Over the weekend, I got to see one of the bands that I've been wanting to see for a very long time - Coldplay. I gushed about them earlier this summer with the release of their latest album, Viva La Vida. Since July, they've been on the road around the United States.
Thus far, this was the largest concert that I've been to - multiple thousands of people were there, and while my seat was really far from the stage, the sound was good. Despite that, I don't think that this sort of thing compares to the concerts that I've gone to at the Higher Ground in South Burlington, or the Iron Horse in Northampton. This was far less personal, where I was just watching and listening, rather than sinking into the music. It was still quite an experience, if somewhat detached.
The band was great on stage. They played an excellent set, mostly their notable songs, such as Clocks, Violet Hill, Fix You and Yellow being some of the biggest hits. I've seen a couple of videos from when they played at Brixton Acadamy and at the BBC, and Chris Martin seemed a bit flat and off from the studio recordings, but that didn't seem to be the case here on Saturday. Martin, however, does get the prize for having the most awkward stage presence - the guy is like a ragdoll. Kudos to their drummer, Will Champion, who sang Death Will Never Conqueror, which was really good.
One of the things that I really enjoyed was the background videos and video that was shot during the show - particularly during the song Yes. They did a fantastic job with editing together the live feeds, especially with the speed to which they put everything together - I'd love to see them pull together some regular music videos such as the stuff that they did here.
Just prior to the encore, the entire band ran from the stage up to the stands, where they played a couple of acoustic songs, which was really cool to see.
Overall, the entire concert was high energy and sounded fantastic. There was nothing groundbreaking about their performance, but it was certainly one of the better shows that I've been to.
1- Life in Technicolor
2- Violet Hill
3- Clocks
4- In My Place
5- Viva La Vida
6- Yes
7- 42
7- Fix You
8- Strawberry Swing
9- Chinese Sleep Chant
10- God Put a Smile On Your Face
11- Square One
12- Hardest Part
13- Yellow (Audience Participation)
14- Lost!
15- Back to the Start
16- The Scientists (Acoustic - Stands)
17- Death Will Never Conqueror (Stands)
Encore
18- Politik
19- Piano Piece
20- Lovers in Japan
21- Death and All His Friends
22- The Escapist
Looking through youtube, here's a couple of videos:
Viva La Vida
..
Strawberry Swing
..
42
..
Lost!
..
Clocks
..
Yes
..
Yellow - Coldplay
The Scientist - Coldplay
Strawberry Swing - Coldplay
