Leonard Cohen: Heaven & Hell

We went to see Leonard Cohen last night — the tickets I purchased for ‘s birthday.

An absolutely amazing show. A 75-year-old man and his band of virtuoso musicians performed over three hours (not including a 20 minute intermission!) — phenomenal and moving. Laura’s post sums up the show, complete with set list.

It was *almost* perfect. Let down (and let down mightily) by the audience.

As I said last night: Hell is a concert full of Boomers. With a Bar.

Here are the ingredients for intense stabby-stabby-hate levels of annoyance:

1) Take a couple thousand members of the most self-important and overly-indulged generation in history.

2) Age them to their 60s, where their hearing starts to go, so any “quiet” conversations are anything but.

3) Add alcohol.

4) Put them in a concert by an icon who reminds them of their wild youth.

So yeah, a bunch of hammered, loud, rude assholes embarrassing themselves and pissing off those around them — especially us, who had the misfortune of being seated in the rearmost row in the floor seats — by the bar.

Cell phone users, merrily chatting away. Drunk cougars, looking like a casting call for the Real Housewives of Kansas City, belting out off-tune at the top of their lungs while staggering around with drinks in their hands, “dancing.”

GRRRR. Stabby-stabby HATE.

Even more so because they were the only negative (and a big one) in an otherwise PERFECT concert.

This post serves mostly as an exorcism — a rant to get the negatives out of my system, allowing me to file away the best memory of all: Cohen was awe-inspiring, and I’m incredibly blessed to have been able to see him live.

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