Coldplay!

I went to the greatly anticipated Coldplay concert last night with Ryan and Melissa! We bought tickets so long ago that I thought the excitement was starting to wear off, just about until we got to the venue, then it started kicking in again. It was at Energy Solutions, which I was a little disappointed with because the acoustics there are pretty bad and it's such a large venue. But I was just happy they were coming to Salt Lake! It has been a really long time since I've been to a concert in such a big venue. I wish they weren't so popular!


Anyway, the opening bands were ok! The first one was called Sleepercar I think , I can't remember the name. They were a band from Texas and were actually pretty good. The next to open was this really interesting DJ, DJ John Hopkins or something like that. The most interesting part of his was this graphics show going on behind him. At first I really liked it, there were some really obscure graphics and they went along with his beats, but the longer he went on, the weirder the graphics got and they almost turned creepy. As did the music. It was kind of strange! But somehow the whole thing was really hypnotic and I felt like I was in some sort of daze watching it.


Then out came Coldplay! They had a really cool set this tour, they had the stage set up so it kind of forked and they were able to go out about halfway into the floored seating. I remember reading an article where Chris Martin said they were going to do all they could to make their venues feel smaller and I can see how they accomplished that with the stage set up the way they did. And then in another interview about their tour set, all he said was "We have some incredible balls". I thought he was just trying to make an off color joke, but they had these giant orbs hung from the ceiling and they had different things, like videos and graphics projected on to them.

I'm trying to remember what song they started out with and I think it was Life In Technicolor. It was a really good song to start with. They had the "Liberty Leading the People" by Delacroix as their backdrop and they were all decked out in their weird revolutionary looking uniforms. I can't really remember all the songs they played and in what order they played them because they played for two hours. They played a little bit from all their previous albums, like The Scientist, Clocks, Politik, Yellow, Fix You, The Hardest Part, Speed of Sound....all of which were excellent. I always tend to like their older music the very best, although there really isn't a song of theirs I don't love. I loved hearing Politik though because it reminded me of the concert me and Anj went to a few years ago and that song was so good live! Wasn't it Anj! I think it might have been the first song they played at that show. For some reason it sounds so much better live than on the album. I was hoping they'd play Daylight and Warning Sign too but that's ok.

I think they played pretty much every song on their new album, and my favorite from that was definitely Viva La Vida and Lovers in Japan. When they started the intro to Viva La Vida the crowd just went crazy. Myself included, hehe. They just put on such a good show, you can't help but get really into it. They sound so good live and it's not only how great they sound but their overall performance, like the lasers they had going. You can just really feel the music when they play. And they all look so passionate about what they're doing. If you watch each band member individually for awhile they are so into what they're doing. Will is so much fun to watch on the drums, and last night he even sang a solo, he has an awesome voice. I think Chris needs to give him some more mic time;) Johnny is so fun to watch on the guitar, he's just so good. Guy is always so fun to watch, Anj would agree with me on that:) He really doesn't move around much but the way he plays the bass is mesmerizing. hehe. Chris Martin is so entertaining to watch. Sometimes when he's flailing around the stage or looking like he's having convulsions whilst playing piano, I wonder if he's completely drunk. But he's a denouncer of alcohol, so I'm then left in awe and wonder at how he manages to act so silly without any help. Maybe it's caffeine? Either way, it's really entertaining and he knows how to get the crowd going.

At one point in the show we were pleasantly surprised to find they had set up a little mini platform in the nosebleeds not far from us! They came up and said they wanted to reach the back of the audience, so they sang a couple songs up there. I thought that was so cool. Too bad I was too busy fumbling with my phone's camera to really take it all in. I was trying to figure out how to zoom in with my camera, and never could figure it out. It was nice not having to squint or rely on the big screens to see them!

During Lovers in Japan they had a really cool video playing in back of them of footage of Osaka, and some other random things. It was really neat, and then during the middle of the song they started releasing confetti, but I realized after awhile the confetti's were all in the shape of butterflies. It was so cool. You can actually see that on the first picture I posted. By the way, none of these pictures are mine. hehe. They are from previous concerts and I figure they're a lot better than anything I could have taken with my phone anyway:)

Lost was another great one. It was really fun watching Chris during that. I'm trying to think of what song they ended with. I think it was Death and All His Friends. That was pretty amazing too. I loved the end of it. That was a great live song. And when they left the stage I felt so bummed! But they came back and sang an encore of Yellow. I was kind of disappointed they chose to end with Yellow of all songs! But that's ok.:) I think I gain a whole new appreciation for all their songs when I see them live, they're just so good! Like I said about their last concert, it was like a spiritual experience for me. hehe. What an awesome show. Coldplay never disappoints. The only thing that would have made it better would be if Anj could have come with us!