chapeau mr. cohen

I don't often buy souvenirs at concerts, but after Leonard Cohen's concert in Montreal the other night, I joined the crush of people around the merch stand and paid for a tote bag. It's black, has an interlocking-locking hearts logo, and on one side a fragment of the lyric from "Anthem," one of the show's highlights:

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in

I'd never seen Leonard Cohen live, and the idea of jumping on a flight to Canada to catch him in his hometown was irresistible. It's a tour born of economic necessity, partially (his former manager took off with millions of Cohen's dollars), but its value is beyond monetary: it's a recital, a love-fest, a three-hour career retrospective, a recasting of more brilliant songs than you'll hear anywhere outside of a Dylan concert, except Mr. Cohen is being more generous with the more famous stuff: "Suzanne," "Sisters of Mercy," "Hallelujah," "Tower of Song," "First We Take Manhattan," "Dance Me To The End of Love," "I'm Your Man," "The Future," "So Long Marianne," "Hey That's No Way To Say Goodbye," "Everybody Knows," all of them and a dozen or so more done with as much conviction and seriousness and joy ("I'm Your Man" -- see below -- is almost Sinatraesque; I could hear the pulse of a Riddle arrangement trying to rise up) as the work deserves. Near the very end, he does "Closing Time," and you know it's almost over, and you want to go, wait!, what about "Chelsea Hotel #2," or "Famous Blue Raincoat" (he did it opening night, but not Wednesday), and then you realize you're just being fucking greedy. It couldn't have been better, honestly.

The following night, the official opening night of the Montreal Jazz Festival, there was a free concert called "Chapeau Mr. Cohen" that drew tens of thousands of people to St. Catherine Street, where artists from Buffy St. Marie to Katie Melua did Cohen songs. Some of the interpretations were just splendid (Madeline Peyroux's "Dance Me To The End of Love." Serena Ryder's "Sisters of Mercy"), but I still had Cohen's versions in my head, his voice dark and rusted, his back-up singers (the Webb Sisters -- watch out for those girls -- and Sharon Robinson) unflappable. I skirted the crowd at the tribute show (I'd heard Melua's lovely "In My Secret Life" at soundcheck), and headed back to my hotel.