Back in 2000, a friend and I would listen to BBC Radio One via the internet to help us get through our mundane work days. I loved listening to it because they would play a rock song one minute, then hip hop the next, then some crazy techno after that and so on. Through that station I found out about a few different acts, namely Coldplay.
They played "Trouble" constantly. At first I didn't like it too much, thinking it was a little too whiny for me. But eventually I got to like it, just because it was something different than the Korn/Limp Bizkit I was drowning myself in at the time. When I heard "Yellow" on K-Rock, and they said that Coldplay were the next big thing, I had a feeling they were right. However, I never imagined they would be as big as they are today.
I had one chance back then to see them live when they played Irving Plaza. But I chose not to go because at the time, I was on the fence. And when I'm on the fence about something, I tend to end up not doing it because I only want to do things I'm fully excited about. However I screwed up, because that would be the last chance I would get to see them in a small venue. Because from then on, they only played Radio City Music Hall, MSG, etc. In other words, the monster places.
After falling in love with "Viva la Vida" and especially "Violet Hill," I decided now was the time to suck it up, pay for a mid-priced ticket and finally see them. I am glad I did.
The first thing I noticed was that Coldplay's crowd is very different than the crowds I'm used to being a part of. Everyone looks happy, put together, friendly, and ready for a good time. Unlike other shows I'm at, where people are moody, dressed like they could give a crap (or are trying too hard to dress like they could give a crap), and are ready to prove they don't have to take your crap at the slightest hint of confrontation. Even though I appreciated this change and was smiling on the inside, apparently on the outside, my metal girl scowl was still in full effect. Because when I got my purse checked, security said "Smile! You're at a concert!" Guh. I flashed a smile and went inside the arena to find my upper level, 5th row
seat.
I arrived a little bit after showtime while
Amanda Kaletsky was still on stage. Apparently she had won some kind of radio station contest where listeners voted for her to open the show based on one song. I wasn't that into her, but she did have a nice singing voice.
After Amada finished, the official part of the show began with opener
Santogold. I was looking forward to seeing her only because of the
Converse commercial she appears in with Pharrell and one of the former members of my Top 5 (negative cool points to me for making a Friends reference), Julian Casablancas. She came with a band and two backup singers who were dressed in snug, unforgiving white pants and shirts, ponytails and white framed sunglasses. They would stand there perfectly still and then burst into either very understated or very animated dance moves (click
here to see a different performance so you can see what I mean). I thought it was somewhat reminiscent of Public Enemy's backup guys in the Fight the Power
video and found myself waiting to see what their next dance move would be. The most memorable songs for me were "
LES Artistes" and "
Creator." I thought she was cool, but I think her act would play much better in a club. But that's applicable to almost every act ever I guess.
Next up was Coldplay. They entered to an instrumental, paused for a moment and went right into "
Violet Hill," one of my favorite songs right now, which was played to a
purple-lit arena. Next was "
Clocks", a song I liked at one point, but due to the fact it was WAY overplayed, managed to get sick of. "
In My Place" sounded great as the whole arena sang along to the chorus. It was about this time these two boys (I'm guessing around 13-14 yrs old) made their way to the end of the aisle and danced around with joy. They really got going when "
Viva La Vida" started up. I don't know why, but it made me smile to
see this.
Here's where the setlist gets a bit foggy for me, as I don't really know any Coldplay outside of what I have heard on the radio. I do remember during this hazy spot, that for "God Put A Smile Upon Your Face" they went to the end of the left runway and performed a
twisted version of it there rather than the stage.
In the middle of "Hardest Part" (as it turns out it is called based on another site's
posting of the setlist), I started thinking "Am I the only one who doesn't really know these songs? Or is everyone here a total hardcore Coldplay fan?" Right as I thought that, Chris Martin stopped singing, said "Let's finish" and awkwardly stopped the song entirely. He went on to say that they need to play some bigger hits for all of us. Then went into "Yellow." I don't know if this is normally how the shows go or not. But it was just interesting it happened right as I was starting to tune out a bit. Apparently Chris Martin is a bit of a psychic isn't he?
After finishing the next song, Martin and co. ran from the endstage, through the crowd, up the back stairs to the second level and performed "
The Scientist" acoustically
from the back corner of the arena. After that, they let the drummer sing a song and then took an announced short break.
During the break, a short video (including a clip of Bill O'Reilly ragging on Chris) was played while the arena was kept dark. Then there was a momentary silence. Then all of a sudden, I was kicked in the face with "
Politik." I think this is one of the most impressive songs I've ever heard. I just think it's very original and very beautiful. I was SO glad they played it. This unfortunately for me is kind of where the show ended as far as exciting moments for me. I am not familiar with the last few songs they played, so once again I started tuning out.
Anyhow, I thought it was a great show. I felt Chris Martin was a good frontman with his full body-throwing
dance moves and his on point singing. There were enough hits to keep me involved in most of the show and I even discovered a song to add to my iPod library (
"Lost!"). The crowd participation extended all the way to the cheap seats, so I still felt a connection to what was going on onstage...definitely glad I finally went!
P.S. Apologies for the extremely lousy quality of the video and photos. I knew my seat would be up too high to take good photos. But ended up using my cell phone's camera anyway. Ah well.
