Gothenburg, Sweden - 200th Leonard Cohen Concert - 31 Songs, August 12, 2010 - Two Meet-ups, Entrance Adventure

Photo: Joey Carenza III (Notes from The Road)

From Sept 22, 2010   leonardcohenforum


Eva Falk (Courage)

First off, I would like to thank Eva Falk (Courage) for all of her organizing work.

Among her efforts, Eva organized a terrific pre-concert dinner. It was wonderful to get together to see old friends and meet new friends. I haven't seen Rachel (holydove) and Bob (celtictyde) since Nashville. Rachel and Bob, you have been present at both of my highlight concerts. I loved Nashville the best on that leg and I loved Gothenburg the best on this leg.



Marsha White (friscogrl)

 

Marsha White (friscogrl) was a terrific travel friend in Gothenburg and always came up with great ideas.

Liam and Kath, I got to know at a smaller get together with Marsha and Rachel (Bob had a meeting) the night before the concert. A perfectly charming couple and I hope to see you both soon.







Wendy (Mabeanie1, Szilvia (Gallina), Tony Marshall)

 It was a joy to meet the famous "olympic monkey thrower", Szilvia/Gallina who also happens to shoot awesome photos and let me use some of them.  Thank you, Szilivia.
I didn't get to spend much time with Marc Roed (coolcohen1) and Hanne at dinner but I did get to know them better at the Berlin Waldbuhne concert. Thank you again to Marc for saving me a seat in the front row in Berlin and to Hanne for her kindness.

Wendy (Mabeanie1) and Tony were not able to make the dinner meet-up but we had a chance for a mini get-together before the concert started.

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ENTERING THE SCANDINAVIUM



Rafael Bernardo Gayol

I had quite an adventure when I entered the Scandinavium about an hour before concert time. I was allowed to enter on the accessible ground level to avoid all the stairs. So I showed up at the side of the building at the designated entrance and first I ran into Rafael Gayol coming back into the arena after a stroll. Oh, he was so sweet and charming and I asked him to give Dino Soldo a small package I had with a pair of red socks (story here). And of course, had a photo taken.

Next I ran into Ryan Patrick Murphy, Lighting Director, another sweet man and another photo. Ryan said to someone, "He will take our picture". When I looked at the "he", it was Ed Sanders. OMG, you are Ed Sanders. More photos. Then Joey came out of the production office and more photos.

(l) Ryan Patrick Murphy,  (c) Ed Sanders  (r) Joey Carenza III

* Gothenburg Forum Fan slideshow video *



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CONCERT HIGHLIGHTS

(from: Liam Berney) The band came on a little late (20mins) at 19.50 to a warm welcome after some good natured slow hand clapping

What we didn't know then, but learned later from Joey's "Notes From The Road", the audience was late getting into the arena, so the UHTC held up the start of the concert to accommodate the latecomers

It was raining for days and there was a major festival going on, so traffic, getting around town and getting taxis was very difficult. Yet, when LC sprinted on stage, he was the one who apologized for being late. My goodness, what a state of graciousness he was.

I also didn't realize this was the 200th concert until I read it on Joey's blog. That certainly was a thrill to be present for that.

* Singer Must Die *

(from: Mabeannie1/Wendy)  I thought this was an amazing, powerful version of A Singer Must Die. I hardly dared breathe for fear of spoiling the magic. It was the best of the three versions I have heard so far, 2 of them live (Oslo and Goteborg) and one via YouTube (Sligo).

This was my first time hearing "A Singer Must Die" live and it was thrilling, the HIGHLIGHT of the concert for me.  So I decided to use the audio from my own video as the music background for my Gothenburg Forum Fan Slideshow video. (see above)

* Heart With No Companion *
Hand whistling starts at 4.08

* Anthem with Intro from The Flood *



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* Take this Waltz - Dediction to the Memory of Swedish Writer (clip only) *

...Swedish poet and novelist Göran Tunström, he died in 2000, they became friends on Hydra where Tunström lived in the early 60's. (Inne)

CLOSING WORDS:  "If you invite us back, we may come"

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LOAD OUT

I went back to the same hallway where I entered earlier to arrange with Security for a taxi. Security tried very hard to get me a taxi, but because of the heavy rains, there were none available. Security invited me to sit on the only chair in the hallway, which looked mighty familiar, Javier Mas's extra chair. Yes, the UHTC carries a duplicate chair just in case and I got to sit in it and watch the load-out take place. Wow, what efficiency. What speed.

And what impressed me the most was watching Chris Bynum who was working one of the hardest. Here is a Back-line instrument technician, an accomplished musician and he is just working his darndest pushing the rolling crates and moving and carrying things like the oriental rugs to ensure the load-out is perfectly organized. Very impressive! In fact, they were so speedy on the load-out, Chris apologized to me when he had to ask for Javier Mas' chair to load it on a truck.

It took along time for a taxi to arrive and I missed the post-concert drink-up, but the wait was well worth it.

                                                                 

Gothenburg Setlist thanks to Mickey Sullivan