Re: CONCERT REPORTS: Sligo, July 31 & August 1, 2010
Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2010 8:54 pm
i have some great pictures from the concert yesterday ... how do i post htem ???? 

http://www.leonardcohenforum.com/
merton wrote:Waking slowly and talking with friends. I wonder will Born in Chains become one the great Cohen compositions." Blessed is the name, the name be blessed, written on my heart in burning letters"
Thank you Leonard and band for a wonderful evening.
All the best,
Merton
Audio at link -Falcon7012 Ring the bells. There is a crack, a crack, in everything. That's how the light gets in. - Leonard Cohen. http://twitpic.com/2arpxs 17 minutes ago via Twitter for iPhone
TommyW - It was pure magic - RT @ladydotty Someone audio boo'd So Long Marianne last night! http://bit.ly/9z1ZXe #lissadell about 1 hour ago via Twittelator in reply to ladydotty
berniequinn - @Jaydeephe Are you there yet? Are you there yet? Are you there yet? #lissadell about 4 hours ago via web in reply to Jaydeephe
nitsohara - Sun setting over the Atlantic, the mountains and Leonard Cohen. Beyond amazing. about 1 hour ago via web
The Miracle has come Leonard. It's you. about 1 hour ago via web
jemsers - half time at lissadell. 90min down & 90min to go! amazing tunes in fab setting. len in top form tonight http://twitpic.com/2arsjl about 1 hour ago via twidroid
cufa - At the Leonard Cohen concert,what a legend,so much better now that the sun is going down 1 minute ago via TweetDeck
audsies - ound 2 of the #lissadel Leonard Cohen pilgrimage. Not row 6 like last night but still fantastic. about 1 hour ago via Seesmic for Android
kellylad - Leonard Cohen was sooo good last night. And a lovely tribute to Yeats too 7 minutes ago via Twitter for iPhone
Tommy Weir TommyW - The light of evening, Lissadell - http://flic.kr/p/8oB3iH 3 minutes ago via Flickr
mauricegannon - Leonard Cohen, Lissadell, Sligo. Fantastic. http://tweetphoto.com/36274904 about 2 hours ago via Echofon
wormbent - Jesus Christ almighty... Leonard Cohen, a beautiful evening, a sun-mottled Benbulben in the background, and an appreciative crowd... Wha ... about 1 hour ago via txt
TommyW - ool - a final photo for tonight from Leonard Cohen over at #Lissadell. Just magic... http://flic.kr/p/8oD8ZX about 1 hour ago via Flickr
Excellent m8.quackles wrote:Well, that was brilliant![]()
I took a punt and brought my good camera, glad I did, no-one went next nor near my bag on the way in. Here's a handful of pics - still going through them, will post more later!
http://www.dillon-malone.com/?p=136
Cohen Serene Under Ben Bulben
Leonard Cohen gestures to the crowd with his fedora
on stage at Lissadell House, Co Sligo
PEOPLE OF all ages gathered, carefully corralled, to walk along a path through the woods. They walked towards the light reflecting off the water in the shadow of a great house. They came to hear a poet sing his songs in a place still associated with another, earlier poet, long dead and revered, writes EILEEN BATTERSBY
Under the shadow of Ben Bulben’s distinctive flat profile, made famous by Yeats, the faithful waited for Leonard Cohen, veteran Canadian singer songwriter, a poet who has pursued personal experience to its limits. His meditations on life and love, the spiritual and the sexual, the hunted and the haunted appeal to all ages for their strange beauty, the gentle melodies; their romance and their solitude. Bittersweet romance, subtle observation and humour run through the songs; there is also the jaunty courage of his odyssey as an artist, a lover, a man and as a performer.
Many of the faces waiting for the music to begin seemed thoughtful as if remembering their younger selves, the people they had been when Cohen first began his career. For others, who had not even been born when Cohen was young, he is an icon, an influence. Girls in their 20s corrected their parents as to the titles of some of the songs. A father and son stood together, singing the opening lines of Famous Blue Raincoat and left the mother poised to photograph them, on her own figuring out how the camera worked. An older woman, her own raincoat at the ready, looked around and sighed, “The State should have bought this place.”
She was not alone, aside from the eulogies offered as to the enduring genius of Cohen, the most common topic of overheard conversation was that this magical part of Sligo should have been secured for the people of Ireland.
Leonard Cohen, serene and smiling, dark grey fedora firmly on his head, took the stage, along with his smartly suited band of musicians and singers. From the distance his figure seemed small against the flowing fabric backdrop of changing colours, but the huge TV screens provided close-up views of his wonderful face with its expression of benign irony. Here is a man who has seen most things and pondered them deeply. He knows about despair but he also sees the jokes. His repertoire includes many of the most distinctive songs written anywhere since the late 1960s. Along with Bob Dylan and the great Paul Simon, Cohen inhabits a sacred place. His songs are poems; the lyrics live off the page. As a performer he is generous; his band is his family, his audience his friends, and “friends” was the word he used to address the thousands who came to hear him.
Several of the gardaí on duty looked wistfully, assuring us that they would be up at the concert if they weren’t on duty. It was that kind of night; that kind of place, even the police seemed happy. It was obvious that the combined musical talent was overwhelming; Cohen showed them off like a proud parent, although the great Spanish guitarist, Javier Mas, is not all that much younger than Cohen, who was born in Montreal in 1934. We knew the songs, and the musicians did too, but when you’re that good and the atmosphere is perfect, it is easy to improvise further. The show, now on its way to Copenhagen, is terrific, no doubt about it, possessing an intriguingly European quality, yet at times, particularly with classics such as Suzanne, Famous Blue Raincoat, Sisters of Mercy and So Long, Marianne , it would have been even more satisfying just to hear Cohen’s tender, softly growling baritone. As a singer he is alert to every nuance; every word counts and with Cohen, every word is sung clear and emphatic. He is a lively, engaged performer but the wonder of his songs is best enjoyed in a more intimate setting because his songs are like poems and deserve pauses and space and time to absorb them fully.
Earlier on Saturday he had visited Drumcliff churchyard and paid his respects at the grave of Yeats, a poet whose work he had first read, as Cohen told his audience, “at home in Montreal, about 50 years ago”. He smiled his wry, rueful smile.
In the visitors’ book at Drumcliff church he wrote Leonard Cohen, Montreal, with a simple comment “Sublime”. Some four of five songs into the concert he looked into the crowd and spoke of how privileged he felt to be at “this most historic setting”. His humility and calm demeanour gave new life to those most evocative lines. “The light of evening, Lissadell,/ Great windows open to the south,/ Two girls in silk kimonos, both/ Beautiful, one a gazelle.” (From In Memory of Eva Gore-Both and Con Markievicz; The Winding Stair and Other Poems , 1933.)
Cohen began the concert saying that he did not know if he would pass this way again, but promised to give “everything we have” on behalf of his band and himself and his backing singers, Hattie and Charley Webb, whose ethereal voices are ideal for Cohen’s songs, and his collaborator, Sharon Robinson. They did and more.
Cohen at 75, singing his much-covered Hallelujah , on a drizzly Saturday evening in historic Lissadell outperformed the current version by opera singer Renée Fleming, such is his art and kindly humanity. The audience, growing in confidence, thundered its appreciation singing along with more and more songs. Each time Cohen skipped – and skip he does – off stage, the applause brought him back. His generosity as a performer is well known, he graced Lissadell. Yeats, a life-long presence for this singer of songs, would have approved.