We San Franciscans are damn lucky to have so many great live music choices on a Tuesday night. Who needs a big spring music festival like Coachella when you live in a place brimming with great live music. Case in point: last night bay area residents had the choice of Fleet Foxes at Fillmore, Green Days last minute secret show at The Fox, Devendra Banhart at The Independent, hip-hop superstar Mos Def at Yoshis, or Leonard Cohen at The Paramount. For me, the choice was abundantly clear: Leonard Cohen.
Its been too long time since weve had the honor of having Leonard Cohen perform in the Bay Area. Cohen knows this as well. He confessed as much from the stage, Its been quite a while since Ive stood up on a stage, maybe 14 or 15 years, I was 60 years old just a kid with a crazy dream.
I first became a fan of Leonard Cohen back in the early 80s. I was obsessed with Echo & The Bunnymen, and when I found out that lead singer Ian McCulloch was an uberfan, I picked up Cohens greatest hits and was hooked.
So for me, last nights concert at The Paramount was an event 20 years in the making. I was fortunate to have a great front row seat in the balcony that Id purchased on the secondary market for just a few dollars over face price. My dead center seat had great acoustics and a perfect view of his entire ensemble.
Cohen was backed up by a stellar group of nine musicians. Javier Mas of Barcelona played the bandurria and several other exotic stringed instruments. Bassist Roscoe Beck and guitarist Bob Metzger are long-time Cohen accompanists. Sharon Robinson, his collaborator and companion sang with a golden voice, with many solos of her own. There were two additional background vocalists, the Webb sisters Hattie and Charley Webb. Who would have guessed that these two versatile ladies counted gymnastics amongst their talents?
Ive heard some reviewers gripe that Cohen didnt have enough A-list material for a three hour performance. Excuse me? Leonard Cohen is arguably one of the greatest singer-songwriters of the last century. I suppose when youve written a song like Hallelujah that has been recorded by over 40 artists, it sets the bar high. For me, the highlights were Suzanne, Famous Blue Raincoat, Hallelujah, Im Your Man, and Democracy.
My only complaint? It might sound strange, but I was disappointed that I wasnt seeing Cohen perform in front of a UK audience. I can hardly blame Cohen for that. But I can lament that American audiences just arent as engaged as our felow-fans across the Atlantic where audience participation is both expected and appreciated. As Cohen sang one of his most famous verses, Now so long, Marianne, its time that we began/ to laugh and cry and cry and laugh/ about it all again I would have loved to have participated in a venue-wide sing-along.
I was particularly impressed with how Cohens performance lovingly and addressed the reality of his aging. He wove little jabs at himself into the performance. In Im your Man, for example, he changed the original If you want another kind of lover, Ill wear a mask for you to Ill wear an old mans mask for you as he tipped his fedora with an impish grin wide across his wrinkled face.
Cohen possesses the quality that I value most in a performer – Presence. Not presence in the sense of a bigger-than-life room filling personality, but presence in the spiritual sense. When he performs, he is clearly completely in the moment, heart open and accepting. That coupled with Cohens lyrical honestly (hes always been one to take on the big subjects, love, loss, spirituality, death, betrayal, redemption) packs a real wollop. I felt fulfilled but completely spent after witnessing his live performance. I was particularly struck by the mindful manner in which he himself bore witness to the other performers in his entourage. Sharon Robinson, his collaborator and companion, sang a solo version of Boogie Street that Cohen watched reverently from outside the spotlight, hat in hand. I love it when a group of performers comes together and works as a whole. Cohen clearly has a touring atmosphere that allows this group magic to happen.
Im a photographer, not a writer, so I often look about to see if someone skilled with words has summed up an event more succinctly than I ever could. In this case, Gary Kamiya from salon.com has captured it in a nutshell. For what Cohen offered to us was not just his artistry, but his life a life played for keeps, an examined life, an artists life. Not everyone can write Famous Blue Raincoat, but every one of us can try to live a deeper life. Every one of us can ring the bells that still can ring.
Check out Paige’s blog at thecolorawesome.com
