My Coldplay.com - A Coldplay Blog

Photos from last night’s Washington DC show are in the gallery here. Reviews and videos below…

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Coldplay stopped at the Verizon Center for the “Viva La Vida” tour

WASHINGTON – For music fans concerned about who will continue the arena rock tradition once the veterans have walked away from the stage for good, now would be a good time to turn your attention to Coldplay.

Is their music and cultural impact as timeless as The Rolling Stones or Bruce Springsteen? No. At least not yet. And can Chris Martin command a stage with the bravado and swagger of Bono or Jon Bon Jovi? Not quite.

What Coldplay offers live are well-designed Big Rock Band trappings – video screen the width of the stage, a rainbow of lasers, neon butterfly confetti – but instead of coating them with the cool self-assurance of a thousand other rock stars, the band projects an endearing warmth.Much of that credit belongs to Martin, a gangly Gumby whose nonstop fidgeting is unexpectedly riveting, but who also approaches a live display with the self-deprecation it deserves. Except, maybe, for those ragtag, straight out of “Master and Commander” military jackets that the band has adopted as its “look” for the album/tour cycle of “Viva La Vida.”

A few times during Sunday’s too-brief 90-minute set, Martin acknowledged a gaffe, smiled sheepishly and then fixed it. It happened on the final verse of the opening “Violet Hill,” when he stretched his face into a look of horror, then repeated the lyric, and, most humorously, on the last refrain of “Yellow,” when he went in low instead of high.

“Some days I don’t know if I’m trying to be Johnny Cash or Barry Gibb,” he quipped. “Hopefully, in 10 years time, I’ll have the voice of Johnny Cash and the hair of Barry Gibb.”

While Martin, 31, is the undeniable focal point with his ungraceful hopping on one foot, singing on his back, rocking violently on his piano stool and flailing his arms as if he’s about to lasso a pony, Coldplay is very much an equal opportunity band.

Guitarist Jonny Buckland owes more than a polite acknowledgement to U2’s The Edge for his chiming fretwork that impressively built into its own little wall of sound, a habit especially evident on the gorgeously soaring “Fix You,” while bassist Guy Berryman quietly anchored the whisper-to-a-scream dynamics of the band’s songs.

Meanwhile, drummer Will Champion (how could he not be destined for stardom with that name?) received more face time than most sticksmen, joining Martin at the front of the stage to hammer a floor drum and vintage bell for the title track to “Viva La Vida,” which sounded nearly as lush as it does on record and incited a U2-ish singalong with its “whoa-oh-oh” chorus.

Released only about six weeks ago, “Viva,” the album, has quickly swelled into the turning point of Coldplay’s eight-year recording career. It’s the biggest-selling non-rap release of 2008 so far with sales of about 1.4 million, and at Sunday’s Verizon Center show, the sold-out audience of close to 20,000 sang along with every album cut as if the songs had been part of their lives for years.

The songs that fit that definition – “Clocks,” “In My Place” – appeared early in the set and were given the polished accompaniment of flashing red lights and pulsing lasers to enhance fans’ already-frenzied state.

But the chumminess of this band – much like with U2 – cannot be underestimated in their newfound footing, both musically and performance-wise. When they huddled at the foot of a stage ramp for an echo-y “Chinese Sleep Chant” and a radical techno-infused version of “God Put a Smile Upon Your Face,” there was a palpable cohesiveness to their performance.

But, it was when the foursome scampered into the crowd to perform in a tiny section at the back of the venue that Coldplay’s desire to keep a grip on their escalating popularity blazed through.

“This is what we look like up close. Impressive, isn’t it?” Martin said with a sideways grin, before the band dove into a lovely acoustic version of “The Scientist,” with Berryman strumming a mandolin.

Martin turned the spotlight to Champion once again, as the drummer sang the folksy pub rumination, “Death Will Never Conquer,” a song offered as a free download on the band’s Web site.

But first, Martin shared one more self-aware gem: “This will be the last song of our main set, and then we’ll do the encore thing, so play along with us, because otherwise, you’ll leave, and we don’t want you to do that.”

It doesn’t appear that fleeing fans are anything that Coldplay needs to fret about for awhile.
http://www.inrich.com/

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There was no surprise encore but there was the usual one consisting of Politik, lovers in Japan, and Death and all his Friends.

With that being said, the concert was fucking great! This was my first time seeing them live! Chris sang so well, he didn’t miss a note. And holy shit, Will Champion is one amazing drummer!!! I can’t believe someone said he doesn’t belong in the top 50….

