No “Democracy” coming to the USA

Other than that omission, an absolutely spectacular concert took place last night. Leonard Cohen rewarded a sold out house for their attendance by delivering slightly over three hours of high energy, tour-tested music and poetry to a crowd that came expecting much and left well satisfied.


We drove to Asheville, leaving the dog to guard the house and keep the free world safe from cats and the GOP. Pleasant drive over except for one stretch where the setting sun was blazing through a cloud layer and literally destroying all forward vision. Since I was wearing my glasses without sun clips – highly unusual – all I could do was to follow a truck slowly climbing the pass, using the truck body for as much shadow and road definition as possible. Once past that stretch, traffic flowed well and we arrived at the venue when planned. We found convenient garage parking and walked to the restaurant we had chosen. It was an easy walk, a bit chilly as the sun went down.

The restaurant didn’t look all that busy. We were seated and quickly decided what we would order. Gloria had trout filets crusted with falafel, served with saffron rice and a remoulade of vegetables. I had Kafta with the same rice dish and grilled vegetables. We both drank Lebanese mint tea. The plates arrived quickly and we fell to refueling. There was another couple seated next to us. Gloria struck up a conversation and we discovered they were also in town to see Cohen perform. Two more tables of people showed up while we were eating and they, too, were concert bound. We traded travel information, concert histories, and discussed many of the inconsequential things that make us fans of particular performers. I added a very nice baklava for dessert and we both ordered Turkish coffee, made for us without sugar. It was a very pleasant meal and we’d happily dine there again.

Back at the venue, we found our seats and settled into row B orchestra right. The more expensive rows AA & BB turned out to be stackable convention floor chairs with no arm rests and no padding, little better than folding chairs. Neither the venue or the ticket purveyors had made this plain to buyers and there were several very unhappy fans when they saw what their extra dollars brought them. Our row filled up, large people occupied the seats on both sides of us. The venue was poorly ventilated and overly warm. It remained that way throughout the evening. The speaker stacks were, unfortunately, arranged so that we had a partially obstructed view of the band.

Leonard Cohen took the stage, running onto it, precisely on time. As has been the practice for this tour, the opener was “Dance Me To The End Of Love” for the next three hours we were treated to song after song from the newer material and the older. With the exception of a 15 minute intermission Cohen and his excellent band of musicians and vocalists played and sang continually until 2315. There was no downtime between songs, no idle chatter. The performance began at a high energy level and never fell below that line. Every minute on stage was treated as valuable and every person on stage gave peak effort and attention to every note played or sang. There was no impression of a band bored by repeating a show many times. They played with the enthusiasm and promise of the first night of a tour. They laughed with the audience, nailed harmonies, improvised when the music wanted improvisation. Everyone on stage was offered ample time to solo and to demonstrate their particular expertise. They were treated like friends by Cohen rather than as “side men and back-up singers.” The result is a band or extremely tight and cohesive nature.

While our view was somewhat obstructed, we found the sound crew, part of the tour crew rather than local hires, to be experts in their field. Every note played or sung was recognized and treated as the thing of value to the overall performance that the musician or singer meant it to be.

Cohen did two full sets including The Future, Bird On a Wire, In My Secret Life, Waiting For The Miracle, Chelsea Hotel #2, Hallelujah, Boogie Street, Anthem, Who By Fire, Ain’t No Cure For Love, Everybody Knows, Gypsy Wife, Suzanne, Tower of Song, I’m Your Man, Take This Waltz, A Thousand Kisses Deep, Sisters of Mercy, and others I don’t recognize by name. We were treated to a new blues number that as yet has not been named on the fan sites. There were three encores which included a wonderful “If It Be Your Will, First We Take Manhattan, Closing Time, and the final “I Tried To Leave You, sung half in jest at the audience’s reluctance to allow the band to quit.

Gloria and I enjoyed many of the references to Jewish tradition and lyrics taken in part from our liturgy. These certainly increase our appreciation of his ability as a poet and lyricist, and in some cases deepen our own understanding of the liturgical and textual elements Cohen has used in his writing. We both agreed that we had just seen one of the best concerts we could recall. Given Gloria’s long history with the Washington Folk Festival and her access to great bands while living in the DC metro area that says quite a lot. I value my opinion as a musician but she has been able to see many more live performances by musicians that I know only by broadcast or by album work.

It’s hard to say which material we enjoyed most. The opening has tremendous meaning for us. Had we been more aware of this when we married we would have used it in our music for the day. Both of us discovered Cohen early but followed other tracks until we both rediscovered his work via a PBS program. For me, the instrumental lead in to “Who By Fire,” richly Sephardic in character, scored with incredible bass-driven harmonics at the low end of audibility where sound becomes more physical presence than hearing, was certainly a highlight. The words and melody echo the Unetaneh Tokef, an 11th century liturgical poem recited on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. It’s a visceral response to the evocation of essential Judaism. There wasn’t a bad choice of material offered us. Cohen wisely rotates his material in frequency and placement while on tour. We hit a particularly good night. A new song in the repertoire is always interesting and sometime good. Last night’s unnamed offering was good, better than the Chicago reading I heard today.

The drive home went smoothly. We hit some patches of fog going up to Sam’s Pass and most of the way downhill to home had patchy to dense fog. The Pathfinder has good fog lamps and I know when and how to use them. We pulled into the driveway ca. 0115 after leaving the parking garage in Asheville at 2325. All in all a wonderful evening of music and food not to be soon repeated.

We’re hoping to recover enough to dance in Jonesborough Saturday evening. Time will tell.

 Cell phone photograph 1 November 2009 Thomas Wolf Auditorium Asheville NC

The day is occupied with those things that enable and enrich life. Bright blue sky, moderate temperatures, the loud music of the creek, laundry, meal planning, and the affection of a dog who forgave us for making her stand sentry duty alone, last night.

Gloria had hoped to hear “Democracy” last night, as had I. She was disappointed that it was not played.


“It's coming from the women and the men.

O baby, we'll be making love again.
We'll be going down so deep

the river's going to weep,

and the mountain's going to shout Amen!

It's coming like the tidal flood

beneath the lunar sway,

imperial, mysterious,

in amorous array:

Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

Sail on, sail on

O mighty Ship of State!

To the Shores of Need

Past the Reefs of Greed

Through the Squalls of Hate

Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on.”

She’s very correct in her hope – We could use a refresher course in our own system of government. Cohen has described the course we need to steer if we only can.