As if I needed to be reminded I'm on death's door compared to most everyone else in this audience, someone decided to throw a rap song into the mix of songs being played over the PA. I was horrified at the number of kids seemingly mouthing the words and - you can call it dancing, but I don't. Speaking of dancing, one of Coldplay's roadies stopped sweeping the stage to do a little dancing on his own, entertaining the crowd. He was good enough not to be embarrassing but not good enough not to be funny.
After the rap song, a classical song was next played. "They're coming on after this," 11 predicted. Give that man 64 silver dollars. As soon as the final notes of whatever that was finished, the glorious sounds of "Life in Technicolor" began. The band walked on stage to the instrumental track that opens Viva La Vida. Frontman Chris Martin, guitarist John Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, and drummer Will Champion took their places and joined the tape, finishing "Life in Technicolor" before launching into "Violet Hill" Martin began the interaction with the crowd early, effectively using the song's repeated question "won't you let me know?" before launching into the classic "Clocks."
I remember thinking the show seemed to be going by really fast. The band weren't rushing it onstage nor were they ignoring the crowd to hurriedly play the next song. Why did it all seem to be moving at a sprinter's pace?
Martin again addressed the crowd, which did slow things down for a moment, and introduced Coldplay as one of the biggest bands to come from France in 70 years, which made me laugh. I found myself cringing just a little when he felt the need to tell us he was only kidding. Ever the earnest one, he couldn't possibly let that joke just hang out there lest some French man or woman have hurt feelings. Despite that, his awkwardness had a disarming charisma.
"In My Place" seemed an odd choice for a first single for a first single from A Rush Of Blood To The Head, but in concert it seemed to make more sense. No, it still didn't have the masterpiece qualities of "Clocks" but there was more bounce and life to it on stage than on record. The familiar "Yellow," released nine years ago, caused another surge of energy in a crowd on the verge of blissfully exploding into a euphoria. As Martin played with the crowd at the conclusion of the song, he mispronounced "Alabamians" and playfully chided himself. "That's a word I should have learned before coming on stage tonight." Martin's mild verbal gaffe would have been quickly forgiven without the good humored self-deprecation, but the goodwill and good feelings of the night grew because of it.
Article comments
1 - Glen Boyd
Wow, dude...that was longer than two of my most indulgent Rockologist columns. I'm going to see these guys in July though, so thanks for the preview. And for clearing that thing up about the free CDs at the end (I downloaded it, but you still had me a little worried). Hopefully, as I'm still single we'll get the added bonus of the "2009 model" thingies in Seattle too...
-Glen
2 - El Bicho
"It would have been ironic if we'd had to go to a Coldplay show to hear a Bruce Springsteen song"
That would have been awesome since I believed I called that a few days prior