The recording is being shared as 24 bit/48 kHz stereo FLACs.

Leonard Cohen
Madison Square Garden, NYC
December 18, 2012

First Set:

01-Dance Me to the End of Love
02-The Future
03-Bird on the Wire
04-Everybody Knows
05-Who by Fire
06-Darkness
07-Ain't No Cure for Love
08-Amen
09-Come Healing
10-In My Secret Life
11-A Thousand Kisses Deep
12-Anthem

Second Set:

13-Tower of Song
14-Suzanne
15-Chelsea Hotel #2
16-Waiting for the Miracle
17-Show Me the Place
18-Lover Lover Lover
19-Democracy
20-Alexandra Leaving
21-I'm Your Man
22-Hallelujah
23-Take This Waltz

Encore

24-So Long, Marianne
25-Going Home
26-First We Take Manhattan
27-Famous Blue Raincoat
28-If It Be Your Will
29-Closing Time


Lineage: Stealth recorded and minimally produced by mrsaureus, sitting on the floor dead center 16 rows (maybe 50 ft.) back from the stage. Core-Sound High End Binaurals (DPA-4060 capsules) to Sony PCM-M10 (48 kHZ, 24 bit), WavePad Sound Editor to cut into songs and export as 24 bit/ 48 kHz waves. SoundForge to convert to 24 bit/48 kHz flacs. If people want it, I can share the 16/44.1 version. This was one of those shows with lots of dynamic range in the performance, and also in which the applause was generally very loud compared to the performance. I set the levels so that the applause clipped sometimes in order to get the soft parts of the performance, such as the recitations, at reasonable gain. I am sharing it without any amplification, so the soft parts are pretty soft. People can work on it to normalize the applause if they want to. Finally, this is an audience recording that aims to document the experience of being in the crowd at the show, and features occasionally loud but appropriate crowd noise. This is the first time this recording is being shared.


Wow, what a way to cap off a year! December 2012 is the apex of my personal concert-going history, with Neil Young and Crazy Horse back with strong new material, the Dinosaur Jr. 25th YLAOM indie rock extravaganza, the Rolling Stones 50th blow out, and now a deep scoop by that not so jolly old elf Leonard Cohen. The theme of the year has been how rock music is a perfectly good old man�s game, demonstrated beyond question by the shows named above plus Johnny Hallyday from earlier in the fall. Leonard is the oldest of them all, 78 now, but like Jagger, doesn�t seem much different than he was twenty years ago.

But is Leonard a rock star? I say he is. Rock covers a lot of real estate, and not everybody lives downtown. To get to Leonard you can start at Bob Dylan�s house, head out toward Neil Diamond and just keep going. He takes elements of the Jewish musical tradition, which is inexhaustibly rich, and blows them out in all directions like a musical land mine. For this show he was aided by a top notch band, all of whom are terrific, but Bob Metzger and Javier Mas deserve special mention for nimble guitar work, and Sharon Robinson for having one of the lovliest voices I have ever heard.

Leonard Cohen�s genius is the fusion of the spiritual with the carnal. No one has ever mashed up God and sex so well, and I�m happy to say that his advanced age hasn�t taken the edge of this aspect of his music. Leonard on stage with his three comely back up singers could tip over into Hefneresque parody if he wasn�t such a master, but there is never any worry about that. Leonard is all tension and restraint as he sings with eyes closed tightly, fedora tipped forward over his heavy features, often kneeling like Rodin�s Thinker in exquisite composure.

At this point there is no reason to doubt that he�s headed for the land of Elaine Stritch. I look forward to another great show in 15 years.