Best performances:
Yes (had an incredible ending to it)
Viva la Vida (the crowd was great)
Lost! (that song belongs to Will)
The Scientist
Politik(great energy from the band)
Death and All His Friends

Chris did about half of The Hardest Part and then stopped!

The crowd was okay throughout the show, could have been a bit better. They began clapping before some songs were even over, including Yellow!!! Chris had to wait until they stopped clapping to finish. Very annoying. Energy from the crowd was sporadic.

… I stood up the whole entire time…

Oh, and Guy’s voice is so cool during Chinese Sleep Chant!

The hits received the biggest praise, as to be expected.

I really had the time of my life. Such a great show!!!

[thanks dotty biscotti]

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It was pretty great overall. A few minor nitpicks, such as the setlist not flowing perfectly, or wanting the lighting to be super intense on every song, but the band is coming into their own as far as live performances and seems to be enjoying it.

The Muse-esque improv/additions to songs (such as the classical-sounding ditty after Politik) are huge in my book. I hope they continue to do these.

[thanks antareus]

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SETLIST [thanks jasmynebirch]

LIT
Violet Hill
Clocks
In My Place
Viva La Vida
Yes
42
Fix You
Strawberry Swing
Chinese Sleep Chant (side stage)
GPASUYF (side stage/techno version)
Square One
Hardest Part (again half of the song and Chris w/piano only)
Yellow
Lost
The Scientist (acoustic in crowd)
Death Will Never Conquer (acoustic in the crowd)

Encore:

Politik (with a bit of extra piano playing!)
Lovers in Japan
DAAHF/The Escapist

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Coldplay Rock the Balls at the Phone Booth

One strives to avoid the wholly predictable, but sometimes you just can’t stave off the obvious lede that fate fairly dangles above your head:

Coldplay grow some balls.

Coldplay deliver ballsy performance.

Coldplay counter critics with raw ballin.’

Viva la Balls, or Death and All His Balls.

(Okay, so what was your brilliant idea, Mr. Christgau? Coldplay Go Globe-al? Weak.)

Retarded puns unretracted, Coldplay’s sold-out show at the Phone Booth last night was all about the balls — specifically, the half-dozen vaguely ominous, economy-car-sized white orbs that descended from the ceiling like Rover, the high-tech balloon-as-border-fence from the trippy 60s British TV show The Prisoner (stick with me, the most of you who have no fucking clue what I’m talking about) and displayed projected video around all 360 degrees of their surfaces. The balls were definitely the newest, most impressive props in a choreographed-to-the-minute 85-minute performance. No question, the show was state-of-the-art — “the art,” of course, being that of high-tech stage production rather than songwriting, which has never been Coldplay’s long suit, exactly. Indeed, the Phone Booth show had originally been scheduled for a month earlier, and had to be postponed along with the first segment of the tour due to “production delays” — presumably those balls, since every other high-tech trick in the show, while impressive, was familiar from other visually-inventive tours, particularly those of — all togther now, friends — U2, the band Coldplay is most frequently accused of ripping off.

One thing we can say for sure is that while seeing Coldplay perform live — as with any artist that understands intuitively how to connect with an audience in performance — can only increase your estimation of the band’s merit, it ain’t gonna dissuade anybody who thinks of them as merely the best U2 copyists to come along since Radiohead’s OK Computer-era evolution into something much more unique. (If Coldplay were even the least bit worried about the comparison, they wouldn’t have hired Brian Eno, midwife to all of U2’s most successful albums, to produce their latest, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends — winner of this year’s Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness award for album title that makes you most want to issue a wedgie to the clown who came up with it.) But the likeness is as palpable onstage as it is on record. Chris Martin, Coldplay’s ebullient, charismatic frontman, comes off as a taller, less garrulous Bono, from his loose-limbed, ecstatically reclined dancing to the way he seems surprised and delighted at but also completely at ease with having thousands of people gape at him. He’s a natural showman.

Coldplay’s set last night went heavy on Viva la Vida material, perfomring the album almost in its entirety, along with half of 2002’s A Rush of Blood to the Head and a lesser sampling from their first and third albums. They certainly played every Coldplay song I needed to hear, and still managed to wrap up in 85 minutes — not exactly a marathon, especially considering that the top ticket price was $97.50. The show was expertly paced, however. The band performed behind a mesh curtain for the opening instrumental wash of “Life in Technicolor,” then slammed into first single “Violet Hill” as the curtain went up. A giant backdrop of the 1830 Eugene Delacroix painting that forms Vida’s cover was suspended unnecessarily behind the band. Song 3, “Clocks” — the theme that launched a thousand movie trailers circa 2003-4 — brought the laser cannon barrage, and gave us our first glimpse of the video-testes in action.

