Leonard Cohen Live In Edmonton Nov.18th 2012

On Sunday my buddy Buzzard and I saw the Leonard Cohen show here in Edmonton at Rexall Place. This was the second Canadian music legend we had seen in the past week, having seen Neil Young in Calgary four days previous. This was my second time seeing this incredible poet,singer/songwriter in concert.

There was no opening act for this show, just an evening with Leonard Cohen, and what an epic evening it was with Leonard Cohen and his moost excellent back-up band playing for well over three hours. The show didn't end til 11:50, by far the latest I have ever seen a show go at Rexall Place. Other the GnR, but who the hell cares about that fiasco.

The show started with Leonard Cohen running out onto the stage followed by a standing ovation from the crowd of about 10,000 mostly grey haired fans. Yes, at the age of 78 years old the man ran out to the front of the stage, and then within the first song of the night "Dance Me To The End Of The Stage" he was on his knees singing. He spent more time on his knees through out the show singing, hell I am almost half his age and can't be on my kness like that. After the first song, Leonard took in the accolades and thanked the crowd for coming out to the show, saying he hoped to be doing this for many years to come, but just in case he didn't he was going to give a show for the ages. He also went on to say that at the age of 80 he hoped to be able to afford smoking again, by the age of 90, he wanted to do acid, and at 100 still be able to have sex. The man has a great sense of humour, smiled through out the show, looked to be having a great time on stage, and is definitely a charmer. And spry, the man put on a three and a half hour concert, many artists a third his age couldn't do that.

Leonard Cohen is touring for his latest album Old Ideas that came out at the begining of the year and is right up there with his older stuff. He did four songs from that release, which were "Amen", "Come Healing", "Anyhow" and "Going Home". The show was done in two sets with a fiftenn minute break between sets. of course Leonard did lots of his hits including, "Bird On A Wire", "Everybody Knows" which has one of my favorite lines of his "And everybody knows that you live forever, even when you've done a line or two", "Tower Of Song" was the song he opened his second set with, which has the lyrics "I was born like this, I had no choice, I was born with the gift of a golden voice" that brought on a huge round of applause for the man with a voice like no other. When Leonard did the song "Hallelujah" after it, I was suprised by how many people left thinking the show was near its end. For those that did leave, you missed about a third of the show. As he did another eight songs after that one. Some of his biggest hits were in the encored, songs like "First We Take Manhattan", "Famous Blue Raincoat" and one of my all time favorites of his "Closing Time". Just when you thought the show might be ending Leonard and his band would come back out, with Leonard skipping along and do a few more songs. Just an amazing concert. The two spoken word poems that he did were haunting where he had everyone in the palm of his hands as he recited his poetry. Absolutely amazing!!! The only slow part of the show for me was when his three back-up singers did two songs in a row "If It Be Your Will" and "Alexandra Leaving", but that is a very minor gripe about the show, because even those were quite good. After all even Leonard Cohen needs a break once in a while. One of the best shows I have seen this year hands down. Good times!!!

Setlist for the Edmonton show.

Dance Me to the End of Love
The Future
Bird on the Wire
Everybody Knows
Who by Fire
Darkness
Ain't No Cure for Love
Amen
Come Healing
In My Secret Life
A Thousand Kisses Deep (spoken poetry)
Anthem

Second Set

Tower of Song
Suzanne
Sisters of Mercy
Waiting for the Miracle
Anyhow
Heart with No Companion
Democracy
If It Be Your Will
Alexandra Leaving
I'm Your Man
Hallelujah
Take This Waltz

Encore:
So Long, Marianne
First We Take Manhattan

Encore 2:
Famous Blue Raincoat
Going Home
Closing Time

Encore 3:
I Tried to Leave You
Save the Last Dance for Me

Pictures from the show.

T-shirt front.

Back of t-shirt.

Limited edition poster from the show.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Los Lobos and The Sadies Live in Calgary Nov.13th 2012

On Tuesday morning my buddy Buzzard and I took the three hour bus ride to Calgary to see the awesome triple bill of Neil Young and Crazy Horse with openers Los Lobos and The Sadies. Why this show never made it up to Edmonton is beyond me, but we weren't going to miss this show. So it was off to Cowtown for this one.

The evening started with Toronto band The Sadies opening. The tickets said show starting at 7:30, but because I have The Sadies on my facebook, I saw a post in the afternoon from them saying they would be on stage at 7:15. We didn't want to miss The Sadies, so we made sure to be at the Saddledome plenty early. At 7:15 they hit the stage to a near empty place. This was my ninth time seeing The Sadies in concert. I was wondering how they would come across playing such a big venue. Well by the end of their rocking countrified half hour set, they had a lot of people in there seats and paying attention. The Sadies led by brothers Travis and Dallas Good definitely made some new fans on this night. I heard lots of people talking about them after their set, and didn't hear a single person say a bad thing about The Sadies. Good to see and hear.

