David Sprague reports from New York:

Leonard Cohen waited more than two hours before playing “First We Take Manhattan” — a conquest-minded song that took on a decidedly more celebratory tone at this, his first stateside show in 15 years — but it only required a few moments for him to actually seal the deal laid out in the song’s title.
Absence may have had some effect on making the aud’s collective heart demonstrate fondness for the septuagenarian poet-singer, but over the course of his three-hour, three-encore perf, Cohen proved again and again that this was no mere nostalgia trip. Yes, the offerings went back as far as “Suzanne” — the first track on his now 42-year-old first album — but none of the two-dozen-plus pieces were presented as if preserved in amber.
Some of Cohen’s alterations were subtle — a chilled-out-but-pulsing bassline appended to “Everybody Knows,” a storefront-church arrangement on “Bird on a Wire” — while others were quite bracing. The latter aspect was most evident in Cohen’s own delivery, which was palpably looser than one might expect from a performer of his vintage and portent — notably a light, almost winking take on the doom-laden “Tower of Song.”
One thing that hasn’t changed over the years is Cohen’s dark-hued, deep baritone, a sound that can give him the air of an Old Testament prophet one moment and a honeyed lothario the next. Even at this stage of his life, he’s a remarkably seductive presence — nattily clad in black suit and fedora, ambling around the stage with a quiet confidence that positively permeated versions of “Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye” and “If It Be Your Will,” the latter of which was leavened nicely by the harmonies of the Webb Sisters.
As the program progressed, the breadth of Cohen’s influence came into sharper and sharper focus, with song after song evoking memories of covers heard in smoky clubs or on middle-of-the-night radio assays. But as Cohen dug into the marrow of “Famous Blue Raincoat” and, especially, a hypnotically incantory “Hallelujah,” it became amply evident that he still has far more of an impact in the flesh than he does in the mist of memory.
He will start a North America tour in April. The dates:

4/2             Michael and Susan Dell Hall at Long Center            Austin, TX

4/3             NOKIA Theatre at Grand Prairie                            Grand Prairie, TX

4/5             Dodge Theatre                                                       Phoenix, AZ

4/7             Copley Symphony Hall                                           San Diego, CA

4/10           NOKIA Theatre L.A. LIVE                                   Los Angeles, CA               

4/13           Paramount Theatre of the Arts                                Oakland, CA

4/17           Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival                  Indio, CA                           

4/19           General Motors Place                                             Vancouver, BC

4/21           Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre                          Victoria, BC

4/23           WaMu Theater at Qwest Field Events Center         Seattle, WA

4/25           Rexall Place                                                            Edmonton, AB

4/26           EPCOR Centre’s Jack Singer Hall                          Calgary, AB

4/28           Credit Union Centre                                               Saskatoon, SK

4/30           MTS Centre                                                           Winnipeg, MB

5/03           Orpheum Theatre                                                   Minneapolis, MN

5/05           The Chicago Theatre                                              Chicago, IL

5/09           Fox Theatre                                                            Detroit, MI

5/11           Merriweather Post Pavilion                                     Columbia, MD

5/12           Academy of Music                                                 Philadelphia, PA

5/14           Palace Theater                                                        Waterbury, CT

5/16           Radio City Music Hall                                             New York, NY

5/19           Copps Coliseum                                                     Hamilton, ON

5/21           Pavillon de la Jeunesse                                            Quebec City, QC

5/22           K-Rock Centre                                                      Kingston, ON

5/24           John Labatt Centre                                                 London, ON

5/25           National Arts Centre – Southam Hall                      Ottawa, ON

5/29           Wang Theatre                                                         Boston, MA

6/02           Red Rocks Amphitheatre                                        Morrison, CO