Actually, ’twere only a single vidi-ball activated for this number, hung dead center of the arena. As the set continued, five more spheres would float down from black chutes in the rafters — the thought of sitting beneath a giant hen was difficult to avoid. Had all the vidi-balls been pressed into service initially, they could have eliminated the unnecessary and distracting video screen stage backdrop that replaced the album cover with the now-obligatory high-contrast black-and-white video footage of the band performing, which was probably much appreciated by the occupants of the 400-level sets but, closer in, competed distractingly with the the band itself. The video balls were a lot cooler during “Clocks,” when they were a replacement for, rather than a supplement to, traditional big-screen video. The removal of the screen would have allowed CP to sell the seats behind the stage, too.

The mid-floor B-stage was another idea Coldplay recycled to great effect (from U2, yes; at least that’s who Keith Richards says the Rolling Stones stole the idea from) performing a rousing “Chinese Sleep Chant.” Pretty funny title for the hardest-rocking song on the album. Accompanied by more laser fire, it sounded echo-y and ethereal and great, even if was so heavily processed it was impossible to tell if any of it was actually being performed live. Next up was a downbeat, whammy-bar heavy number. For a hopeful second, I thought Coldplay were going to show some Eno-love by covering “Life During Wartime” or something else from those great Talking Heads albums that Eno produced back when I was still in diapers, but no such luck — it was a rearranged, sinister “God Put a Smile on My Face.”

A few minutes later, Chris Martin cut whatever watery piano ballad he was playing abruptly off, saying “That’s enough of that” before slamming into “Yellow,” the dumb-but-difficult-to-resist Y2K anthem that put the world on notice that even with their first album, Coldplay had designs on a hockey rink near you. The sepia-color-wash that accompanied the tune sort of made me think of what Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog would have to say about the show. Even so, events took a distinct upward turn when Martin, after botching an acapella coda to the tune apologized, saying, “Some days I don’t know whether I’m trying to be Johnny Cash or Barry Gibb. I hope in 10 years’ time to have the voice of Johnny Cash and the hair of Barry Gibb.” Yo, Chris: We’ll handle the snarky quips about your voice if you don’t mind, or even if you do. But that was a pretty good one.

After a pounding “Lost!”, the four Coldplay-ers lept from the stage and ran across the floor through the audience, slapping hands while enveloped in beefy security guys. (I know you want to ask, and, yes, I have in fact seen U2 do this, too.) But then they did something I’ve never seen anybody do: They performed a pair of tunes, not quite in the nosebleeds, but from some random seats in the 200 level of the arena almost directly opposite the stage.

“So this is what we’re like up-close,” Martin told the lucky occupants of that section. “Not that impressive, right?” His affable banter broke sharply from Bonodom when he said, “I’m going to stop talking because I’m starting to bore myself.” Then came an acoustic take of “The Scientist, “ followed by “The Goldrush / Death Will Never Conquer,” sung by drummer Will Champion, replete with some comments from Martin about the ineptitude of his own harmonica-playing. Though truth be told, he blows harp at least as skilfully as . . . yeah, why don’t we drop that now.

A video-ball clip of Bill O’Reilly dissing Chris Martin gave way to a sort of geopolitical mash up video while the band made their way back to the main stage to bash out a driving “Politik.” The closing sequence of “Lovers in Japan,’ “Death to All His Friends,” and “The Escapist” was accompanied by a storm of glow-in-the-dark paper butterflies, blown aloft my confetti cannons. Perhaps it wasn’t the vidi-testes, but rather the real buttterflies — feral, carnivorous, ravenous — used in early dress rehearsals, that were to blame for the “production delays.” “Oh, God! Not the eyes!” screamed people all around us as the winged beasties flew their hellish, day-glo sorties. Okay, so I made most of that up, but the paper butterflies were there, and people were screaming, albeit in fits of apparent euphoria.

I did hear a few people grumbling on their way out about the sub-90-minutes performance time. Coldplay have shows booked through the end of the year. Then, presumably, they’ll have to find something to do with the vidi-balls they spent so much cash on. I have a few ideas:

1) Both feature-film and TV remakes of The Prisoner are in the works; the TV version is already in production with Jim “Jesus of Nazareth” Caviezal and Sir Ian “Magneto” McKellen in the two leading roles. The 60s version was pretty successful at making viewers afraid of a growling while balloon, but a growling white balloon that showed its victims live video of Coldplay before devouring them would be both topical and scary.

