I was chuffed today to discover that there is a tribute show to Leonard Cohen in Sydney headlined by Nick Cave and my absolute favourite songstress of all times, the wonderful Beth Orton. It’s on over Australia Day weekend next year. I am so there.
ESSENTIAL READING: Reading Amanda’s blog Flop Eared Mule regularly helps avoid what she aptly calls MDTs (Musical Deprivation Tragedies), as discussed in comments…
Got my tickets too, although Nick, Rufus and all things Cohen are the drawcards. Reports from overseas are cheering. Pricey, but should be worth it.
I’ve been listening to “Dear Heather” in the car.
Some lovely songs and arrangements on it.
I find the “We’ll go no more a roving…” particularly poignant.
All things Leonard Cohen are good – the poetry and the novels as well – particularly ‘Beautiful Losers’.
How old would LC be now, I wonder? I saw him play live at QPAC on my 17th birthday in 1985 – great gig, but he must have taken mandrax during the very long interval – since he was even slooooooower than usual…
Speaking of birthdays, Beth’s been very kind to me – she’s toured Brisvegas in early February two years in a row – my birthday’s on Feb 13 so I’ve scored a ticket to the Tivoli gig both times. No news yet on whether she’s touring Australia next year but the fact that she’s playing at this Cohen tribute gives me hope!
Just have to mention the superb tribute album “I’m your Fan” that was put out a few years back. John Cale doing “Allelujah”, the PIxies doing “I Can’t forget”, Dave McComb even pops up.
Len I think has turned 70. Always surprises me. A decade or so older than the people we generally think of as his contemporaries (Dylan is 62.)
I will get around to Dear Heather I suppose. Ten New Songs didnt excite but I probably should have given it more of a go. People often overlook the sexiness aspect to Len: Dance Me To Your Beauty gives me shivers just thinking about it.
Yes, Anthony! People always swoon over Buckley’s Hallelujah but Cale’s is the standard.
And Shrek has done a lot to assist that.
I now have a 5 and a 2 year old begging for all the versions of “Halleluhah” they can get their hands on.
A very fine state of affairs.
Amanda, I definitley agree about the sexiness of many of his songs.
Unfortunately this is now completely sold out. Drat!
It should prove to be an awesome show. I scored my tix the afternoon they went on sale. Even then I had to fight for em.
I haven’t been able to get into Beth Orton. I have a few albums and saw her out here live a while back at that godawful Melb Blues and Music Festival. However she was on RN Live on Stage last Sunday and I thought it was ok, maybe I wasn’t in the right mood other times. I thought they said another concert of hers would be on RN Live On Stage next week. Get someone with stereo FM RN reception to record radio to hard drive.
It’s only our deprived rural brothers and sisters who can get Radio National in stereo, FM, higher fidelity.
Ah, bad news, being from Brisvegas I was waiting to see how many people were keen to come down with me before booking tickets! Oh well, hopefully Beth’s touring.
Francis, as I said, I’ve seen Beth twice. Judgeing also from reviews on the net, she’s uneven as a live performer. I think this is actually because she suffers from Krohn’s disease and is sometimes in a lot of pain – that was the impression that I had when she played this year. Having said that when she is good, she is extremely good! She has an amazing voice, and a very confident/funny stage persona. I wondered when I first saw her whether she’d be all serious singer/songwriter (not that etc…) but she was quite the opposite – fairly acid sense of humour. Heckle her at your peril, and bring a joint to give her when she bums some off the crowd during the encore.
She was still more than passable this year, I should add. And she played with the extremely good alt.country boy M. Ward – he was the support act and also joined Beth on vocals, piano and guitar.
More about M. Ward here –
http://www.matadorrecords.com/m_ward/
Such blatant solicitation would usually be so totally beneath me but really this is a public service announcement. If Mark had been reading my blog he would have known about the tribute concert way back in November (I’m sure I mentioned it earlier when it was announced, can’t find it)
http://flopearedmule.blogspot.com/2004/11/singersongwriter-and-cia-mind-control.html
He would then have been able to seek out tickets and an MDT (Musical Deprevation Tragedy) would have been avoided.
Just saying. Shutting up now.
Coincidentally M.Ward is currently touring here again, I am thinking of going.
Mea culpa, Amanda! Do you happen to know when M. Ward is touring? I didn’t see anything on his record label’s site…
Well, its tonight in Sydney. I had a look around brisbane.citysearch.com but couldn’t find any evidence of a detour north.
(I can usually spell deprivation, btw)
I’m evidently going to have to start paying closer attention to your gig notifications, Amanda – I’m suffering another MDT!
If it was on in Brisvegas, it’d be here:
http://www.timeoff.com.au
M Ward = wunderkind, shambolic, invariably good at the least, often much better.
9th, 10th, 11th in Melbourne.
mmmmmm, the 9th at Manchester Lane, excellent venue.