Leonard Cohen

Tue., May 12, 8 p.m., $179, Academy of Music, 1420 Locust St., 215-893-1999, kimmelcenter.org.

by A.D. Amorosi

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Published: May 5, 2009

folk/rock

I have seen the future, brother, and it's Leonard Cohen. At least the immediate one, what with a due-soon new album, a recent Live in London DVD/CD combo and Sundazed vinyl reissues of Songs of Leonard Cohen, Songs of Love and Hate, Songs from a Room, Live Songs and New Skin for the Old Ceremony. The Canadian-born Cohen, now 74, is the link between the beats, the hippies, the boulevardiers, the punk poets and the Manhattan bards — the only link, really. Like an older, more dramatic Dylan or Lou Reed (both of whom Cohen predated as an author of novels and poetry collections), he's kept his dynamism and his weariness. Cohen's lyrics capture icily dour nihilism, sociopolitical sourness and snaky sexuality, sometimes in one song. I caught him at New York City's Beacon Theatre in February; even when the band got too light and breezy, Cohen's mummy-like rasp kept the proceedings dark, running through tales of righteous romance and near apocalypses from all phases of his career: "Dance Me to the End of Love," "Bird on the Wire," "Anthem," "So, Long Marianne" and a positively gloomy and vicious "First We Take Manhattan." His oddly merry monotone (maybe only I found it merry) and samba-riffic dance steps were a delight. Yes, a delight. This is how the light gets in.

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