Leonard Cohen will be appearing at Coachella 2009, so it’s nice to have a preview of what he’s been bringing audiences on his current tour. Here, our own Uncle T reports from this show in Texas a few days ago.

I have heard a lot of people sing “Hallelujah,” but I don’t think I’ve ever really listened to Cohen sing it himself. All songs here are from Leonard Cohen, Live in London [Buy at Amazon.com], released March 27, 2009.

Leonard Cohen – Nokia Theatre, Grand Prairie, TX – April 3, 2009

Band members:
• Leonard Cohen: Lead vocals, guitar, keyboards
• Roscoe Beck: Bass guitar, vocals
• Bob Metzger: Lead Guitar, pedal steel guitar, vocals
• Javier Mas: Acoustic guitar, banduria, laud, archilaud
• Dino Soldo: Keyboards, saxophones, wind instruments, harmonica
• Rafael Gayol: Drums and percussion
• Neil Larson: Keyboards, accordion, brass instruments
• Sharon Robinson: singer
• The Webb Sisters (Hattie and Charley): singers

Bandleader Roscoe Beck, originally from Austin, TX, said for this tour Leonard instructed him to assemble the “best band on the road”. And so he did, because this nine-piece band was absolutely superb. Javier Mas (from Barcelona, Spain) brought down the house more that a few times with his incredible guitar playing. Multi-instrumentalist Dino also dazzled us many times with his saxophone and harmonica solos. All the band members got their turn to shine sometime during the show. As I was leaving, I overheard someone ask a friend if they could think of a better live band than this (they couldn’t).

At age 74 Leonard was in great form, singing in a smooth deep-baritone style; a velvet fog, you might say. He looked dapper his dark suit and hat, and was simultaneously commanding and at ease. He commented that it’d been around 14 years since he’d last played here at age 60 (humorously describing himself then as “just a kid with a dream”). He was also pretty spry because during the show’s second half, he ran off and on the stage several times.

All of these great songs, most classics, played by this magnificent band along with Leonard’s great singing made for a fantastic concert experience. The songs were all performed very well, with virtually no filler whatsoever. While there were songs I wished they would have played, I was very satisfied with those they did play. The crowd at Nokia was very receptive, and most stayed for the entire show which began at 8:00 pm and ended around 11:30 pm (with a 30 minute intermission). The music was totally captivating the entire show.

The set’s songs were played in this order:
1. Dance Me To The End Of Love: Nice song to start the concert.
2. The Future: This was the song that finally prompted me to begin listening to Leonard, and it was great in concert. When he changed the second verse of “white man dancing” to “white girls dancing”, the two Webb sisters both did simultaneous back-flips causing the crowd to hoot in approval. That’s certainly something you don’t see at every concert. Later when introducing the band members, Leonard introduced the Webb Sisters as singers and acrobats.
3. Ain’t No Cure For Love: Nice
4. Bird On The Wire: Very nice.
5. Everybody Knows: Excellent
6. In My Secret Life: Sharon and Leonard sang this one.
7. Who By Fire: Great.
8. Chelsea Hotel No. 2: Wonderful, with Leonard singing and playing guitar.
9. Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye
10. Anthem: This song from The Future was incredible in concert, and ended their first set. Everyone in the band did a little soloing and singing on this number, that stretched out while Leonard introduced the band members before they broke for a brief intermission.

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Second set:
1. Tower Of Song: This was performed mostly by Leonard (playing keyboards) and the girls; it was great. Near the end of the song, Leonard had the girls extend their cooing “do-da-dum-dum” for a while since it sounded so good. However after awhile he couldn’t stop them from singing it. Finally he took off his hat and declared that “he’s finally saved” and the song ended. Funny.
2. Suzanne: Very nice reading of this classic.
3. The Gypsy’s Wife: Wonderful performance of this with the entire band.
4. The Partisan: Leonard surprised me with this great old song from “Songs From A Room”, playing guitar and singing it perfectly.
5. Boogie Street: Sharon sang the lead on this one, with Leonard singing background vocals. She did a great job. She’s one heck of a singer, that’s for sure.
6. Hallelujah: This was a show-stopping performance by Leonard and the band on this great classic.
7. I’m Your Man: The band picked up the rhythm on this one, another classic. Leonard sang it great.
8. Recitation w/ N.L.: Leonard recited this in verse, which was partly from the song “A Thousand Kisses Deep”, backed only by light keyboard playing. I’d have preferred they played the song, but this was interesting too.
9. Take This Waltz: This was another wonderful band performance.
10. So Long, Marianne: Great performance of this classic.
11. First We Take Manhattan: Another cool upbeat number, which was great.
12. Famous Blue Raincoat: This is one of my favorite Cohen songs of all time, and he played it close to the stark original; singing and playing guitar. I was hoping he’d play this one. Fantastic.
13. If It Be Your Will: The Webb Sisters did a great job, doing a duet of lead vocals on this, with Hattie playing the harp and Charley playing guitar. Their voices almost blended together as one. This was a pretty magical performance.
14. Lullaby: This was new Leonard Cohen song that’s not on any album or CD. It was pretty good.
15. Closing Time: This is about as country as Mr. Cohen gets, and sounded similar to the original. Afterwards Leonard left the stage, but came back after a few minutes wearing a big blue cowboy hat.
16. I Tried To Leave You: Wearing the hat, he sang the first verse of this song and the crowd went along with the joke. As this song stretched out, every band member took their turn to solo or sing and Leonard introduced them again. Afterwards they all left the stage.
17. Whither Thou Goest: The band, stage hands, and even spouses all came back to sing this light spiritual song. By this time the entire crowd was on its feet cheering the end of this wonderful show.

All photos by Uncle T

Filed under: Coachella 2009, Uncle T, concert, Leonard Cohen

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