2) Rumor has it this other band will be touring again next year, one with a reputation for eye-popping live shows, chiming E-chord-driven anthems, and collaborations with Brian Eno. Coldplay has been stealing their sound and their stage tricks for close to a decade now; perhaps that other band would be willing at this point to return the favor. Or at least to give them a decent price for a half-dozen gently used vidi-balls.

http://swaggernotstyle.wordpress.com

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Coldplay may not suck (that much)

Coldplay was in town last night. I went with two friends to see them, and I suspect that the four of you who’ve read this blog before already know my opinion of Chris Martin’s songwriting abilities (hell, we update so infrequently that you could probably scroll down to see what I wrote two months ago).

Anyway, I went into the concert with very low expectations. I listened to their first two albums all day yesterday, just willing them to please play something decent from before 2005 (OK, so they played ‘Yellow’ and not ‘High Speed’ but at least I didn’t have to hear too much from X&Y). So, anyway, the three of us agreed to meet at the Green Turtle beforehand to grab some drinks.

We had a few drinks and tried to enjoy ourselves while 6,000 of our closest friends all of a sudden crammed into the bar too. I mean, the Green Turtle is serviceable, but I couldn’t really get why it was completely full of sweaty, loud humans when so many other bars are around the corner (and I doubt it was the Miller Lite “Special” — $3.50/bottle. What a steal!).

It wasn’t until we got into the Verizon Center that I found out why everyone showed up all at once…there was a bomb threat at the Verizon Center!

OK, OK, I know what you’re thinking. How could that be, when we’re all at the Green Turtle? Shouldn’t we have heard sirens? What about policemenpeople? Well, yes, we heard them, and we saw them. But, it wasn’t like they came into the bar to clear us out, so it couldn’t be a problem with the stadium, right?

Wrong. From what I heard afterward, the arena was evacuated, but they didn’t evacuate the bar, which was, you know, still a part of the Verizon Center. Thanks, DC. Leave the drinkers to die in a heap of alcohol soaked flames.

Had the suspicious package exploded outside of Clyde’s (which is where I heard it was), I would have died with a Miller Lite in my hand. In retrospect, I also realize I could have died clutching more embarrassing items. But, thankfully, it was not a real bomb.

So, fast forward to the concert. Santogold was a great opener (well, second act. I missed the first opening act, since I was too busy drinking booze and not getting evacuated), but she didn’t get the respect she deserved from the audience. Get with the program, DC. She’ll be a big deal soon. Get on the bandwagon now.

Coldplay played for about 80 minutes, and they opened with a couple of tracks from their newest album, which was fine. It appears that they desperately want to be U2 after U2 kicks the bucket, and that’s OK. There are times where you just need to see a good laser light show, and Coldplay didn’t disappoint in that regard.

What was disappointing was the fact that they played for 80 minutes, including the encore. When U2 was there in 2005, I think they played for 2.5 hours, so if they want to be known as a real stadium band, they’d better pick up the slack here and learn some stamina (that’s what she said).

Still, they ended the show with “Death and All His Friends,” which is a pretty phenomenal track (and the highlight of their newest album). As you know, Coldplay caters to an older, sensitive crowd, and waaaaay up at section 403, we were surrounded by the over 35 crowd, minus a few teenagers behind us who equated Coldplay’s appeal to Harry Potter, which may be more astute than they realized. The over 35 crowd and Under 17 crowd both love Coldplay and Harry Potter, but for vastly different reasons. I was caught somewhere in the middle, probably like most rational people who don’t obsess over either HP or Coldplay, and the things I liked about Coldplay and stadium shows were there (laser light shows, beer, and spectacle), while the things I didn’t like (Chris Martin being “awww-gosh” and self-depricating–dude, get a new schtic, the X&Y album, and Coldplay’s stupid 19th Century battlefield outfits) were there in spades as well.

At the end of it, I was impressed with the production but still annoyed with how “light” the whole experience was. It was polished but sort of soulless, the same way a brand new kitchen looks, with shiny appliances and counter tops, but just waiting for someone to get in there and make a mess and come out with something really memorable.

So, in essence, Chris Martin isn’t a 5th grader (as I mentioned in an earlier post). I take that back. The dude is a robot who exhibits some of humanity’s most annoying traits — excessive self deprecation, too many guffaws, and too few reasons to consider them to be a legitimate rock tour de force.

