Leonard Cohen, Fox Theater, Detroit

I’ve spent the last 24 hours trying to find the words …

We got to the Fox Theater shortly before eight and bolted directly to our seats : front row, center of the Mezzanine. Looking upward, we were right about center of the theater, surrounded by opulent Burmese and Persian decor. It is the second largest in the country. It was breathtaking.

See? There’s me, still damp from a last minute shower, wide-eyed, and in awe. –>

The lights dimmed at just a moment after eight. The crowd roared as the band filed out on stage, and I stood, transfixed, and Cohen himself skipped out on stage. There was a collective gasp of breath, and then a silence. I felt my eyes well up, and as the band began Dance Me to the End of Love and as the first raspy syllable left his lips, tears poured out and flooded down my cheeks. Next, The Future, one of the first Cohen songs I had ever heard.

Give me back my broken night
my mirrored room, my secret life
it’s lonely here,
there’s no one left to torture

Give me absolute control
over every living soul
And lie beside me, baby,
that’s an order!

For the entire show I sat on the very edge of my seat, leaning back only once, in the moment I realized my chest was ablaze, and that I was no longer breathing … but rather hanging, anxiously awaiting each word, entranced. There wasn’t a person in the theater that didn’t feel the same. At the quieter moments of songs, you could have heard a pin drop. During the poem “Thousand Kisses Deep”, Cohen’s delivery of each verse was like hearing someone slyly tell you all the world’s secrets … toying, teasing, daring you to glance away even for a moment. But you couldn’t.

At 74, he sadly and half-jokingly referred to his old age several times … singing “If you want another kind of lover, I’ll wear an old man’s mask for you”, rather than the original “I’ll wear a mask for you”. He mentioned that it had been 14 years since he had toured and came through Detroit. When he was 60. “Just a young man with a dream”, he sighed. 14 years … Half my own life ago, and the year I heard my first Leonard Cohen song.

His band, his band … a collection of some of the most remarkable players in from around the world. A full 10 piece … drums, piano, organ, wind, stand up bass, pedal of steel, and laud. Throughout the show, he removed his hat and bowed his silvery head to them. His co-writer Sharon, sang Boogie Street, soulfully, beautifully, and he stood, in the shadows, in obvious awe. He dropped to his knees and sang to his laud player, Javier Mas.

While we have all heard it a thousand times, and having been covered so often, Hallelujah brought down the house. Throughout the show, the girls’ voices were so soft, controlled, but during the final verse, the three of them along with Cohen sang full force. Cohen, head thrown back to the heavens sang…

“I did my best, it wasn’t much
I couldn’t feel, so I tried to touch
I’ve told the truth, I didn’t come to fool you
And even though
It all went wrong
I’ll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah”

… and as they reached their pitch together, and as the theater filled with the enormous sound, the stage flooded with a deep golden golden light making it appear that his heaven was singing back. The feeling was overwhelming, and while I outright burst into tears, a quick glance around showed wet eyes throughout the house. And again, on Tower of Song, with just Cohen on a small keyboard.

After playing for more than three hours, he graciously thanked the crowd, stating something to the effect of “I’m not sure when I may be back, if ever. Thank you for keeping my music alive. Go. Be with your family and your friends. May you be blessed with them. And if that’s not your bag, may you be blessed in your solitude”, the last lines delivered as if he were overwhelmed, almost choking on the words, before skipping back off stage.

If you’ve read other Cohen reviews, if you’ve heard that it’s a life changing experience, believe it. To say it was a spiritual enlightenment would be a gross understatement, a missive of the breadth of emotion felt. You are both exhausted and tireless … for those three hours, you are his. No one that attended last night’s show will ever be quite the same again.

The PHENOMENAL Setlist ::

Dance Me to the End of Love
The Future
Ain’t No Cure for Love
Bird on the Wire
Everybody Knows
In My Secret Life
Who by Fire
Chelsea Hotel No. 2
Waiting for the Miracle
Anthem

INTERMISSION

Tower of Song
Suzanne
The Gypsy’s Wife
The Partisan
Boogie Street [sung by Sharon Robinson]
Hallelujah
I’m Your Man
Take This Waltz

FIRST ENCORE
So Long, Marianne
First We Take Manhattan

SECOND ENCORE
Famous Blue Raincoat
If It Be Your Will [performed by the Webb sisters]
Democracy

THIRD & FINAL ENCORE
I Tried to Leave You
Whither Thou Goest

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~ by tobilynne on May 10, 2009.