Cold at Coldplay
Coldplay
with Fiona Apple
February 20, 2006
Qwest Center, Omaha
“I liked them before they were popular” is probably just behind “I liked them and they never became popular” as the sentence that music fans most love traveling through their throats and out of their mouths. I rarely get to say this sentence, but I stumbled upon Coldplay in December of 2000, a full month or two before “Yellow” began to follow “Ms. Jackson” in top 40 radio station playlists. So, of the 15,000 people that filled up the sold out Qwest Center (it must have sold out the day of the show, because I checked Ticketmaster (boo!) a coupla days before the show and I think even lower bowl tickets were remaining (yes I am nerdy enough that I check Ticketmaster (boo!) just to see how well a show is selling)), I was probably in at least the top 50 in terms of who’s been into Coldplay the longest. So, if I be so honored “I liked Coldplay before they were popular.” Of course, they were already a number one smash in England. And I only got into them because I saw them in the “top 20 albums of the year” feature in the year end issue of Spin magazine. I thought their album cover, with the glowing spinning globe, looked cool, which is still among the top reasons for me to pick up an album (I picked up the Twilight Singers’ first album a coupla weeks ago for that very same reason). It wasn’t until I saw the video for “Yellow,” (on Much Music, which I had recently discovered and cherished as a cable channel that actually showed music videos for the coupla months before our cable provider changed it to Much Music USA, which still showed music videos, but often cut off a third of the screen so they could scroll internet dedications like “brad, ur azz is cute –bizkitchick42) where, in a single take Chris Martin walks on the Beach as the sun comes up, that I was sold. Although that video has been considered a sissy knockoff (a common complaint of Coldplay) of the Verve’s “Bittersweet Symphony,” it’s still one of the most gorgeous videos of all time (I almost said “achingly gorgeous). Plus, imagine how hard it was to shoot. If Chris Martin had flubbed a lyric, they would’ve had to wait until the next day to do the next take. How hardcore is that? Ironically, the soft yellow quality of the light created speculation as to whether Chris Martin had blond or brown hair. Come to think of it, I still haven’t quite figured that out. I think it’s blond.
I quite liked “Parachutes,” but all the “one hit wonder” and “lesser version of Radiohead” articles that I read caused my easily manipulated brain to dismiss them enough that I wasn’t all that jealous when a guy I had just met that summer told me he had gotten to see Coldplay (for free no less) that spring. When “A Rush of Blood to the Head” came out in 2002, hearing their single “In My Place” was enough to for me to give up on the band. It wasn’t that the song was bad, but it was a “simple” song with a catchy melody that was sounded somewhat similar to “Yellow” (another common complaint of Coldplay: all their songs sound the same). Now, as the months went on, and all the articles commenting on how Coldplay, had “broken through” with their new album were digested by my easily manipulated brain, that song grew on me the way bacteria grows on a moldy banana. But, understand, back then to me, follow up albums always have show just how ambitious a band is. If their first single doesn’t have any odd time signatures or weird choral interludes, than it simply didn’t show a band in progress. And back then, my impression of Coldplay was “ordinary,” “safe,” “just a couple notches above Train” (another band I was “into before they were popular,” with a different outcome to the story). Of course, that album started to win enough people over that my dad, of all people, bought me that album. I tore through it. Whereas “Parachutes” was reserved and calming (much like their album cover). “A Rush of Blood to the Head” was just what it advertised itself as. While they were still making simple pop songs, they were big simple pop songs. Coldplay had thrown caution to the wind and wrote the “great American Brit-pop album.” It was comparable to Radiohead’s “The Bends” (right here, I’m trying to pretend I was in the know enough back in 1995 to be surprised when Radiohead actually turned out to be a great band, or that I even knew who Radiohead was), but with a much better first album.
“X&Y” however, is no “OK Computer.” It was obvious to me when I first heard “Speed of Sound.” That main piano riff sounds just a bit too much like “Clocks.” The album is basically a retread of “A Rush of Blood to the Head” (compare the song sequencing between the two albums and you’ll see), but with a technological gloss over the whole affair. Coldplay were clearly reaching for Radiohead with this album, but instead turned to Kraftwerk for inspiration. However, the inspiration was only so far. Kraftwerk is a minimalist band. Coldplay is anything but. When "Speed of Sound" hit its mega chorus a minute or so into the song, I forgave the band. It was the sound of a band trying to fill a very large space with a very large sound. They were destined to sell 700,000 copies in their first week. It took me a few months, but I eventually warmed to "X and Y." It's no "A Rush of Blood to the Head," but the album is a good cloud to float on once in a while.
