LEONARD COHEN : HELSINKI 1988

  1. Avalanche

  2. Everybody knows

  3. joan of arc

  4. there is a war

  5. take this waltz

  6. hallelujah

  7. sisters of mercy

  8. passing through

  9. the stranger song

  10. whither thou goest

Label : no label

Time : 62:33

Venue : Jaahalli Ice Stadium, Helsinki, Finland

Date : April 28th, 1988

Quality : FM Recording (A-)

Review : A selection of the concert at Helsinki's Ice Stadium. Good sounding recording, probably from radio broadcast.

Concert Review (LeonardCohenFiles.Com) : Leonard Cohen with his ensemble in concert at Helsinki's Ice Stadium on April 28th, 1988 Leonard Cohen makes a gratifying exception in the Finnish taste for mass pop music. Today, he is a highly popular singer with both the young and the middle-aged generation. The 53-year Canadian is still in the prime of his performance. The expectations called forth by the recorded rendering of I'm your man were fulfilled doubly at the concert, thanks to the ensemble that worked wonderfully in tune with the maestro, lending a felicitous amount of roughness to his modernised hymns. A hypnotically devoted atmosphere lingered in the hall throughout the two-hour duration of the concert. Nothing more was called for; the night was exceptional and offered a whole cross-section of the art. Cohen makes quintessentially humane music - albeit with the aid of rather modern hardware. Today, Cohen ventures to take liberal advantage of synthesizers and beat generators. However, everything is rendered up in a soft and composed fashion encompassing an interpretation impregnated with the sarcasm of life's experience. Cohen's sensualism is captivating and his unaffected performance compels the audience to become engrossed in listening. This happens because Cohen is not cynical, nor cool, nor distant. He is a warm ironist who started by thanking the audience with a nice bow and the quip "it would be dreary to have be at work alone". Still today, Cohen averts resorting to sterotyped entertainers' mannerism. Heart with no companion opened the concert, gently whetting the responsiveness of the audience. Sound reproduction was just right in its astonishingly smooth and subdued tone quality. Even the whisper of the next-seat listener would have been audible in the harmony of the night. The delightfully rasping, yet angelical duo accompaniment by Julie Christensen and Perla Batalla added balance to Cohen's sensualism. Guitarist Bob Metzger brought forth his limpid solos with a great sense of style and tonality. We all got just what we had expected, a recital of fine songs such as First we take Manhattan, Ain't no cure for love, The law, Everybody knows, Take this waltz, Sisters of mercy... Hallelujah resounded as an encore. Part of the audience was already making their way out when Cohen appeared a third time; everyone stopped to stare in exaltation the Messianic sight of the artist on the illuminated stage.