Tour Memories
Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 4:48 am
"Now tell me there is a pause
where we know there should be an end;
then tell me you too imagined it this way."
John Glenday, "The River"
There was certainly an autumnal quality to Leonard's last tour. Many times during the tour, we thought we had attended our "last" concert. But like the abundance in Keats' poem, "To Autumn,"
"to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,"
We managed to attend more and still more.
Now we don't know if this will be the end or only a pause, but it certainly came unexpected. I thought that the 1988 and 1993 tours was Leonard in his prime which I missed by a combination of the business of raising children and the lack of knowledge without having an engine like "The Leonard Cohen Files" to know about the concerts. None were scheduled for Madison and I didn't follow Chicago or Minneapolis newspapers which would have let me know about the concerts scheduled there. In passing, I learn that Anne and the kids and I were in Washington, D.C. just one week before one of his concerts there in 1993.
Tim Hardin sang of Hank Williams, "Goodbye Hank Williams, my friend, I didn't know you but I've been to the places you've been." And, "in Richmond where he'd just been, for some the seats could not be found, but we planned to see him again, next time, Hank Williams is in town." And Hank Williams unexpected death made those last concerts precious.
Now we wonder about how "the last" or " the end" will present itself-will it be like the last baby bottle that you ever wash that you don't realize has happened until some sort of retrospective or will it be like a final concert in Las Vegas with a sense of finality.
I'm starting this thread which I think should be under "World Tour 2010" or so. I want to start to share the memories that this most extraordinary three years have given us.
For Anne & I, after reading about the rehearsals, the beginning of the tour and the first night in Frederickton, we made plans to see Leonard early in the tour. We drove to Kitchener, Ontario and spent the evening before to make sure that we wouldn't be delayed and miss this start. We drove around "Circle in the Square" and I think we saw the Webb Sisters sitting outside before the sound check. I believe that "Circle in the Square" seats a little over one thousand people and we had tickets in the 2nd row. It was an amazing intimate experience. The crowd would shout out to Leonard and he would answer sometimes looking to the band to clarify what was the question. We were treated to the premier of "Waiting For the Miracle." People always ask which was our favorite concert and since this was our first concert since 1970, it is easy to say that the excitement here was hard to overcome.
We left to rain and traveled on the next day to Hamilton, Ontario where we stayed at the Sheraton Hotel and met our friends, Blonde Madonna and her husband, Jim to attend two more concerts on three consecutive days. My good friend, Steve who is a huge Pink Floyd fan said, "Joe, I wouldn't attend three Pink Floyd concerts in a row!"
I have much more to tell, but I'll leave it for now. On our return trip to the U.S., when we were stopped at the border, the guard asked me why we had been in Canada, and I answered, "To attend a concert in Hamilton." He said, looking at our passports, "that's a long way to go to attend a concert." To which I replied, "It was Leonard Cohen, eh?"
Joe
Moderators please feel free to move this to a more appropriate location.
where we know there should be an end;
then tell me you too imagined it this way."
John Glenday, "The River"
There was certainly an autumnal quality to Leonard's last tour. Many times during the tour, we thought we had attended our "last" concert. But like the abundance in Keats' poem, "To Autumn,"
"to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,"
We managed to attend more and still more.
Now we don't know if this will be the end or only a pause, but it certainly came unexpected. I thought that the 1988 and 1993 tours was Leonard in his prime which I missed by a combination of the business of raising children and the lack of knowledge without having an engine like "The Leonard Cohen Files" to know about the concerts. None were scheduled for Madison and I didn't follow Chicago or Minneapolis newspapers which would have let me know about the concerts scheduled there. In passing, I learn that Anne and the kids and I were in Washington, D.C. just one week before one of his concerts there in 1993.
Tim Hardin sang of Hank Williams, "Goodbye Hank Williams, my friend, I didn't know you but I've been to the places you've been." And, "in Richmond where he'd just been, for some the seats could not be found, but we planned to see him again, next time, Hank Williams is in town." And Hank Williams unexpected death made those last concerts precious.
Now we wonder about how "the last" or " the end" will present itself-will it be like the last baby bottle that you ever wash that you don't realize has happened until some sort of retrospective or will it be like a final concert in Las Vegas with a sense of finality.
I'm starting this thread which I think should be under "World Tour 2010" or so. I want to start to share the memories that this most extraordinary three years have given us.
For Anne & I, after reading about the rehearsals, the beginning of the tour and the first night in Frederickton, we made plans to see Leonard early in the tour. We drove to Kitchener, Ontario and spent the evening before to make sure that we wouldn't be delayed and miss this start. We drove around "Circle in the Square" and I think we saw the Webb Sisters sitting outside before the sound check. I believe that "Circle in the Square" seats a little over one thousand people and we had tickets in the 2nd row. It was an amazing intimate experience. The crowd would shout out to Leonard and he would answer sometimes looking to the band to clarify what was the question. We were treated to the premier of "Waiting For the Miracle." People always ask which was our favorite concert and since this was our first concert since 1970, it is easy to say that the excitement here was hard to overcome.
We left to rain and traveled on the next day to Hamilton, Ontario where we stayed at the Sheraton Hotel and met our friends, Blonde Madonna and her husband, Jim to attend two more concerts on three consecutive days. My good friend, Steve who is a huge Pink Floyd fan said, "Joe, I wouldn't attend three Pink Floyd concerts in a row!"
I have much more to tell, but I'll leave it for now. On our return trip to the U.S., when we were stopped at the border, the guard asked me why we had been in Canada, and I answered, "To attend a concert in Hamilton." He said, looking at our passports, "that's a long way to go to attend a concert." To which I replied, "It was Leonard Cohen, eh?"
Joe
Moderators please feel free to move this to a more appropriate location.
