Laugh, and cry, and cry, and laugh about it all

Leonard Cohen was amazing. And I don't use that term lightly!

In fact, I probably do use that term lightly, so for the purpose of this statement I am temporarily reconfiguring my usage of the term "amazing" to something particularly powerful, and then applying my newly reconfigured, non-lightly-used term, to Leonard Cohen. He was Amazing₁.

He played for about 3 hours, including a 15 minutes intermission. He played the span of most of his career, from Suzanne to In My Secret Life, via Chelsea Hotel and The Future. It's hard to really pick out the particularly brilliant moments, because each song really does its own thing, has it's own thing to say, it's own effect to create... And all that.

I'll settle for saying these two things: The most emotional moment, for me, came at the end of the first half, when he performed Anthem. It helps that I probably already found this one of his most powerful songs. The music complements the lyrics perfectly, and the lyrics are among the most beautiful I've heard. The name, Anthem, is truly appropriate for the song, which seems to singularly encapsulate and enunciate everything that Leonard Cohen's work is about, and, on the night, Cohen introduced it as though it were a manifesto. In short, throughout his performance, I resembled Rob in this comic.

The funniest moment, on the other hand, was the performance of Tower Of Song. Now that song clearly has its funny moments, but I never really saw it as a humourous song before this performance. It probably helped that it is a song about growing old, and he was singing it to a huge audience, the average age of which was probably about 60. But in particular, he managed the most perfect delivery imaginable for the lines

I said to Hank Williams: how lonely does it get?
... Hank Williams hasn't answered yet.

... You... You probably had to be there. I, for one, can say I am damn glad I was.

In between songs, he was incredibly charming. He had this way of coming across as the most kind, humble, respectful, gracious presenter that I have ever seen. Perhaps this has something to do with spending 5 years secluded in a Buddhist monastary, I don't know. Much of his banter was clearly rehearsed, carried over from one performance to the next, but it was still entertaining, and funny. I can kinda forgive him for this, as any genuine audience interaction probably doesn't work too well in a venus like the Entertainment Centre. I could have more complaints about the venue, but frankly it probably wasn't too bad for a show like this. I could hear everything, even with not-too-good seats, and, though the music certainly didn't seem to fill up the space or anything, I'm not sure it really had to.

Anyway, long story short, Leonard Cohen: Amazing₁.