- Title: USA: Leonard Cohen performs his first U.S. concert in fifteen years
- Date: 21st February 2009
- Summary: LEONARD COHEN PERFORMING
- Embargoed: 8th March 2009 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Usa
- Country: USA
- Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz
- Reuters ID: LVA4EF4KPQYL7RQC4UGLU36AIH72
- Story Text: Leonard Cohen performed his first concert in the United States in fifteen years on Thursday evening (February 19), to a sold-out audience at the Beacon Theater in New York City. The event coincided with Cohen's announcement of nearly 30 concert dates he has planned for an upcoming North American tour.
Ticket scalpers outside the venue were asking for as much as 700 U.S.
dollars for tickets, taking advantage of the rare U.S. performance by the Canadian singer-songwriter and poet, along with the cult-like devotion of his fans. After three hours of songs by the 74-year old Cohen, elated concert-goers described the experience as an emotional experience.
"I'm a Canadian, so we all feel very proud of him, and I was in tears, I was a sissy, but that's what his music does, it means so much,"
says Judy O'Hara.
"I just think Leonard Cohen is a God, that's what I think. He's just amazing, I can't, I've experienced enlightenment," says Orit Segev.
Joe Levy, Editor-in-Chief of music publication Blender Magazine, saw the last Leonard Cohen show at the Beacon theater 15 years ago, believes that the upcoming tour will be a hot-ticket item once word-of-mouth gets around about Thursday's show.
"I have no doubt that the tour will sell out, especially when word gets out how phenomenal this was."
Another reason Levy predicts the tour will be a success is the increased popularity of Cohen among a new generation of listeners.
"In many ways, Leonard Cohen is more popular now than he was fifteen years ago after Jeff Buckley's cover of Hallelujah, a song you hear on American Idol now. It's like a new generation has discovered him," says Levy.
Cohen's North American tour will visit several large cities, including New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, and a performance at the Coachella Music Festival in Indio, California. Concert promoter AEG Live is sponsoring the event, and is hoping to extend the same success they achieved with Cohen's tour dates in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand last year.
If there is any indication of how quickly Cohen's North America tour will sell out, it can be found in the number of fans who travelled from abroad to attend Thursday's concert.
"A group of us came from Europe, some of us came from Finland, Germany, and a gang from Ireland. And this is our sixth gig now on the tour," says Joe Costello, who came from Ireland for the show.
"It was absolutely marvellous. We came from France just for the concert and it something extraordinary," says Veronique Domanger.
"I came all the way from Mexico City to see Leonard," says Abraham Attia. "He rules."
Tickets for Leonard Cohen's upcoming North American Concert Tour go on sale February 27, with additional sale dates on March 2 and March 9. The tour kicks off in Austin, Texas on April 2, andwith a performance at the Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, Colorado on June 2. The tour will also visit Cohen's home country of Canada 11 times, including stops in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Calgary, and Ottawa. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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