I just realized that I talked myself away from my original thought, “Coldplay doesn’t suck that much,” to “Chris Martin is a robot.” So, ignore the headline. Coldplay kind of sucks after all.

http://ticklemykittens.com

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Coldplay: Not Much Heat, Plenty Of Warmth

A few years ago, it became socially acceptable — even mandatory — to bash Coldplay. There were plenty of reasons, everything from the band’s shameless, simplified aping of Radiohead and U2 (the most aped bands around) to frontman Chris Martin’s ubiquitousness as part of a celebrity couple (see: Paltrow, Gwyneth), complete with absurd baby name. A review in this paper labeled the band’s output as music for “medium-level dull people.” The phenomenon peaked when one of the most popular comedies of recent years, “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” famously ended its string of “You know how I know you’re gay?” remarks with one character telling another, “You like Coldplay.”

But the only Coldplay bashing at the sold-out Verizon Center on Sunday night was when band member Will Champion attacked a giant drum with an oversize mallet during “Viva la Vida.” The fans were truly, madly in love. They ecstatically clapped in time from the first notes of “Violet Hill.” They tenderly sang along with Martin, often with more sincerity than the singer himself. And they took pictures. Lots and lots of pictures. So many pictures that Flickr might crash. One fan was even seen snapping away while the stage was cloaked in darkness. (The best description of a Coldplay crowd is this: Think of “Heavy Metal Parking Lot,” the 1986 documentary of pre-show partying at a Judas Priest concert. The exact opposite would be “Coldplay Metro Car.”)

The photography overload was understandable, though. Coldplay designed a nice visual feast for this tour, the main component being six giant spheres that descended from the rafters to show live video of the band from all angles. Of course, the perfectly scruffy Martin — dressed in his by-now-standard 19th-century European battlefield jacket — was the focus of most lenses, especially when he made his way out to the sides of the horseshoe-shaped stage.

As for the music, it was less a feast and more semi-filling hors d’oeuvres. There were scant surprises in the band’s brand of anthemic arena rock, but that’s part of Coldplay’s comfortable appeal. “Yellow” still soared, thanks to Johnny Buckland’s chiming guitar and Martin’s trembling falsetto. “Lost” and “Lovers in Japan,” both from the new album, “Viva la Vida,” found the right mix of surge and sentimentality. The same could not be said for tedious piano ballads “Fix You” and “42.” Another in that line, “The Hardest Part,” was abandoned by Martin just after it started. “That’s enough of that,” he said, with knowing self-deprecation.

The main takeaway from the show was that Coldplay is no longer a band suffering from an identity crisis. Instead of following in the footsteps of its heroes and trying to pass itself off as the world’s most important or biggest band, Coldplay seems content being a less adventurous but equally loved — if not equally revered — act. For all his sad-puppy-dog lyrics, Martin was an extremely playful frontman, hopping, prancing and skipping across the stage, thrusting his left arm into the air, goofy grin on his face.

When tens of thousands of pieces of paper came flooding from the rafters during the encore, it served as a perfect assessment of the band’s current state. Coldplay is a band that will shower its fans with brightly colored, butterfly-shaped confetti while singing, “But I have no doubt/One day the sun will come out.” And the band — and especially its fans — is just fine with that.

http://www.washingtonpost.com

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VIDEOS more to follow…]

LIFE IN TECHNICOLOR [thanks ppchavez76]

VIOLET HILL [thanks SBrooks2007]

CLOCKS [thanks LocoCharlyX]

IN MY PLACE [thanks to the_searcher ]

Another great vid from timfred

VIVA LA VIDA [thanks to the_searcher ]

Another version [thanks LonelyNoMore44]

Another thanks timfred

YES

42 [thanks pakidude]

FIX YOU [thanks to the_searcher ]

Another version [thanks mistaheinlein02]

Another version [thanks LonelyNoMore44]

STRAWBERRY SWING [thanks teran22]

[CLICK ON THE VID AND CHECK OUT THE CONVO REGARDING MASONIC SYMBOLISM AND EVEN SATAN IN THEIR VIDEO IMAGERY - HMMMMM]

CHINESE SLEEP CHANT [thanks nbcp1014]

GOD PUT A SMILE UPON YOUR FACE

SQUARE ONE [thanks to the_searcher ]

THE HARDEST PART [thanks aia94]

YELLOW [thanks to the_searcher ]

LOST! [thanks SBrooks2007]

THE SCIENTIST [thanks DagelBagel892]


DEATH WILL NEVER CONQUER [thanks lkell18]

POLITIK [thanks sailtoarcadia]

Another version thanks lkell18

LOVERS IN JAPAN [thanks timfred] Dedicated to ‘Kate’.

Another good version [thanks pakidude]

DEATH AND ALL HIS FRIENDS/THE ESCAPIST [thanks LonelyNoMore44]