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Monday, May 18th, 2009
Leonard Cohen at the Palace Theater in Waterbury, Connecticut
Frank YangIf only it were as Muppet-simple as “taking Manhattan”. In fact, it shook out more like first, I take a subway, then a shuttle bus, then a ferry, then a plane, then monorail, train and subway again just to get into Manhattan. And just as soon as I’ve arrived in the Big Apple, it’s back on the subway, another subway, then a train, another train and then an unlicensed taxi (“hey you need a ride?”) – all to get into Waterbury, Connecticut. A city which was once apparently a brass manufacturing powerhouse but which now seems to have little to recommend it as a destination, save for a gorgeous theater downtown – the Palace – and on Thursday night, one Leonard Cohen.
Seeing Cohen wasn’t on the agenda as recently as last weekend, as I’d hoped to be able to finagle a way to the Hamilton show at Copp’s tomorrow, but an extra ticket from Without A Yard, serendipitous scheduling and a willingness to undertake a rather ridiculous set of logistics to trek out to the show made it happen. Mostly. Weather delays and other issues fixed it so that we didn’t actually reach the theater until almost mid-way into Cohen’s set – so it’s just as well that he needs no introduction, because I wouldn’t have been able to provide one.
Thankfully, the show was extra-long and with an intermission, for that’s when we arrived and thus managed to avoid being those people who get there late and try to find their seats in the dark. Sure, it meant that instead of a marathon three-hour show, we only got a 90-minute, regular-length show, but even a that much Leonard is like a gift – especially in a venue as stunning as the Palace. There may not be much else to say about a one-cab town like Waterbury, but this was easily the second-nicest place I’d ever seen a show, after only the Royal Albert Hall in London.
And what a show. I don’t know what Cohen played in the front half of the performance, but it almost seemed like he knew to hold back my favourite songs for the finale, as it was stunner after stunner as soon as the lights went down and Cohen, surprisingly nimble, sprinted/danced/shimmied onto the stage. “Tower Of Song”, “Suzanne”, “Take This Waltz”, “Democracy”, “Halleleujah”, “Famous Blue Raincoat”, hell yes. And okay, I just had a look at the set list for the show and am a little pained to have missed “Anthem”, “Everybody Knows” and “Chelsea Hotel” but still, no regrets.
Just as remarkable as hearing the songs performed live – not something I ever thought I’d get to experience – was how good Cohen sounded. He’s obviously not a young man – he may have been spry but was still a slightish figure and a bit stooped – but age seems to have served his delivery very well, somehow making his voice even deeper, richer and more sonorous. He also played more guitar than I’d expected, and I’d have been happy – possibly even happier – to have heard him play solo. It’s no secret my favourite Cohen aesthetic is that of the stark, dark folksinger of his earlier works even if, as far as songs go, I prefer his later works circa The Future or I’m Your Man (and I’m far from unique in this, I know) but the production values on those records – the big bands, the backing singers, the rather dubious synths – have just aged so badly that it can be hard to listen to.
In the live setting, he splits the difference somewhat with a nine-piece backing band including three backing singers – it’s all live, analog instrumentation, toy keyboard on “Tower Of Song” excepted, and masterfully played but I don’t feel the high degree of polish – even if suited for the setting – suits the songs best. They need those dark, dusty corners and the gleam of Cohen’s band doesn’t let those shadows fall where they should. Additionally, Cohen as bandleader was generous to a fault, allowing extended excursions to the musicians – do anyone really need to hear more than one bouzouki solo in a lifetime? – and even ceding lead vocals to Sharon Robinson on their collaboration “Boogie Street”. Perhaps if I’d made the entire show, I’d have been less anxious about it but any moment that Cohen wasn’t singing felt like a lost one.
Understand, however, that these complaints aren’t even really complaints, more just observations, and should in no way imply that I was less than enraptured by the show. No matter how you dress them up, the heart of it is Cohen, his words and his voice, and those were flawless. Obviously I hope that Cohen continues to tour and that I might get to see him again – start to finish – but that’s a huge and probably unrealistic presumption. I feel fortunate to have seen as much as I did, and to anyone who will be seeing him on any of his remaining dates, you are in for such a treat. But of course you already knew that.
The Hartford Courant also has a review of the Waterbury show.
Photos: Leonard Cohen @ The Palace Theater – May 14, 2009
Video: Leonard Cohen – “Democracy”
Video: Leonard Cohen – “Closing Time”
Video: Leonard Cohen – “Dance Me To The End Of Love”
Video: Leonard Cohen – “In My Secret Life”
Video: Leonard Cohen – “First We Take Manhattan”
MySpace: Leonard Cohen
PitchforkTV’s “Don’t Look Down” series welcomes Jose Gonzalez for a session. He plays the Harbourfront Centre on June 26 as part of the Toronto Jazz Festival.