If ya get what I'm getting at in the last sentence, the next one should be no surprise. Coldplay is the most optimistic band on the earth. Even though a lot of the songs are about confusion and finding one's place in the world, they are all comforting in their own way. Music for the masses. It's good for playing when I'm really tired and need something comforting to listen to. But it also meant that the audience at the Qwest Center was going to be quite a few shades off from the Sokol shows I was used to going to.
First off, this was my first concert at the Qwest Center. I've been there once before. Last summer I went to the circus with my girlfriend and her family. But, while I remembered the circus as a huge event crawling with people and animals and games from my yung 'un days, the place was pretty dead. Qwest has a capacity for 15,000 and there was probably only one or two thousand there that day, half of them under four feet tall. We were watching from the lower bowl that day and looking into the rafters, the place didn't seem that big. I dunno, they must've covered the top tier of the arena, because by the time I got up the three or four stories to where my nosebleeds were, the place was really overwhelming. I was reminded of my first day of high school when I walked around the corner into the commons area and saw a group of several hundred people just waiting to make my life hell. Of course there was hardly anyone in the arena at the time. All of the people were out in the lobby. The place was so crowded, it took five to ten minutes just to get to my seat. The place felt like an airport obstacle course, something that the Qwest Center already feels like with its anti-bacterial corporate donated sheen. I've been in big venues before, but having something like this in Omaha is really something. Now we've got something to pretend we're a cosmopolitan city.
Anyway, I was a bit worried with the long lines and crowds that I'd end up missing Fiona Apple. But, alas there was no worry because five or ten minutes after we sat down, she came on. I'm always a little in awe when I go to concerts because it's the only celebrity gawking I get to do in Nebraska (which is for the best, who wants to spend all their time celebrity gawking?). But it was hard to get too overwhelmed when her body was only two inches tall. The view of the stage actually wasn't that bad considering how high we were up. We were on the side stage, which insured that the performers would be more than dots, but it also meant that Fiona Apple's back was turned to us whenever she played piano, which was like half her set. Her set included (in rough order) "Get Him Back" "Better Version of Me" (I think) "Shadowboxer" "Criminal" "Tymps" (I think this is the song "Break a Window" from the earlier version of Extraordinary Machine, which is the only version I've heard of the album) "Limp" "Oh Well" (I think) and finally "Fast As You Can" there were a couple of other songs in there that I can't remember at the moment/didn't recognize. The songs were great, but I couldn't help but think how much better she would be playing in Sokol or even the Orpheum, anywhere that wasn't in a building the size of Meckling (the population 80 town my cousin grew up a few miles outside of). There her sultry voice would've filled the room, rather than echo off giant bare walls and the instrumental breakdowns of "Criminal," "Limp," and "Tymps," would've engaged a glowing audience. That was the biggest hurdle. The room was practically empty. I went to the bathroom afterward and a guy said on his cell phone "Guess who opened the show? No, no, Fiona fucking Apple." It was a reaction that I'm sure 90% of the audience shared, especially those who didn't bother with her. Ms. Fiona tryed to compensate for the empty theater by putting as much energy as she could into her vocals. However that strategy backfired. She simply sounded spazzy. Hmmph. Hopefully I'll have a chance to check her out in a more intimate venue sometime. And hopefully she'll play "Oh Sailor," which is one song I was expecting to here because a) it's her single and b) its the best song on her new album. Actually she left out a lot of good songs, a casualty of performing a set less than ten songs long.
And so the wait began. There was much discussion between me and my comprades about abandoning our seats and sitting in one of the prime sections down below. Most of the seats were vacant. Ok, so, it was mainly me going "we gotta do it guys." It's something that me and my girlfriend do once in a while when we go to shows at the Lied. There's inevitably a buncha seats available in the first few rows. Seats that I guess go to season ticket holders who don't bother to show up to every show or (more likely) corporate sponsor freebies who don't show up. Seeing how the Qwest Center even gets its name from a cell phone corporation (as seemingly every large venue does nowadays), it's obvious that a bunch of seats go to corporate yes men who get free tickets to every show while the rest of us are scrounging for fifty dollar (after Ticketmaster (boo!) charges) nosebleeds. Thankfully, my compadres just weren't into it. I would've felt the fool when "Tomorrow Never Knows" came over the PA (after a bunch of hip hop songs) signalling that Coldplay was only a few tripped out John Lennon verses from coming on stage. When the lights dimmed, the arena suddenly swelled with people. No empty seats were to be found. The show had sold out.
