By a strange twist of fate I ended up at the LC’s concert in Warsaw’s Torwar hall. I’ve been waiting for this concert for all of my life, really. As anxious as I was, I went there and… it was the most… the best… the… Gosh, I’m speechless.

In short – it was my first LC concert. The last time he was in Warsaw I was four and the ticket price was more or less my dad’s monthly salary. Anyway, at that time I was already listening to Cohen’s songs thanks to my parents. What’s more, I knew his songs perfectly well even in the times when the only English words I understood were “dog” and “wardrobe” (don’t ask).

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Leonard Cohen w 1988

I was waiting for him to come to Poland for most of my life. I know all of his poems, have read all of the books he published, his music accompanied many of the most important moments in my life. And now he was going to perform a concert right here, in downtown Warsaw. Anyway, I was pretty anxious. We all know the feeling I guess. I was afraid he’s going to be old, lose his voice, do a concert 9 to 5 way, just for money…

Nyah, all of my doubts just disappeared the moment Cohen entered the stage.

Sure, the concert was completely different from the ones I heard on bootleg tapes. Absolutely no new songs, only his good-olds, from the very first song on his very first album to “In my secret life” from Dear Heather. In contrast with his previous concert in Warsaw back in 1985, this time Cohen did not tell many stories. Most of the time he was simply thanking the audience or presenting the musicians – several times. BTW, he recalled the previous concert in Warsaw saying that he was 60 years old back then, which means he was but a kid . Sure, it was sad he had nothing new to tell, but… did it matter much to us? Nyah.

As to the songs… the concert lasted almost 3 hours. I got an impression that the encores were actually longer than the second part, but I couldn’t confirm that (I had better things to do than care for my watch). I don’t remember the first part at all, I was too astonished. I mean it. Then my mind woke up – and I realised that this very concert was one of the most important moments in my life. Sorry for the pathos, but that’s precisely how I felt. With my beloved one at my side (and her mother, who paid for the tickets), with all the songs in my head, with LC on the stage…

“Famous blue raincoat”. The performance was so good I didn’t blink once. I guess it’s too personal a story to tell (there’s always some personal story, right?). After yet another standing ovation the band started “If it be your will”. It was a spoken poem, followed by the actual song sung by the Webb Sisters. Boy, they are great. I didn’t come to see them, but after the concert I started wondering if there’s any record of them available in Poland.

Anyway, it was already the encore time and after each and every song Cohen was leaving the stage, but the audience brought him back in with the applause. He tried to fend us off singing the “Closing time” and looking at us meaningly from below his hat (or was it only my impression?), but it didn’t work. When we brought him back on stage, he took his guitar and started a calm, “cameral” version of “I tried to leave you”. We were laughing our heads off, really, it felt like a conversation with LC.

When he returned back to stage for the final time, the band remained silent and they performed “Whither thou goest”, almost a capella… It felt much more sad than the version with Anjani from the previous concert in Warsaw. Another almost metaphysical experience, I tell you. The concert ended late (roughly 11 pm), and LC told us to “drive carefully home and don’t catch a cold” (another classic).  And that was it. A concert I waited for half of my life was complete.

I tried to express my feelings at the www.leonardcohenforum.com, but I failed. No way I could express my speechlesness. Sure, Leonard Cohen was great, the band was great, the Webb Sisters were marvellous, but the true meaning of the concert is somewhere behind those words, behind what could be described in a simple newspaper report. It is going to stay somewhere inside, I know it.