Jill & I ventured out into the vast wasteland of Grand Prairie to take in a show last Friday night from a true legend. Leonard Cohen is a guy who I have not ever been super-familiar with but have always heard great things about. I had heard about his zen-related disappearance and his subsequent return to the U.S. for the first time in 15 years at the Beacon Theater in NYC. I had also heard nothing but great things about that show. He first announced that he would be headlining a night at Coachella, which should be awesome, but when he later announced a more widespread U.S. tour I jumped on it as a chance to see a legend as it may be the only time I get to see him, and he was phenomenal.

In the weeks leading up to the show I familiarized myself with recent live shows (the Beacon Theater, most notably) and others and got pretty excited about it. And I have to say he pretty much just blew everyone away. The crowd was extremely into the show for the entire time he played, and he clocked in at OVER 3 hours. For a guy who is 74 years old that is no small task, not to mention all of the skipping offstage then back on he did during the show.

He hit all of the major highlights from the catalog that I recognized and even some I didn’t, but all were of extremely high quality and here you really just had a master artist showing everyone why he is who he is. The musicianship from everyone in the band he toured with was top notch, and his trademark deep, low voice interacted perfectly with everything else going on around him.

He even whipped out the guitar a few times and even had a drum-machine/keyboard setup on “Tower of Song” (which was awesome). He went for over an hour before a brief intermission, whereupon he played over an hour again, then an encore which was damn near an hour as well, pretty much with little break before the encore.

What was great about the show is that this guy just has some amazing songs. Seriously, these songs are so well written and put together that it is truly awesome to see him get up there and deliver all of these classics. It isn’t about shock, or wowing people as a lot of modern artists/bands try to do, it is about having an impeccably put together song and playing the hell out of it for your fans. And the fact that after all these years he still has the energy and desire to plow through all these songs with such energy and life is a real testament to his greatness.

I was incredibly impressed by his show and I would heartily recommend that anyone else on the fence about going to his show should definitely go and check him out. He is a rarity in this day and age in his approach to music, and at over 3 hours you are certainly getting your money’s worth. A great, great show.

He is still on tour for a while longer so see him if you get a chance, and his new live album “Live In London” which is also available in DVD Format.

Check out all my photos from this great night here!

Leonard Cohen – First We Take Manhattan – Live from Beacon Theater, NYC