Anyone disappointed that Loney Dear had to cancel last week’s show in Toronto on account of their van breaking down between here and Montreal – I’m looking at you, me – can take a little solace in this performance they recorded for Baeble Music’s new “Guest Apartment” video session series. Seattlest has an interview with Emil Svanangen.
WOXY has posted the MP3s from their recent Lounge Act session with The Dears to share and enjoy.
Pitchfork talks to Peter Buck and Paste has some photos of R.E.M. hunkered down in the studio, hard at work on the follow-up to Accelerate.
Vanity Fair and Prefix talk to Stephin Merritt about his new musical based on Neil Gaiman’s Coraline.
Spinnerette has a date at the Mod Club on June 19. Their debut, which is either self-titled or called A Prescription For Mankind, is out June 23.
Video: Spinnerette – “Ghetto Love”
Abe Vigoda – band, not actor – are at the El Mocambo on July 22 in support of their new album Reviver. Advance tickets are $10.
MP3: Abe Vigoda – “Don’t Lie”
The Rural Alberta Advantage, who will properly release Hometowns on July 7 and tour North America all Summer to support, will play a homecoming pit stop/record release show at the Horseshoe on July 30.
So some details have emerged on why the Olympic Island concert was canceled last week. Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew blogs that the July 11 date was unfortunately scheduled opposite the Molson Indy – both temporally and physically, what with Olympic Island being just across the lake from Exhibition Place, where the very loud cars would have been tearing around the track all day. They’d likely have been done by the time BSS and Explosions In The Sky took the stage but for the rest of the bands, it’d have been near-unbearable. Beach House wouldn’t have stood a chance. So the festival was canned, the free make-up show that same night from BSS at Harbourfront Centre announced and the lineups for it are probably already stretching all along the waterfront. Also covered in the post is the fact that the band are now recording their fourth album – a proper Broken release, not a “Presents” faux-solo record – with Tortoise’s John McIntire at the helm. Considering his aesthetic is very, very different from usual BSS producer Dave Newfeld, it should be very interesting to see what comes of this – one hopes he can curb some/much of the Scene’s meandering sprawl without costing them their spontaneous magic. And Pitchfork currently has excerpts from the new Broken biography, This Book Is Broken available to read.
Sunday, May 17th, 2009
Matthew AvignoneFor an establishment with the history and mythology that it has, the Chelsea Hotel in New York City really isn’t all that expensive – rooms can be had for as little as $129 a night which, for Manhattan, is kind of dirt cheap. Of course, it’s far from opulent and you’re probably not guaranteed the sort of time Leonard Cohen immortalized in his song, “Chelsea Hotel No 2”.
It’s one of Cohen’s finest compositions and certainly one of his most-covered, Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam one of hundreds who’ve committed a version of it to tape, this recording dates back to around 2002. But though it’s both old and rare, it doesn’t appear on his forthcoming double-disc collection of rarities, Around The Well. Perhaps it was too obvious, considering the covers that did make the cut include songs originally by The Flaming Lips, Stereolab and The Postal Service.
Around The Well is out on Tuesday, the same date that Leonard Cohen plays Copp’s Coliseum in Hamilton. Me, I saw him on Thursday. More on that forthcoming.
MP3: Iron & Wine – “Chelsea Hotel No 2”
Video: Leonard Cohen – “Chelsea Hotel No. 2” (live in San Sebastian, 1988)
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009
CONTEST – Leonard Cohen at Copps Coliseum in Hamilton – May 19, 2009
AEG LiveI’ve given away a lot of stuff over the years, some big, some small, but most or all, I like to think, pretty cool and of genuine interest to those who visit. But I think I can say with no small degree of certainty that this is the coolest contest I’ve ever been able to run.
Leonard Cohen is a figure for whom the term “living legend” was created. He’s not just a Canadian icon, but a global one. He’s… well come on. He’s Leonard Cohen. And though he’s kept a low profile in recent years, he returned to full-on active duty last year with a rapturously-received Canadian and European tour and has carried that forward into 2009, first being revealed as one of the top-billed performers at Coachella, then playing his first American show in over 15 years in New York City last week and almost before that show was over, announcing a massive North American tour. Having played a four-night stand in Toronto last year, he’s not coming to the 416 this time around but will be just down the QEW on May 19 for a date at Copps Coliseum in Hamilton.
And this is where it gets exciting. Courtesy of AEG Live, I have two pairs of tickets to give away for the show. That’s right. Leonard Cohen tickets. For you. The public on-sale for the show is at 10AM on Monday morning, but rather than feverishly hitting refresh on your browser when you should be working and worrying about getting shunted to TicketsNow, two lucky readers will be able to sit back and relax in the knowledge that two golden ducats will be waiting for them at the Copps will call on the 19th of May. Are you excited? Hell, I’m excited and I don’t even know if I’m going to get to go to the show.
And it’s going to work like this. To enter, you need to select your favourite Leonard Cohen lyric, be it a line, a couplet, a verse, and tell me why you love it. Make it 100-150 words, give or take, and leave it in the comments. The submission is just the price of admission – winners will still be chosen at random from submissions. Make sure to include your email in the submission so I can contact the winners. Closing time for this one will be Sunday night, March 1, at midnight. Hop to it.
