Another quick review of a Cohen concert, so I will not forget the differing details ;)
 

Again it must be said: The concert at Colmar, France, was a great experience and another wonderful and inspired performance by Mr. Cohen. Yet, the fact that the night before he had given a concert in Spain, seemed to have taken its toll. At times Leonard looked rather tired, although he still amused himself greatly, dancing, kneeling, skipping and laughing as usual. But he did not really address the audience with his well-known speeches at all. No introduction to any of the songs, not even his joking about the synthesizer before Tower of Song (only his muttered “you are very kind”), not even his blessings in the end. Instead, we got a “thank you friends” a few times, a compliment on our singing Hallelujah (“you sing so sweet”) and instead of the blessings during "Whither Thou Goest" he thanked us for a great evening and declared his love to us in French. It seemed he did not want to prolong the concert with his speeches any more than necessary (due to a lack of sleep?).

Still, it was a great evening indeed. The soundcheck was quite late – at around six p.m., so we could hear it from outside the venue while queuing, which was somewhat surreal. Someone from the local press interviewed us and took photos. Probably we are now to be seen in a tiny little newspaper which we cannot read because of our rudimentary French. ;)
(UPDATE: I posted the article in a private entry.)

My friend and I (after galloping past many others) managed to get a standing place first row centre – right in front of Leonard’s microphone, so that we could follow every expression. And, oh, Leonard sang so sweet too ;)

Obviously he had underestimated the heat of the venue, as he sang the first set in his suit. Young people had collapsed outside in the queue – that is how hot it was, more than 30 degrees Celsius. I have never seen Leonard sweat like that before (*cough*), but fortunately he changed into his waistcoat for the second part of the concert.

It was a great audience there by the way. Lots of clapping and singing in the appropriate places.

Much fun was caused by some presents catapulted onto the stage: My friend was planning to throw a toy stethoscope during “I’m Your Man” but funnily somebody else had had a similar idea. So, what happened was that, as Leonard was singing “if you want a boxer,” somebody threw boxing gloves, which Leonard picked up from the stage amused. He hung them over his shoulder and posed with them quite proudly. Then, only two lines later “and if you want a doctor” my friend threw her stethoscope and more laughter from the audience was heard when they saw what that was. It had brushed against Leonard’s leg and he picked it up, the boxing gloves still over his shoulder, and put it towards his ears, playing around with it, smiling. Then someone used the hilarity of the situation to throw a toy monkey, which Leonard caught without effort, though he was already hung with the gloves and stethoscope like a Christmas tree. Of course, he put everything down a little later but he was still laughing. I guess that was something out of the norm for him too. I hope there will be a video or some photos of it. I would of course like to post something like that later.

So, you see, a great concert in spite of Leonard’s not being in a chatty mood but rather communicating with gestures and looks. I am grateful for this third concert I was able to watch and of course, I am aware that this was the last for me during this World Tour. And of course I do consider myself blessed without an official blessing speech ;)

Looking forward to your album, Leonard. Thank you for travelling to all of us, going through those “geographical inconveniences” too, without complaint and even enjoying it. May you receive more love and happiness during this “never ending” tour and beyond and may the Lord protect you on your path. Always. :)

P.S.: More about the concert can be found at 1heckofaguy.com as usual :)

P.P.S.: Leonard sang "Lover, Lover, Lover" and it was awesome!

Stolen from catsplay ...

So you finally know who hides behind the pseudonym of Puddingdale:

uhsir

[01] Do you have the guts to answer these questions and re-post as The Controversial Survey?
Yup. Doesn’t seem too revealing to me ;)