I meet Andy at the train station at 10AM. He is wearing a Seattle Supersonics t-shirt! He said it was so I would more easily recognize him. It turns out he is a sports writer from New England and working in Munich. We chat and walk by the venue, on the way to his youth hostel, which is not too far from mine and very close to Props Coffee shop where the pre-show gathering is. I sell him my extra ticket, and we agree to meet at Props around 4PM. Rest a short while at the hostel and decide to try to see part of the city I have so far missed, the Kastellet fortifications and the famous Little Mermaid statue. It is another hot and sunny day, and while the Little Mermaid is over-rated and swarmed with tourists, the Kastellet is nearly empty and very interesting. While taking a photo of a windmill there, I am yelled at by a soldier for walking on the grass and having my bike inside the fortifications. I guess I didn’t see the signs! Anyway, it is time to head back to Nørrebro to get my recharged camera battery and go to the meet-up. I arrive early at Props and Peter Danielsen from the Leonard Cohen Forum is already there playing guitar. He is from Denmark and chose the location of the meet. He sings and plays beautifully, and has great warmth of personality. I sit down at a table with one of the regulars and have a great cup of coffee. The local guy is a photographer named Klaus Kurup who has taken pictures of a lot of famous musicians, including Cohen when he was here in 1988, not to mention Segovia, Bert Jansch and many others. Very nice guy, made me feel welcome – I told him if I lived here I would be a regular too! Before long, Jonesy arrives, and we start drinking beer. They have an award winning bottled micro-brew that is an actual top-fermenting ale brewed in Denmark: the Aegte Fynsk A.Z. Ale No. 16. from Refsvindinge Brewery. Outstanding! Would love to visit this farmhouse brewery someday… Andy arrives and tells us the marvelous story of his day: Andy has recently started taking singing lessons. He is working on writing a piece about singing as a form of therapy. He has been practicing singing Hallelujah and wanted to see Leonard for the first time, but also really wanted to interview him, to ask him a single question. He did some research online, and determined which was the most likely hotel. He put on his suit and went to the hotel bar to wait. Success! He got to meet him and ask the question: “what do you think about when you are singing?” He got a very brief but accurate answer: “the song.” We all crowd around his voice recorder to hear the interview. The others forum members arrive: Ronny and Lisbeth from Norway; the charming Antoni and his lovely wife Conxita from Barcelona; and Steffi from Hamburg. Antoni contacted me before I left the US and offered to bring LC recordings from his trade list. He graciously handed out copies of the May 23 show in Moncton, New Brunswick. Eager to get good spots, we leave Props and head to the venue. Jonesy and I are the only ones in our group with Golden Circle tickets so we split up for the show. Jonesy and I stake out a spot in the first row, but a bit further to the right than I would like. There is a platform with a camera man nearly in front of us, but at least we are on the rail. We make friends with the people who crowd in around us: one couple came all the way from Australia, trumping me and Jonesy! Another pair are British but came from Germany. We are joined by a nice older lady from Copenhagen who has a great sense of humor – she asks if we will get taller when the show starts. We tell her where we all came from, and she says, sorry this area is for Danes only, you are all supposed to be back there. We all laugh and I make some room for her on the rail. The only problem is that the tour merchandise is all in the main lawn, not the Golden Circle. We are expected to exit the venue, walk around the block and go in through the other gate to get t-shirts. We take turns going to the vendors. As there is officially a no re-entry policy, I carefully explain to security where we are going and why. I also tell the vendors that the people with the most money are trapped in the Golden Circle with no way to buy merchandise! A little while later a guy starts walking through the GC selling programs at least. The show is fantastic, everything I had hoped it would be. Leonard is singing beautifully, dancing a little, getting down on one knee, even playing electric guitar and keyboard on some songs. “The band is really happening” as the song goes. Javier Mas on laud and 12-string guitars is phenomenal. I make video recordings of seven of the songs, working on my string-pod camera stabilization technique. We all have big goofy grins on our faces, even during the saddest songs. Leonard just makes you feel good.
After the show, Jonesy and I head back to Props to see who will meet up after the show. Andy comes, and soon also Ronny and Lisbeth. We close Props and say goodbye to Ronny and Lisbeth. We try entering a nearby club, but the music is loud and terrible and we wait 10 minutes in front of the bar without getting service, so we split. Jonesy recalls my story of staying up all night in Christiania at the Jazz Club and suggests we go there, so I hail a cab. Andy is a bit hesitant, but comes along for the adventure. We're all too excited by tonight's concert to go to sleep! Back at my "dealer’s table" by the Woodstock Bar on Pusher Street, we have many interesting encounters. Inside the bar they are playing Leonard Cohen, and the night feels like it will last forever. It does not, and as the sun starts to rise we walk through admiring the residences and sit by the canal drinking beer. Andy is exhausted so we catch a cab back to Nørrebro and drop him near his hostel. Across the street is an open bar so we pop in for another round. The place is a real dive and the patrons are bizarre. Three times a guy tries to join us, one asking me how I manage to keep Jonesy’s attention all to myself. As we step out into the daylight, a rainshower starts. Around the corner on Blågårdsgade we find an open bakery and get real Danish pastries and coffee. In Blågårdsplads square there is a covered stage for the jazz festival, so we sit upon it and enjoy the Danish and coffee until the rain stops. A guy walks over and asks me for a light – always the enabler – I wasn’t even smoking at the moment! At last it really is time to stop partying and get ready to leave, so I walk Jonesy back to her hotel and say goodbye. By 9:00AM I am back at the hostel and getting the packing started. |
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