Leonard Cohen Live

Last night I saw Leonard Cohen in concert. He played the Holy Heart Auditorium, in St. John's, Newfoundland. It was the first on three shows in a 900 person theatre, and Cohen's first tour in 14 years. My parents bought tickets for them, my sister and myself.

He performed with a 9 piece band. Three backup singers, including Sharon Robinson and the Webb Sisters, a keyboard/organist, drummer, bass player, guitar, and two multi instrumentalist, one who played stringed instrumenets, and one who played sax, reed instruments, harmonica etc. Cohen is almost 74 years old, but still has an amazingly powerful voice. He played an amazing setlist which included every song I wanted to here. He recieved about 12 standing ovations, and performed about 3 three hours. The show went from 8:10pm to 11:10 pm, with a short 10 minute intermission about an hour in.

The three shows sold out in about 10 minutes after they went on sale. Only 2700 tickets were sold in total, and were near impossible to get as St. John's has an annual week long tribute event in his honour. He was extremly humble, and would remove his hat everytime we cheered, as well as everyime one of his band had a solo or lead part.

The show was amazing. It was so much better then I could have ever imagined, and is in my top 2 concerts ever. I've been listening to Cohen my entire life, and it was well worth the wait.

As a side note, my sister's boyfriend works at the Hotel well the band and there crew were staying. He told me that Cohen turned down the top suite in the hotel, saying it was too fancy for him, and when the bus pulled up, he was alongside the bellhops, and crew members throwing luggage out of the truck, not bad for a 74 year old.

Paul