And so Coldplay came on stage and the crowd went a lot nutsier than I expected. Even though Coldplay is one of the two or three biggest rock bands in the country. I still didn't expect the audience to scream so loud. But then, a sold out show changes an audience. When a place is constricted to its highest level, one gets a sense of being part of something big. This also comes with a sense of privilege because, if a venue is sold out, then someone must've been denied entry (unless there were the exact number people wanting to see Coldplay as there were tickets) (also keep in mind that I only think the show sold out. I saw a post on a message board from someone claiming to be a Qwest Center employee who said the show sold out and from my perspective the show looked sold out, but then, you probably don't care do you, like I said, I'm a big nerd). This coupled with the fact that Omahans are still wowed at their new Qwest Center and that acts like Coldplay would even consider coming to somewhere like Omaha just to play in it.
So the band revved up Square One and began. Here was the setlist:
"Square One," "Politik," "Yellow," "Speed of Sound," "God Put a Smile On Your Face," "X&Y," "How You See the World," "Don't Panic," "White Shadows," "The Scientist," "Til Kingdom Come," "Ring of Fire," "Trouble," "Clocks," "Talk,"
--encore--
"Swallowed in the Sea," "In My Place," "Fix You"
Chris Martin turned out to be quite the showman. I remember readings reviews from their first US tour that said Coldplay was a really bland band wrong. But if success has changed any band in the 00s it's Coldplay. Mr. Martin really hammed it up, taking advantage of the whole stage. He was the only member of the band to even really move around. Every time the band hit a particularly big surge, Martin would stamp the moment with a soaring hand motion or throw his arms in the air. His charisma as a performer and the tightness of the band really set the concert going in the first batch of songs. I always think it's cheating to lead off a show with the first song on an album. Coldplay opened with two. But "Square One" and "Politik" are also the most charging songs in their itinerary. I suppose if you're going to wake up 15,000 people, you're gonna have to come out swinging. It worked. The crowd went nuts.
I would've skipped directly to "Speed of Sound" to keep the memento going, but the band instead trotted out "Yellow." "Yellow" is a bit mellower song, but the band jazzed the song up by dropping large yellow baloons from the rafters. Occasionally one of these baloons would pop into an explosion of golden confetti. If that sounds a little cheesy, it's no more cheesy than "Yellow" the song, but it was a cool moment nevertheless. One of the baloons even bounced onstage and Mr. Martin walked over to said baloon and smacked it just as the song peaked sending out its golden confetti over the chorus. It was a true rockstar moment. A few songs later, the band stopped for the obligatory guitar tune/talk to audience moment. Mr. Martin showed that he is a complete dork by comparing the band's belated first visit to Omaha to the long wait for the lovers to get together in (of all movies) "Captain Corelli's Mandolin." He also gave a shout out to Conor Oberst and Bright Eyes. "You should check them out if you've never heard of them." That he said that without a trace irony says more about Omaha and the Qwest Center audience than anything I have to say.
The rest of the show went by very well. The songs were great. The band played very well. But, Coldplay is a perhaps the most visual band this side of Pink Floyd. And what a light show they put on! It seemed every other verse was complemented by a flash of a giant light that lit up every body in the arena. However, all of that energy was directed out. From my position on the side of the stage, I saw more of the lighting rig than the lighting. Ironically the worst part of the show was when the band stripped down to play an acoustic medley (that included a cover of "Ring of Fire" that the audience really dug). A bright light shined off the far side of the stage right into my section. The only thing I could do was position myself so that the rail in front of me covered the light until the band went back to blinding the rest of the place. Plus the curveture of the screen that Coldplay played in front of ensured that I only saw about a third of it. That was a drag cause I loved the big light rig thingy that's in the "Speed of Sound" video and was looking forward to see them trot out something similar live. Things improved when a second screen was brought up late in the show that was bigger and flatter. Such is the price I pay for buying the cheapest seats available. But seriously folks, $70 a ticket (plus another twenty in Ticketmaster (boo!) charges) is crazy. I can't even imagine being a Rolling Stones fan with their $300 tickets).
Clocks was definitely the highlight and one of the few songs to get a real live treatment. At the end, they steadily sped up the tempo until crashing the song back down to earth. I found "Talk" to be a bit underwhelming as a set ender. It would work much better early in the set. Next time boys, trot out a ballad, like one of the ones that close out the albums. My suggestion is "Amsterdam." It has a nice guitar swell at the end.
