Leonard Cohen - Live in Sydney 8/11/10

If you thought Leonard Cohen was dead, I would forgive you. At 76, youth is not on his side. However after seeing him in the flesh at Sydney's Acer Arena on the 8th November, you would have had no doubt that he is not only alive, but well and truly kicking.

Despite my relative youth, I have seen hundreds of live bands, musicians, artists, singers in my life time, all of whom have left an impact on me, good, bad or otherwise. Many I can't recall seeing. Many I will never forget. Some however, move you in such a way that you will measure every live music experience you have subsequent to it. This was one such show.

Claire Bowdich's warm, genuine opener served as an impressive entree to the main course which the thousands of fans (predominantly baby-boomers) were licking their lips to see. However this was no ordinary main meal. Rather it was to be a degustation of the best dishes of Cohen's lengthy career.

The incredible opening triple bunger of "Dance Me to the End of Love", "The Future" and " Bird On A Wire" were utterly surreal; it took until the final bars of the third song in this treble to realise who was in front of me, and what I was experiencing. His back catalogue was dragged out and reinterpreted in a manner that perfectly suit the older Cohen's deeper, smokier tones.

Witnessing the slick band (with a guitarist playing in "geometries of loveliness" according to Cohen) orbiting around the sun that is the great man himself was a wonderful sight; each band member would interject intermittently throughout their orbit whether it be with a stunning sax riff, an impossibly complex classical guitar lick or a beautiful vocal harmony. This show is not just about Leonard Norman Cohen, his band are the stars as well.

His playfulness at his ripe age, his interactions with each member of the band individually showed a warmth that one rarely witnesses on stage. After intermission, this rapport he has with his band was further replicated with the crowd. Cohen connected with the crowd beautifully, whether it was through his moving solo acoustic guitar driven renditions of fan favourites such as "Suzanne" and "Famous Blue Raincoat", or through his haunting reading of "A Thousand Kisses Deep". He joked with the crowd at every chance, and despite the size of the venue managed to make you feel as though you were the only person in the room he was playing for.



After a couple of encores (including the cheeky "I Tried To Leave You"), Cohen bounded off the stage to the decaying notes of "Closing Time" with just as much verve and vigour as he did 3 hours previously.

What we were left with was memories of an incredibly moving evening, where the ears and soul were satisfied in equal measure. Seeing such an incredibly emotional human being, delivering the musings of his heart in such a manner was a special experience, and is one I felt privileged to be a part of.

If you haven't seen him live, I feel sorry for you. You are really missing out on something truly magical.