Staring down the years and masterfully in control

AFTER a hiatus of two decades, Leonard Cohen's return visits to Australia come in quick succession.

Leonard Cohen is back in Australia for the second time in two years.

AFTER a hiatus of two decades, Leonard Cohen's return visits to Australia come in quick succession.

On tour in early 2009, he earned rave reviews. Cohen performed a three-hour concert, which was, to an extent, a summation of the artist's work as a singer and songwriter.

There's still a spring in the septuagenarian's step. Impossible to top the first time seeing Cohen, the return engagement is like revisiting a classic film.

Cohen's six-piece band can cruise like an eighteen-wheeler. There's muscle in the engines and dexterity in the playing. Cohen's shows are about shared experience, building an atmosphere, revisiting the past and somehow drawing the audience into the now.

Beginning with Dance Me To The End Of Love, Cohen, resplendent in a dark suit and felt hat, is soon on one knee before the virtuosity of Javier Mas's 12-string archilaud.

Cohen's baritone voice sounds almost below sea level as the ensemble rolls into The Future. As Cohen sings the line "white girls dancin", two of his backing singers, the Webb Sisters, shed their jackets and perform a perfectly synchronised cartwheel.

Bird On A Wire was an early highlight, followed by the lyrical feast of Everybody Knows. Cohen was moving with the agility of a shadow boxer: hitting his mark and somehow making a large room feel small.

As Mas began a long introduction to Who By Fire, Cohen took up an acoustic guitar. Bandleader Roscoe Beck then swapped to double bass and vocalist Sharon Robinson took a verse, as did Hattie Webb, on what's been a song in progress for Cohen over 2010, Born In Chains.

Revisiting more familiar terrain was the paean to Janis Joplin, Chelsea Hotel #2 and the relatively slinky groove of Waiting For The Miracle.

A short intermission was followed by Cohen back on stage in front of an ancient keyboard. As the rhythm kicked in Cohen delivered Tower Of Song replete with the perfect irony of "I was born like this /I had no choice/I was born with the gift of a golden voice".

Suzanne, Sisters Of Mercy and a stirring reading of The Partisan were next. Hallelujah, almost his signature now, was well received and followed by the swaggering I'm Your Man. With the recital of the poem A Thousand Kisses Deep you could have heard a proverbial pin drop. The second set closed with Take This Waltz before Cohen returned for his first encore, So Long, Marianne, Famous Blue Raincoat and First We Take Manhattan. It was a perfect trilogy, and Cohen came back for more.

While it was generous of the performer and well deserved, another two encores followed. Much has been made of Cohen's vigour, the wit and the depth to his writing: it's the songs that will you bring you back. Masterful.

Acer Arena Sydney tonight and tomorrow; Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne Friday and Saturday; Derwent Entertainment Centre Hobart November 15; Adelaide Entertainment Centre November 18; Hanging Rock Reserve at Woodend November 20; and Perth NIR Stadium November 24.