I was looking at life expectancy tables, and I could probably do another seven or eight years.” So Leonard Cohen claimed as he introduced “The Future” – the second song kicking off the major North American leg of his Old Ideas World Tour, which commenced in December 2012 with two New York dates and resumed for an additional 19 shows at Oakland, California’s Paramount Theatre last night. “I don’t know, friends, when we’ll ever meet again – no one can know that – but tonight we’ll give you everything we’ve got.” And that’s exactly what the Canadian genius poet-songwriter and his nine-piece backing band did, despite the omnipresent air of mortality – only reinforced when Cohen sang “I know my days are few” during “Darkness.”
With every tour jaunt, gossip inevitably centers on the possibility that it will be Cohen’s final such outing. Indeed, when you’re a 78-year-old with decades of decadence under your belt, there’s a significant chance that each performance might be your last. But Cohen’s spry sprint onto the stage to launch into “Dance Me To The End Of Love” at the beginning of the show seemed to mock such talk, resulting in the first of many standing ovations of the night. Three hours and 28 songs later, Cohen had entered Springsteen endurance territory, making clear he wasn’t going away anytime soon.
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