Mum and I went to see Leonard Cohen play Christchurch as part of his Unified Heart tour on 3 November. For a 78 year old guy, he's pretty impressive!
I'd never actually seen him in concert before but had heard rave reviews from many sources. Leonard has last visited NZ in January 2009, and he was doing a similar scale of concert this time - the Christchurch concert was at the Westpac Arena (or whatever it's called), the biggest indoor venue in town.
Traffic getting there was very heavy - I was driving but things got to near a standstill very quickly, so we parked the car about 15 minutes walk away from the venue and walked the rest of the way. Only just got there in time to see Bic Runga who played a lovely set with just a bassist accompanying her.
Leonard Cohen must have played for nearly 3 hours. There was one proper intermission and then also a couple of breaks ahead of encores at the end. I'm not a huge fan of his music and don't actually own any but I do know all the popular songs and can appreciate the music well. His band were superb, there was a real French vibe with the accordions and violins, but also a really jazzy feel to everything as well. There were also three female backing sisters - Sharon Robinson who is one of his co-writers, and the Webb sisters. Leonard himself was very nimble, dapper, smooth and dramatic, dropping to his knees to sing and emote on occasion. In summary, there wasn't anything new or surprising but it was a very enjoyable experience and it's always lovely to see a crowd enjoying the music and the show itself.
There's a great tour photo diary at this site.
No comments:
Post a Comment