S.Lo on September 24th, 2018

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The Echo burned with communal first- and second-generation devotion to Leonard Cohen on Saturday night, the day after the legendary singer-songwriter, author and poet would have turned 84.

“Celebrating the Words and Music of Leonard Cohen,” an early evening gathering organized by L.A. singer Claire McKeown (Honey Child), featured an array of L.A. artists celebrating the humor, lament and insight of Cohen, who died in 2016.

Among the performances and readings, some artists shared stories about how they were introduced to Cohen’s music and what his words and songs meant to their lives. Highlights included Harley Cortez’s show-and-tell reading of “Dance Me to the End of Love,” revealing Henri Matisse’s “La Danse” as the painting paired with the song in an art book. Death Hags shared impressively modern, electro-pulse, synth versions of “The Partisan” and “First We Take Manhattan” before Vug Arakas played a deeply emotional “Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye” accompanied by just his electric guitar.

Laena Geronimo’s beautifully melodic and soulful rendition of “Bird on the Wire” drew all to a quietude, preparing the way (after Jenna Putnam’s reading of “Death of a Ladies Man”) for Imaad Wasif — wearing a tie that belonged to Cohen — to inspire a living room intimacy as the room crowded into a semicircle to witness and feel “Hallelujah” with him. Lael Neale then sang “Anthem” and “Suzanne” with angelic perfection before Sharif Dumani read the seduction of “Slowly I Married Her.”

Entrance next played angsty, passionate versions of “Teachers” and “Chelsea Hotel No. 2” (on left-handed, acoustic guitar while wearing a white lab coat), sharing that the latter was written about Janis Joplin and that he was thankful that his dad introduced him to Cohen during his Mötley Crūe phase as a teenager. Event organizer McKeown and the Honey Child choir then shared a heavenly rendition of “Treaty,” CDs of which were given away for free that night. Shannon Lay and Emmett Kelly followed with an acoustic duet of “Alexandra Leaving,” contrasted with the gothy mourning-black garbed Crook, performing their post-punk intrepretation of “The Partisan.” Kimi Recor and Christopher Vick (of Draemings) followed with a nuanced version of “Nancy” and a strong, Baez-worthy “So Long, Marianne.” John Tottenham’s irreverent humor then gave levity to the end of the evening, reading Cohen’s “On Sighting the Perfect Ass” and also more introspective verse such as “On Nights Like This” before thanking Cohen “for saving [his] life at 16.”

Last and certainly not least — and the most low-key Cohen-like, hidden behind a music stand and keyboard — Joel Jerome sang “Avalanche” and “Stranger Song” from the depths of his soul.

Photos by SL