Leonard Cohen performs at Paramount Theatre in Oakland on March 3, 2013. Roman Gokhman/STAFF.

At the beginning of his show at Oakland’s Paramount Theatre on March 3, the second of two sold-out nights, legendary septuagenarian crooner Leonard Cohen offered no promises of the distant future.

Leonard Cohen performs at Paramount Theatre in Oakland on March 3, 2013.

“I don’t know when we’ll meet again, but tonight we’ll give you everything we’ve got,” Cohen said.

Someone who’s never seen him perform before might take that with a grain of salt. How much can a 78-year-old give at an 8 p.m. show, with no opener? The casual fan may assume that he or she would be in bed by 10 p.m.

But two full sets and three encores later, Cohen was still going. A full 30 songs into his lengthy songbook, at 11:30 p.m., he showed few signs the night was almost over. The man played longer than Springsteen, and the barrage of songs spanning decades didn’t cease.

From opener “Dance Me to the End of Love” to “Anthem,” “Tower of Song,” “I’m Your Man,” and the immortal “Hallelujah,” which was dropped toward the end of the second set but nowhere near the end of the show itself, Cohen showed remarkable skill and durability.

Leonard Cohen performs at Paramount Theatre in Oakland on March 3, 2013.

Throughout the performance, Cohen cracked jokes about reminding himself not to pout when he was having a day that matched his age, or about his skills on the keyboard. When he got a standing ovation for some tinkered notes on “Tower of Song,” he stopped and joked, “Are you putting me on? I guess that’s all you think I can do.” He then proceeded to play with his elbows. A couple songs, such as “A Thousand Kisses Deep,” he performed as poetry, with nothing other than his deep timbre-y voice.

His band, which included a violinist, flamenco guitarist and three back-up singers, seamlessly transitioned between several genres, including lounge, pop, Latin and jazz. The entire performance, from the drum fills to Cohen’s words, was an exercise in restraint, with the right amount of quiet to give the sound meaning.

Follow editor Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter.