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Leonard Cohen

 (Beacon Theater; 2,804 seats; $250 top)

By DAVID SPRAGUE

Presented by AEG Live. Reviewed Feb. 19, 2009.
 
Band: Leonard Cohen, Javier Mas, Bob Metzger, Dino Soldo, Rafael Gayol, Neil Larsen, Roscoe Beck, Sharon Robinson, Charley Webb, Hattie Webb.
 

Leonard Cohen waited more than two hours before playing "First We Take Manhattan" -- a conquest-minded song that took on a decidedly more celebratory tone at this, his first Stateside show in 15 years -- but it only required a few moments for him to actually seal the deal laid out in the song's title.

Absence may have had some effect on making the aud's collective heart demonstrate fondness for the septuagenarian poet-singer, but over the course of his three-hour, three-encore perf, Cohen proved again and again that this was no mere nostalgia trip. Yes, the offerings went back as far as "Suzanne" -- the first track on his now 42-year-old first album -- but none of the two-dozen-plus pieces were presented as if preserved in amber.

Some of Cohen's alterations were subtle -- a chilled-out-but-pulsing bassline appended to "Everybody Knows," a storefront-church arrangement on "Bird on a Wire" -- while others were quite bracing. The latter aspect was most evident in Cohen's own delivery, which was palpably looser than one might expect from a performer of his vintage and portent -- notably a light, almost winking take on the doom-laden "Tower of Song."

One thing that hasn't changed over the years is Cohen's dark-hued, deep baritone, a sound that can give him the air of an Old Testament prophet one moment and a honeyed lothario the next. Even at this stage of his life, he's a remarkably seductive presence -- nattily clad in black suit and fedora, ambling around the stage with a quiet confidence that positively permeated versions of "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye" and "If It Be Your Will," the latter of which was leavened nicely by the harmonies of the Webb Sisters.

As the program progressed, the breadth of Cohen's influence came into sharper and sharper focus, with song after song evoking memories of covers heard in smoky clubs or on middle-of-the-night radio assays. But as Cohen dug into the marrow of "Famous Blue Raincoat" and, especially, a hypnotically incantatory "Hallelujah," it became amply evident that he still has far more of an impact in the flesh than he does in the mist of memory.

Leonard Cohen plays the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles on April 10.