I am a lucky guy. Several months ago I scored a few tickets in the lower reserve for the Coldplay concert at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View.
The concert got off to a bit of a slow start with Rilo Kiley as the opening act. The best part of their set was the silence between songs.
Coldplay finally came on at around 9:30 and kicked off their set with "Square One," the first track from X&Y. In Coldplay's music videos, the music speaks for itself, and last night's show was much the same. The band wore black, and there was some cool lighting, but the concert was about the music. "Square One" was solid, but I wasn't quite feeling into the show for the first few songs. Rockin renditions of "Politik" and "Yellow" followed, and though both were good, I wasn't quite sucked in...at least the band did its best to invoke all things "Golden Gate", and it was obvious they were thrilled to be playing here.
Then the band broke into "God Put a Smile Upon Your Face", but Chris abruptly stopped. He invited those of us in the lower reserve to come in a bit closer, and so I moved up to the second row. Just 5 feet from some massive speakers, but 10 feet from the band!
From that point forward, the show flat out rocked. Coldplay slipped into "Speed of Sound", "Everything's Not Lost", and "The Scientist". The band then bunched together for an acoustic set, and Chris explained they had written "Til Kingdom" with the hopes that they would perform it with Johnny Cash. The band covered Cash's "Ring of Fire" and then returned to their usual positions for "Clocks." "Clocks" was perhaps the best performance of the evening. I loved the ending -- the studio recording of "Clocks" slows down towards the end, but last night the band played it faster and faster until the song was absolutely frenzied. The band next played "Talk" and then waited to come back out for the encore, which began with "Swallowed in the Sea". The band next banged into "In My Place" and Chris somehow made his way into the middle of the crowd during the song. The finale was "Fix You", which is certainly the band's favorite song from X&Y. "Fix You" starts slow but erupts mid-song into a wall of guitar and four-part harmonies...Chris swung a lantern around the stage and through it high and far when the song exploded, which was quite cool.
All in all, a great concert, and Coldplay has officially cemented top 3 status for my favorite bands alongside Oasis and Counting Crows. I actually think Coldplay is kind of what you get when you combine Noel Gallagher's music with Adam Duritz's thoughtfulness. Anyway, I can't wait to see Coldplay again.
Here's the complete set list. I've got exceptionally poor quality MP3s of the concert, and I'd love to get a hold of a good bootleg if there is one out there.
- Square One
- Politik
- Yellow
- God Put a Smile Upon Your Face
- Speed of Sound
- Low
- A Rush of Blood to the Head
- Everything's Not Lost
- White Shadows
- The Scientist
- Til Kingdom Come
- Ring of Fire
- Don't Panic
- Clocks
- Talk
- Swallowed in the Sea
- In My Place
- Fix You
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