best show I have ever been to" - and "I will never forget" - "transcending." These reactions are involuntary. They come from those who were not necessarily even fans - or who knew little about the man before attending the show. It is the truth.

[goldstei]

I think LC has gotten better with age: his voice is better, there is more feeling in it, he has been thru more of life, including suffering, I think he has dumped a bit of pointless ego, he has an extraordinary band. Those on this forum, of course, have a rather positive bias to begin with and (including myself) are especially likely to report the positive, but the positive has been overwhelmingly the case for these extraordinary concerts of the last two years.
But my guess is that Leonard would be the first to caution us that, in the end, he is a human, like all of us; he is flawed, like all of us; he makes mistakes, like all of us. He's gotten to what appears not only an extraordinary concert state but also an extraordinarily good mental state through living thru and trying to learn thru a lot of mistakes and suffering, and I think he's been helped along very much by the very-well deserved wonderfully supportive audience response. And I've laughed, sung and cried along with the rest of the audience. He's "our man," but let's always remember that he is, in the end, one of our deeply flawed species also.
Bob Goldstein

[lizzytysh]

Ah, Hartmut... you're being cynical and trying to explain away and dismiss deep and genuine impact on our internal and our external lives [Diana expressed all of that best]; in an age of ever-increasing alienation, from each other and from ourselves; where depth, quality, and precision are so incredibly rare... and where we're being so bombarded by various 'impacts' that they have virtually all lost their impact.

Leonard is so committed to excellence and to doing things his way, aside from what the mainstream is doing, that he has always been perceived as different. In the earlier days, he was recognized for this. Yes. Many of the other performers did things their way, aside from the mainstream; yet, Leonard did things his way, still removed from even them. Quintessential excellence stands alone.

To see his care in the selection of his band, and to hear his voice still so very deeply strong and expressive and far better than it ever was in its depth and gravitas, to watch him give his every word the attention each deserves in both his body and his mind, he rises above the norm and the good and the excellent into a league of his own. When people write of his impact on them, their words come straight from the heart.

Many have never read, much less experienced, what you've read; yet, they have personally experienced the phenomenon that is Leonard. You can taste it, you can feel it. Yes, the reviews are hyperbolic... yet, conversely, paradoxically, the hyperbole is true. So, if the reading of all the consistently rave reviews are bothersome and unbelievable to you... well, you can only expect them to continue. His precision is in a league all its own.

My friend who attended Ft. Lauderdale had never really known of him until almost a year ago [and through me] and her exclamations were how spiritual he is... and how he knows women so well and writes so much of what we want to hear... and how the experience of seeing him was a spiritual one. My other friend who attended Tampa with me has known of him and loved his music, but not read all the reviews and she exclaimed how this was a spiritual experience and pondered "who would've thought... "

The journalists are echoing what the audience members [including themselves] are experiencing. How wonderful to know that some things really do stay the same in the very finest of ways.

I could say more, but I must go... so I won't be late to work.


~ Lizzy

[Hartmut]

The response of those going to see this man, critics/reviewers included, has been overwhelmingly positive - glowing. [...] These reactions are involuntary.

his care in the selection of his band, [...] him give his every word the attention each deserves

All this is true. But why didn’t critics react the same way 20 years ago? What is the difference between now and then? - I don’t know. But since the concerts in the 80s und 90s were not inferior to the current ones, I suspect there must be outside factors. - His age and current pop culture preferences are the ones that come to (my) mind first. But maybe someone else can come up with a better explanation.

Is it really just the improved voice as you, Lizzy and Bob, suggest? Maybe. But this doesn’t seem to be enough for the difference in the critics’ reactions now and then.

you're being cynical

Nope. Just slightly puzzled.

[sturgess66]

It goes beyond analysis Hartmut. You can analyze it if you like - but you won't get anywhere I think. It goes beyond words. It is the truth. And there is not a lot of that going on anywhere these days unfortunately.

It is a relief and a joy and a blessing - and it is quite welcomed wherever it travels.

[Hartmut]

It goes beyond analysis

Probably.

[lizzytysh]

Have you seen him, Hartmut?

When we're young, we think we know... and sometimes we do. Leonard's perception was years ahead of ours.

Now that we're old, and the young are older than they were then as they have experienced so much more than the young did then... our worlds are nowhere as idyllic as they once were... the pain and suffering of everyone has come round full face with us... and to watch and listen to someone who knew the truth then, and we recognized that; yet, hadn't experienced it as we have now... to see how right he was and has always been with his lyrics... to see him [yes, at his age, when so many young and old are gone or in nursing homes, or so deeply damaged in one way or another... to see him keeping hope alive as he smiles and grins and skips and laughs his endearing chuckle]. It all comes together in an alchemy that is irresistable to the forces of love.

Everybody knows neither the heart nor the soul are encumbered or bound by the constraints of analysis. Enjoy the reviews of the heart and the soul. You will rarely see them so strongly having their say.


~ Lizzy