Just the other side of intimacy
Although I wrote up a review of Leonard Cohen in the Manchester Opera House last month, I was lucky enough to see him again last week at the O2 last week, so I thought I’d put down a few recollections of that concert too. The set list was the same as Manchester, but there were a few things that I hadn’t noticed before.
From up where we sit, Leonard is just a little bit bigger than a specklet. And we aren’t even sitting in the cheap seats. Actually, there aren’t any cheap seats, although there are slightly cheaper seats. Leonard has noticed it too, “Welcome friends”, to a concert “just the other side of intimacy” and he apologises for the “geographical and financial inconvenience” that the concert might have caused.
Some of the songs have a few added details and embellishments. During ‘The Future’, Leonard breaks into a little dance as the lyrics reach the line “the white man dancing” – quite a sight! In ‘There Ain’t No Cure for Love’, which he introduces as “something that won’t easily be contradicted”, the organist gives us a little churchy flourish on his Hammond as the Leonard sings “I walked into this empty church, I had no place else to go”. Later, in ‘I’m Your Man’ the line “I’ll wear a mask for you” is transformed into “I’ll wear this old mask for you”.
There are supposed to be about 70 odd verses for ‘Hallelujah’ and Leonard has recorded two different versions, which he combines tonight. He starts with the first two verses from Various Positions, the bits about David and his secret chord who spots Bathsheba bathing under the moonlight. This goes onto the less-Biblical Cohen Live version where the only lesson he learns from love “how to shoot at someone who outdrew you”.
Many of the jokes and anecdotes are familiar from Manchester, but there is one new one that sticks out. The second half starts “I was having a drink with my old teacher. He’s a 103 now, he was 97 then. He said “Excuse me for not dying.” I kind of feel the same way… Thanks for keeping the songs alive.” He’s more than welcome, on both counts. It was another great show and it’s true: he didn’t come to London to fool us.
Tags: 02 Arena, Kyozan Joshu Sasaki, Leonard Cohen, Leonard Cohen World Tour 2008