Leonard Cohen's first U.S. tour in 15 years coming to Chicago
The venerable singer-songwriter knocked 'em dead last night at the tour opener in New York City
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Leonard Cohen kicked off his first American tour in 15 years at New York City’s Beacon Theatre last night, and, not surprisingly, the scene before the show was “incongruously manic.” After all, the 74-year-old Cohen is one of the most beloved singer-songwriters of the modern era, and not just because everybody and their mother is covering “Hallelujah” these days. His absence from the stage has only made Cohen more beloved, and even if it took a major financial crisis to get him back on the road, fans no doubt will be lining up to see him on his current tour, which comes closest to Milwaukee May 5 for a show at The Chicago Theatre in Chicago.
Local fans may still want to hold out hope for a Milwaukee concert—there’s an open date, May 4, between his shows in Minneapolis and Chicago, and three open dates between the Chicago concert and Cohen’s May 9 gig in Detroit. Leonard, we know you need the money, and we’re in the same neighborhood! The weather will even be pretty good by then!
Besides, it sounds like you have enough stamina for one more show: Cohen performed for more than three hours last night, and pretty much blew everyone away. Our sister Decider site in New York was beaming afterward: “There were moments during the more hushed songs when Cohen himself seemed disembodied from what issued from his mouth—that soothing, chilling croak, highly mannered but penetrating in ways that are highly, divinely human. Cohen spent a lot of time singing on his knees, crouched down with his lanky shoulders drawn in and his hands holding the microphone with something like tranquil desperation; it wasn’t clear that Cohen even realized there were thousands of other people in the room with him … The whole show was a triumph for a kind of earned wisdom and slow, creeping staying-power that’s easy to forget the value of these days.” Here’s video of Cohen performing “Everybody Knows” from last night’s show.