After the obligatory encore break, the band trotted out a perfect three song encore. "Fix You" is the perfect song to end the night on. When the band was swelling to the big chorus at the end, Mr. Martin swung a light suspended over the stage and just as the chorus hit, he flung it over the audience. It was an awesome moment. I found out later that they do that at all their shows along with playing almost exactly the same setlist every night (I'm glad we got a "Swallowed" setlist over a "Hardest Part" setlist). Alas ignorance is bliss, but then it should've been obvious what with this light that's suddenly show up out of nowhere and serves little purpose. But that's all poppycock. At the end of the show "Fix You" had enlivened everyone in the audience. All the girls in the audience hugged each other and all the dudes high fived. And some of the dudes bent their girlfriends over and reinacted the famous Armistice Day kiss. Like I said, Coldplay is the most optimistic band on Earth. I'm still feeling the vibes man.
Oh and this show was the only show I've ever been cold at. Our seats were under an air vent. Three songs in and the coat went back on. It's fitting really.
with Fiona Apple
February 20, 2006
Qwest Center, Omaha
“I liked them before they were popular” is probably just behind “I liked them and they never became popular” as the sentence that music fans most love traveling through their throats and out of their mouths. I rarely get to say this sentence, but I stumbled upon Coldplay in December of 2000, a full month or two before “Yellow” began to follow “Ms. Jackson” in top 40 radio station playlists. So, of the 15,000 people that filled up the sold out Qwest Center (it must have sold out the day of the show, because I checked Ticketmaster (boo!) a coupla days before the show and I think even lower bowl tickets were remaining (yes I am nerdy enough that I check Ticketmaster (boo!) just to see how well a show is selling)), I was probably in at least the top 50 in terms of who’s been into Coldplay the longest. So, if I be so honored “I liked Coldplay before they were popular.” Of course, they were already a number one smash in England. And I only got into them because I saw them in the “top 20 albums of the year” feature in the year end issue of Spin magazine. I thought their album cover, with the glowing spinning globe, looked cool, which is still among the top reasons for me to pick up an album (I picked up the Twilight Singers’ first album a coupla weeks ago for that very same reason). It wasn’t until I saw the video for “Yellow,” (on Much Music, which I had recently discovered and cherished as a cable channel that actually showed music videos for the coupla months before our cable provider changed it to Much Music USA, which still showed music videos, but often cut off a third of the screen so they could scroll internet dedications like “brad, ur azz is cute –bizkitchick42) where, in a single take Chris Martin walks on the Beach as the sun comes up, that I was sold. Although that video has been considered a sissy knockoff (a common complaint of Coldplay) of the Verve’s “Bittersweet Symphony,” it’s still one of the most gorgeous videos of all time (I almost said “achingly gorgeous). Plus, imagine how hard it was to shoot. If Chris Martin had flubbed a lyric, they would’ve had to wait until the next day to do the next take. How hardcore is that? Ironically, the soft yellow quality of the light created speculation as to whether Chris Martin had blond or brown hair. Come to think of it, I still haven’t quite figured that out. I think it’s blond.
I quite liked “Parachutes,” but all the “one hit wonder” and “lesser version of Radiohead” articles that I read caused my easily manipulated brain to dismiss them enough that I wasn’t all that jealous when a guy I had just met that summer told me he had gotten to see Coldplay (for free no less) that spring. When “A Rush of Blood to the Head” came out in 2002, hearing their single “In My Place” was enough to for me to give up on the band. It wasn’t that the song was bad, but it was a “simple” song with a catchy melody that was sounded somewhat similar to “Yellow” (another common complaint of Coldplay: all their songs sound the same). Now, as the months went on, and all the articles commenting on how Coldplay, had “broken through” with their new album were digested by my easily manipulated brain, that song grew on me the way bacteria grows on a moldy banana. But, understand, back then to me, follow up albums always have show just how ambitious a band is. If their first single doesn’t have any odd time signatures or weird choral interludes, than it simply didn’t show a band in progress. And back then, my impression of Coldplay was “ordinary,” “safe,” “just a couple notches above Train” (another band I was “into before they were popular,” with a different outcome to the story). Of course, that album started to win enough people over that my dad, of all people, bought me that album. I tore through it. Whereas “Parachutes” was reserved and calming (much like their album cover). “A Rush of Blood to the Head” was just what it advertised itself as. While they were still making simple pop songs, they were big simple pop songs. Coldplay had thrown caution to the wind and wrote the “great American Brit-pop album.” It was comparable to Radiohead’s “The Bends” (right here, I’m trying to pretend I was in the know enough back in 1995 to be surprised when Radiohead actually turned out to be a great band, or that I even knew who Radiohead was), but with a much better first album.