And to send you on your way and get you in the spirit, Leonard just contributed a new poem to The New Yorker. His Live In London album, taken from last year’s tour, is out on March 31 – details at Billboard.
Update: The New York Times has an interview.
Update 2: NPR is streaming his show at the Beacon Theatre in NYC from last week.
Update 3: The Globe & Mail has an interview.
Contest is closed – congratulations to Matthew and Dimitri, who won the tickets. Thanks to everyone for participating.
Video: Leonard Cohen – “Democracy”
Video: Leonard Cohen – “Closing Time”
Video: Leonard Cohen – “Dance Me To The End Of Love”
Video: Leonard Cohen – “In My Secret Life”
Video: Leonard Cohen – “First We Take Manhattan”
MySpace: Leonard Cohen
Saturday, February 25th, 2006
The long-awaited The New York Times Magazine piece on the Toronto indie music scene gets published tomorrow, but is already online at their website (Bugmenot). While there are nods to Toronto institutions like Wavelength and Blocks Blocks Blocks, the piece unsurprisingly focuses squarely on Broken Social Scene with Kevin Drew acting as unofficial ambassador for the city.
Though it’s no doubt annoying to some who feel that BSS are overexposed/sell outs/just plain bad, this is an entirely logical move by the Times. Besides being the highest profile act in the city right now, talking about BSS also tangentially covers something like half the other bands in the city. But never let it be said that reason stood in the way of a good old fashioned bitching. It took the kids at Stille Post, who posted the article earlier this week, a little while but there’s now some hearty debate/complaining about the Scene versus the scene and who’s in and who’s out and other such drama. I had been a little disappointed before that they’d initially shown an uncharacteristic amount of restraint in tearing the article to shreds, but I guess they were just getting warmed up. There was also some less prickly commentary from two of our city blogs, Torontoist and Paved.
A little more BSS linkage – Australia’s The Age has an interview with Charles Spearin and Stereogum has the band’s version of “Puff The Magic Dragon”, which whill appear on See You On The Moon, an album of children’s songs being put out by Paper Bag Records. The ‘Gum has both the album version and an earlier version that was apparently rejected for being too “freaky”.
More previewing tonight’s big show – Hour.ca talks to Carl Newman of The New Pornographers and Chart chats with Chris Geddes of Belle & Sebastian.
While firm new release info from Ted Leo is still forthcoming, he’s posted a couple of rehearsal demos of new tracks that should appear on the album. Check them out:
MP3: Ted Leo & The Pharmacists – “Army Bound”
MP3: Ted Leo & The Pharmacists – “Some Beginner’s Mind”
Some show updates – Metal Hearts will be playing with Minus The Bear at Lee’s Palace on April 23, tickets $13.50, and The Elected will be at The Horseshoe on March 30.
np – Explosions In The Sky / How Strange, Innocence
Monday, November 1st, 2004
I’m not sure there was any sort of plot to Napoleon Dynamite. It seemed more an hour and a half of loosely related, desperately quirky sight gags and non sequiters. The characters are so over the top awkward that you can’t help but laugh with or at them. Jon Heder as the titular character and Efren Ramirez as his sidekick Pedro both seem to have been given “autism” as their main bit of direction. Either way, the results were often amusing and on occasion laugh-out-loud funny, particularly Napoleon’s grand finale dance-off.
It’s guaranteed to be a cult movie hit, and therein lies my main reservation – it felt like it was made to be a cult movie hit. Like the thing was put together deliberately and calculatedly (is that a word?) to appeal to the indie/geek demographic. But, that’s a minor complaint and even if that’s the case, it was still a fun, if slight, film. And I enjoyed hearing When In Rome’s “The Promise” over the closing credits, in a completely unironic sense. I really liked that song – my brother even had the 12″ with all the unnecessary remixes. Honest. Footnote – Even though “Napoleon Dynamite” was a pseudonym Elvis Costello used in the 80s, writer and director Jared Hess says that he got it from someone he met while on a mission for the Church of Mormon.
Lazy-I finds out where Matthew Sweet has been hiding the last few years. Matthew is in Toronto at the Mod Club next Monday night. Thanks to Eugene for the link.
Nude As The News interviews soon-to-be-ex-GBV guitarist Doug Gillard on the end of one era and the start of a new one. Doug’s first solo album Salamander came out October 19.
Tiny Mix Tapes, who like to brag that they were all about the Arcade Fire waaaaaay back when, talks to the band in the midst of their continent-conquering tour in support of Funeral.
The Guardian fondly recalls their past interviews with John Peel and The Times considers his legacy in pop music.
The Denver Post catches Jeff Tweedy wondering why everyone makes such a big fuss about his band. Link (and the last one) from LHB.
The Stars show at the Mod Club has been confirmed for December 18.
np – J Mascis & The Fog / More Light
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