The Sadies.

Next up was the Los Lobos, this was my third time seeing them play, and again they were good. Not as good as the last time I saw them, which was a in a bar, but still good. The Los Lobos played a forty-five minute set mixing it up with songs from their 30 plus year career. And no, they didn't play La Bamba thank god. This is a band I would rather see in a different setting, like an outdoor festival or a bar. Nonetheless, I did enjoy their set.

Los Lobos.

Headliner of the evening was Canadian rock legend Neil Young with his back-up band Crazy Horse. This was my fifth time seeing Neil Young and fourth time seeing him with Crazy Horse. So I had a pretty good idea of what I was in store for. What did catch me by surprise was the way the show started. It started with the roadies coming out in smocks and lifting the oversize cases off of the oversize Fender amps and setting up the huge microphone, then came something I had never experienced before at a concert. The Canadian national anthem being played with Neil Young and Crazy Horse standing on one side of the stage and the roadies on the other side, and then the audience standing, taking off their hats and such and everyone singing along to the anthem with a huge Canadian flag draped at the back of the stage. Maybe with no NHL hockey so far this year, Neil figured we needed to hear the anthem play. Surely a different way to start a rock n' roll concert.

The roadies setting up and the Canadian Flag during the National Anthem.

After the anthem it was time to rock the hell out of the Saddledome. Neil Young and Crazy Horse (Frank "Poncho" Sampedro on guitar, Ralph Moilna on drums and bassist Bill Talbot) opened the show with a twenty minute version of "Love And Only Love" from the awesome Ragged Glory album that came out in 1990. Then the boys went in to the classic song "Powderfinger". Neil Young didn't shy away from his latest release Psychedelic Pill which came out last month, his second release of the year. Songs played from that release were "Born In Ontario", "Walk Like A Giant" another long jammed out tune which sounded excellent, "Twisted Road" and "Ramada Inn", all these new songs went over really good with the crowd of 12,000. The two surprise songs of the night for me were the Buffalo Springfield song "Mr. Soul" and the CSN&Y song "Helpless" which was the encore song. The only flaw of the night I heard was Neil missing a lyric in the song "Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)". A minor mistake, considering the man is 67 having just celebrated his birthday the night before. What an amazing show this was, if you ever wondered what it would be like to be a fly on the wall listening to Neil and Crazy Horse jam, all you need to do is see them live. These guys just feed off of each other through out the concert standing in front of the drum stand wailing away for a solid two hours. All and all a great night of music. Good times!!!

Neil Young and Crazy Horse.

Neil Young and Crazy Horse setlist for the Calgary show.


Love and Only Love
Powderfinger
Born In Ontario
Walk Like a Giant
The Needle and the Damage Done
Twisted Road
Singer Without a Song
Ramada Inn
Cinnamon Girl
Fuckin' Up
Cortez the Killer
Mr. Soul
Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)

Encore:
Helpless

T-shirt front.

Back of t-shirt.

"Rock Of Ages" the Musical Nov.11th 2012

Last night Sunday November 11th my Sweetie Janis and I went to the musical Rock Of Ages. This was my first time ever going to a musical. I was pretty hesitant about going to this show. I had bought Janis the tickets and told her she could take a friend if she wanted, but she really wanted me to go with her. So I bit the bullet and went. We had yet to see the movie, and I had heard mixed reviews about the movie. But I had read good reviews about the musical. The only other musicla I can think of that I would have any interest in seeing is the Who's 'Tommy' production,

The show was the last engagement of the five night stand that played here in Edmonton at the Jubilee Auditorium. From what I understand, the Rock Of Ages was first an off Broadway musical in 2006 before it became the movie that also came out this year. It is now a Broadway hit, making the rounds all across Canada.

The show is about a small town guy that moves to Hollywood to become a rock star back in the 80's glam heydays on the infamous Sunset Strip. While in Hollywood he meets a lady who also moved to Hollywood to become a movie star. Your basic Hollywood love story.

I was quite surprised about how good the musical actually was, the acting was good, the dancing incredible, especially the scantilcy clad ladies, and then there was all the singing of old 80's hits by such bands as Joan Jett, Journey, Twisted Sister, Quiet Riot, Whitesnake, Poison and many others, all the actors did a great job singing. The show was full of laughs, even some curse words and again them damn songs from the 80's. If I could just get that damn song "Don't Stop Believin" out of my head,ughhhhhh!!!!!!

All and all a fun evening out with my Sweetie. Good times!!!