Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Venue: Arena / Zagreb / Croatia
Concert date: July 25, 2010
Attendance: 17,000
Ticket price: from 350.00 HRK (floor) to 700.00 HRK (boxes)
After the March date fell through, the Croatian capital finally got to welcome the legendary Canadian composer, poet and singer-songwriter, 74-year-old Leonard Cohen. The reason the March tour was canceled was that Cohen had to undergo urgent back surgery. Healthy and spry again, he landed at Zagreb’s Pleso airport a few days before the first European date of the summer tour. That was a good sign. The musicians were rested and full of anticipation to meet the lovers of their music again.
By eight in the evening, Zagreb’s Arena was already the cheerful setting for a magical night. People of a certain age, of course, made up most of the congregation. The floor had been converted into a seated area. Stands full. Almost full. This time, though, the band led by Cohen betrayed its proverbial punctuality and hit the stage a good twenty minutes late. The frame, embodied by a combination of curtain drapes and ceremonial lighting, was finally filled by the backing band. Magical shifts from red to blue via violet to turquoise, dictated by the hushed play of light on stage. Last to run (!) onto the stage was Cohen himself, and the Arena woke up. As if he knew this corner of the planet is thoroughly schooled in Mediterranean melos, Leonard opened the overture with none other than Dance to the End of Love, where he also touched on a simple motif on the keyboards at the start. In the flow of the accompaniment, the mandolin motif stood out right away. It’s also an important element in many of Cohen’s songs that followed in the rest of the set.
And who all kept Leonard company on stage? Let’s start with the fairer sex. First the backing singers and sisters Hattie and Charley Webb, Sharon Robertson on backing vocals and lead vocals for the song Boogie Street, Dino Soldo on winds (saxophone, harmonica, etc…) and keyboards, Niels Larsen on Hammond B3 organ and keyboards, Javier Mas on 12-string acoustic guitar, plus mandolin. Then there’s guitarist and steel pedal guitarist Bob Metzger, bassist Roscoe Black and drummer Rafael Gayol.
The concert is split into two parts. The first 75 minutes, the second 50! That’s not all! There are three encores, adding another 50 minutes of pure stage action! Add it all up and we’re at three hours.
A Leonard Cohen concert is a marathon spectacle of its own kind, yet it’s over in the blink of an eye. A marathon spectacle that sucks you into its world for three and a half hours, hypnotizes, enchants, fulfills. In short, after the show you definitely feel a change, some new psycho-physical state. Leonard Cohen, who for most of the show sways and rocks lazily, shuffling from his left foot to his right, saves the whole thing, of course, with his famous voice. A velvety rumble that, in the depths of its lowest register, tickles even the iciest heart. Poetry delivered with a rich load of meaning and emotion. No textbook here, no learned rules. It’s simply the decoding of a picture of soul and body into the musical language of one and only. Leonard Cohen. Regardless of these “crumbs,” which you’re not reading for the first time, it has to be added that the themes found in Leonard Cohen’s poetry flow through many, many spheres, forms and genres of popular music. And yet the delivery of the messages, or the sermon, if you will, chosen by this Canadian great gets under the skin especially intensely. It forces you to think, to some kind of awakening. And the final awakening? That depends on you, on every individual. It really gives you a spring to disconnect from the madness we’ve been thrown into as prisoners of modern Western European civilization. It offers you that precious time to talk to yourself and maybe promise yourself that from now on you’ll be a better person.
Cohen is melancholic. The sparrows on the roof are chirping about it! And how could all these themes, shot through with defiance of the everyday, perseverance, eroticism, spirituality, love,… not feel closer, right there in the palm of your hand, and more real, when you add one-of-a-kind musical accompaniment to that velvety voice? I can’t remember the last time I saw such precision and tightness in the performance itself and such a rich sonic picture built on organic collages. Cohen is a chameleon, and his innate feeling and musical talent effortlessly pull the right levers that magnify an emotion even further through the musician’s stage figure. Who wouldn’t feel safe in the bosom of an exceptional combination of three female backing vocalists, holding up an extremely melodic backdrop for the implantation of unique poetry about the cruelty of everyday life, the bitterness of realizations, yet also the enlightenment that’s the fruit of stubborn perseverance, as embodied by the Cohen principle? And all those elements: gypsy melos on guitar, country touches of the steel pedal, bluesy springs of erotic depth, as well as jazz-cabaret spices?
The first part came across even more intimate, even more personal, and emotionally completely unrestrained. The more gently the musicians approached, the more intensely Cohen’s subtle side sparkled. The hall truly came alive especially in the second part, where Cohen also picked up his acoustic guitar several times. The audience saw off Hallelujah, I’m Your Man with thunderous tempo-dictating, and later practically every song in the encores. Some verses that, through Cohen’s interpretation, touched hearts with their depth like a bolt from the blue, were greeted with riotous enthusiasm.
Want heaven? Want hell? It’s all within reach when Cohen is in front of you. The creation of a real, one-of-a-kind world for three hours that doesn’t merely offer entertaining diversion but really puts you to work, so you step out of this new experience even richer and more mature. Well… at least I hope that’s the case for me. What we witnessed this time in Zagreb was the first real confirmation of what we can expect in October in Ljubljana. And believe me. Only a completely bare, stripped-down approach and absolute submission to organically oriented sonic backdrops, without any aids like sound effects, “sampling”, sonic backdrops,… An expression of modesty, without pretense, that doesn’t hide its immense wealth in a unique sermon of character. And that positive energy, flowing freely in both directions and on which we fed that day in Zagreb, concertgoers and musicians alike, was there in abundance. And in Ljubljana, this fall, it’ll be no different! Anyone who hasn’t yet enjoyed a Cohen concert should hurry off to get their ticket. The floor is already sold out! After what I experienced in Zagreb, all I can add is that Cohen remains one of the greatest masters at delivering the artistry of his musical message. The voice isn’t just mature, it’s gilded and gaining carats! It’s as if the years don’t touch him, and never will.
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist
1. Dance Me to the End of Love 2. The Future 3. Ain’t No Cure For Love 4. Bird on a Wire 5. Everybody Knows 6. In My Secret Life 7. Who By Fire 8. Chelsea Hotel #2 9. Waiting for the Miracle 10. Anthem —20min. intermission— 11. Tower of Song 12. Suzanne 13. Sisters of Mercy 14. The Gypsy Wife 11. That Other Blues Song 12. The Darkness 13. The Partisan 14. Boogie Street 15. Hallelujah 16. I’m Your Man 17. A Thousand Kisses Deep 18. Take This Waltz —encore I.— 23. So Long Marianne 24. First We Take Manhattan, Then We Take Berlin —encore II.— 25. Famous Blue Raincoat 26. If It Be Your Will 27. Closing Time —encore III.— 28. I Tried to Leave You
Photo gallery
