Well, who would have thought that Leonard Cohen had such a nice line in self-effacing humour. His patter to the Auckland audience also included, Its been fifteen years since I was on stage, when I was sixty-years-old - a young  kid with a crazy dream. Then I took a lot of Prozac.  A reputation as gloomy Leonard has long dogged his 40 year career. You know the usual comments  - Music to slit your wrists to  etc’ -  and anyone announcing to friends that they were going to the Auckland concert would have undoubtedly have encountered similar judgements. Paul Henry also weighed in on TVNZ’s Breakfast, speculating as to whether there would be special wheelchair facilities provided.

Certainly, Leonard drew on an older demographic of concert-goers, all with a prosperous look, in a not-quite-full Vector Arena. Certainly they were devoted to and focused on the central figure on the stage and, I must admit, were often more enthusiastic and joyful than I.  My summary of the concert? Well, I can say it was a very pleasant experience. Leonard was enormously generous to his audience as the concert ran from 8.15pm until well after 11pm. Given the ticket prices ($142 was the cheapest option), I was expecting something special.  As Cohen himself sang, I didn’t come all this way to fool you (from Hallelujah)

 There was some real talent in his backing ensemble, especially Javier Mas on twelve-string guitar, and backing sisters Sharon Robinson and the Webb Sisters. They provided rich texture to the rather limited range of Cohen’s rumbling baritone.

For me, it was always going to be a toss-up between Big Day Out and Cohen, and a bit of a gamble. Travelling home down Highway One late on Thursday night, I tuned into the National Radio Music 101 special on BDO,  and wished (once again) that I had been there for Neil Young’s  slot.  I know I would have gone away with my head ringing and my ears smarting; Leonard and his nine-piece band rarely bothered the eardrums and the audience seldom stirred in their seats (except for  several standing ovations). There was a fitful attempt by two women, down on the floor, to dance to Hallelujah but they were swiftly ordered back to their seats. 

I guess the concert confirmed for me that the relationship with Cohen may be best conducted in the privacy of one’s room, or via one’s iPod, rather than in a charmless auditorium crammed with 10,000+ fans.  He ran through some of his best known songs, including Anthem, Bird on a Wire,  Everybody Knows, I’m Your Man, Suzanne, Dance Me To the End of Love,  Chelsea Hotel #2, No Way To Say Goodbye, and The Future. There was not much in the way of recent work but the same could be said of Neil Young at BDO - the older work of both Cohen and Young has a durability and resonance which recent songs lack.  On Cohen’s 2004 release Dear Heather, for example, his voice rarely rises above a mumble, and it is only the presence of strong accompanying female voices which carry the songs. 

But the encore performance, in Auckland, of  Democracy (Is coming to the U.S.A) proved that such songs have lasting-power, and a timely significance in the same week as a Black American President entered the White House. Cohen also invited a loud ironic cheer, with his line I was born with a golden voice (from Tower of Song).

I can’t comment on local Sam Hunt’s support act as I missed it, through a combination of traffic hold-ups, an extended search for a carpark (why did they build a stadium without car parking attached?), and some dawdling on my part.  As far as Leonard Cohen goes, his was a great (if not brilliant) performance, and you have to admire a 74-year-old who can hold his audience’s full attention for nearly three hours, and then merrily skip off the stage - at an hour when most 70+ year olds would be home tucked up in bed. Two days after the concert, the chorus from The Future is still playing in my head,

                   When they said REPENT

                   I wonder what they meant

                   When they said REPENT

                   I wonder what they meant

© Geoff Lealand  24 Jan 2009