leonardcohenforum.com

Is it becoming slightly stale?

1. No

2. read the reports and comments on the ongoing North America tour - doesn´t sound as if the concertgoers there had any impression of staleness.

3. I could have given the same response to the question of the "Are ticket prices too high?"-thread - ask the concertgoers in America after the concert if they think to have got value for money.

How right you are Harald. The Louisville concert was full of surprises!!!!

Surprises? Looking at the set lists you wouldn't think so. A photocopy of one would pretty well suit nearly every concert now, except for a little tweaking of the encores.

And if you mean Cohen "screwing up the words" that's a surprise we could do without. Worrying - never used to happen... Let's hope it doesn't become a habit.
He did talk himself out of it well, though - that comes with experience!

Athnauchan,

I guess you had to be there and have had the privilege to have attended a number of shows to realize how unique this concert was.

Every show has nuances that keeps it from being stale - just my personal humble opinion.

Kindest regards,
Mary

MaryB wrote:
Every show has nuances that keeps it from being stale - just my personal humble opinion.

Mary

Yes, of course you're right, MaryB - actually being there is great.

Unfortunately we in Ireland are not being granted that privilege in 2013, despite enthusiastic support of LC for years - long before it became popular and profitable to do so.

Reading about concerts elsewhere - the same patter, the same set lists, is not great - must break the habit, must just stop doing so...

Reading about concerts elsewhere - the same patter, the same set lists, is not great

Why isn't it great?

If I go and see Hamlet ten nights in a row and hear the words "To be or not to be", do I
feel cheated or underwhelmed? Of course not, for every performance will contain a
different shade of meaning and I will glean something new.

This is the same when attending a Cohen concert, I feel. There is always something
to absorb if we open our minds and hearts. Great art never becomes stale in my opinion.
The bard from Montreal belongs in this pantheon. Perhaps it is because his concerts
have become such polished performances, that it is easy to take the experience for
granted?

I have recently been reading a fascinating book called "The Living Mountain" by Nan Shepherd,
ostensibly about the Cairngorms in Scotland. Yet it is a book that works on many levels.
There is a great line, which I think will chime with many people on this forum:

"Knowing another is endless...the thing to be known grows with the knowing."

comehealing wrote:

Reading about concerts elsewhere - the same patter, the same set lists, is not great

If I go and see Hamlet ten nights in a row and hear the words "To be or not to be", do I
feel cheated or underwhelmed? Of course not, for every performance will contain a
different shade of meaning and I will glean something new.

This is the same when attending a Cohen concert, I feel.)

Please read more carefully what I said!

Of course, if you can attend, this is so! However, if there are no concerts in Ireland not everyone can hop on a plane and pay for it.
Reading about concerts elsewhere is a VERY poor substitute.

Hi, I did read carefully what you said and your previous posts!

I detected maybe a sense of disullusionment but I didn't want to sound
presumptuous in my assumptions

Sorry to hear that Len isn't coming to Ireland. However, always a believer that
where there's a will there's a way.

Namaste



(I love reading about the concerts, whether the reviews be in the nationals
or on this forum. They always encapsulate the magic)

Athnuachan wrote:[quote="comehealing

I love reading about the concerts, whether the reviews be in the nationals
or on this forum.

Well, good for you! Enjoy! ( BTW you mean "disillusionment" ? How right you are! )

My almost 90 yr. old aunt, a Cohen fan all her life, who can't just hop on a plane to go elsewhere, now knows that Kilmainham 2012 was her last LC concert. Better to know. And it was GOOD.

all her life?
find that hard to believe

Well, from age 16 on!
Let's not be pedantic....

Later edit (in the interests of accuracy and to keep Rodin happy!)
Grand Aunt has been a Cohen fan not all but most of her life, since she read some of his poems in the fifties.

I was wrong about 16 - (humble apologies ) that's the age I became a Cohen fan myself!

Athnuachan wrote:Well, from age 16 on!
Let's not be pedantic....

Pedantic !!!!

Your Gran = 89 say (not quite 90) and a fan of LC since she was 16.

Leonard cohen is 78 years old.

So 73 years ago when she was 16, LC was 5 years old..........she must have known summat

You're right, Vicomte the dates don't seem to add up!
I know Gran Aunt told us she was at IOW and had LC album "A few" years before that. Hope to see her in 2 weeks' time and will check dates.

All I know is she LOVED Kilmainham , hoped for 2013 concert in Ireland, not to be. Best wishes,
Athnuachan

Athnuachan wrote:
...........All I know is she LOVED Kilmainham , hoped for 2013 concert in Ireland, not to be. Best wishes,
Athnuachan

And at the end of the day, that's all that matters,

Be lucky.

LHHUNTER wrote: could it be the performance is becoming a little too predictable in terms of format and content. I wish the band would surprise us sometimes by juggling the tunes around a bit between the sets rather than playing safe every time.

Just to return this thread to its original intention, is there any hope that a little "juggling" might liven up the European tour?

It is understandable that Cohen, at his age, would cling to the predictable format - and clearly he makes the decisions, not the band - but just one "new" song each concert would help, or even changes in the order of the songs.
Each of those musicians is so skilled (much more musically talented than Cohen himself, as he would be the first to admit - he has the words and the charisma, they have the music!) that change or improvisation would not bother them at all. They are adaptable, as they have proved.

They just await the word from on high...