“X&Y” however, is no “OK Computer.” It was obvious to me when I first heard “Speed of Sound.” That main piano riff sounds just a bit too much like “Clocks.” The album is basically a retread of “A Rush of Blood to the Head” (compare the song sequencing between the two albums and you’ll see), but with a technological gloss over the whole affair. Coldplay were clearly reaching for Radiohead with this album, but instead turned to Kraftwerk for inspiration. However, the inspiration was only so far. Kraftwerk is a minimalist band. Coldplay is anything but. When "Speed of Sound" hit its mega chorus a minute or so into the song, I forgave the band. It was the sound of a band trying to fill a very large space with a very large sound. They were destined to sell 700,000 copies in their first week. It took me a few months, but I eventually warmed to "X and Y." It's no "A Rush of Blood to the Head," but the album is a good cloud to float on once in a while.
If ya get what I'm getting at in the last sentence, the next one should be no surprise. Coldplay is the most optimistic band on the earth. Even though a lot of the songs are about confusion and finding one's place in the world, they are all comforting in their own way. Music for the masses. It's good for playing when I'm really tired and need something comforting to listen to. But it also meant that the audience at the Qwest Center was going to be quite a few shades off from the Sokol shows I was used to going to.
First off, this was my first concert at the Qwest Center. I've been there once before. Last summer I went to the circus with my girlfriend and her family. But, while I remembered the circus as a huge event crawling with people and animals and games from my yung 'un days, the place was pretty dead. Qwest has a capacity for 15,000 and there was probably only one or two thousand there that day, half of them under four feet tall. We were watching from the lower bowl that day and looking into the rafters, the place didn't seem that big. I dunno, they must've covered the top tier of the arena, because by the time I got up the three or four stories to where my nosebleeds were, the place was really overwhelming. I was reminded of my first day of high school when I walked around the corner into the commons area and saw a group of several hundred people just waiting to make my life hell. Of course there was hardly anyone in the arena at the time. All of the people were out in the lobby. The place was so crowded, it took five to ten minutes just to get to my seat. The place felt like an airport obstacle course, something that the Qwest Center already feels like with its anti-bacterial corporate donated sheen. I've been in big venues before, but having something like this in Omaha is really something. Now we've got something to pretend we're a cosmopolitan city.
Anyway, I was a bit worried with the long lines and crowds that I'd end up missing Fiona Apple. But, alas there was no worry because five or ten minutes after we sat down, she came on. I'm always a little in awe when I go to concerts because it's the only celebrity gawking I get to do in Nebraska (which is for the best, who wants to spend all their time celebrity gawking?). But it was hard to get too overwhelmed when her body was only two inches tall. The view of the stage actually wasn't that bad considering how high we were up. We were on the side stage, which insured that the performers would be more than dots, but it also meant that Fiona Apple's back was turned to us whenever she played piano, which was like half her set. Her set included (in rough order) "Get Him Back" "Better Version of Me" (I think) "Shadowboxer" "Criminal" "Tymps" (I think this is the song "Break a Window" from the earlier version of Extraordinary Machine, which is the only version I've heard of the album) "Limp" "Oh Well" (I think) and finally "Fast As You Can" there were a couple of other songs in there that I can't remember at the moment/didn't recognize. The songs were great, but I couldn't help but think how much better she would be playing in Sokol or even the Orpheum, anywhere that wasn't in a building the size of Meckling (the population 80 town my cousin grew up a few miles outside of). There her sultry voice would've filled the room, rather than echo off giant bare walls and the instrumental breakdowns of "Criminal," "Limp," and "Tymps," would've engaged a glowing audience. That was the biggest hurdle. The room was practically empty. I went to the bathroom afterward and a guy said on his cell phone "Guess who opened the show? No, no, Fiona fucking Apple." It was a reaction that I'm sure 90% of the audience shared, especially those who didn't bother with her. Ms. Fiona tryed to compensate for the empty theater by putting as much energy as she could into her vocals. However that strategy backfired. She simply sounded spazzy. Hmmph. Hopefully I'll have a chance to check her out in a more intimate venue sometime. And hopefully she'll play "Oh Sailor," which is one song I was expecting to here because a) it's her single and b) its the best song on her new album. Actually she left out a lot of good songs, a casualty of performing a set less than ten songs long.
And so the wait began. There was much discussion between me and my comprades about abandoning our seats and sitting in one of the prime sections down below. Most of the seats were vacant. Ok, so, it was mainly me going "we gotta do it guys." It's something that me and my girlfriend do once in a while when we go to shows at the Lied. There's inevitably a buncha seats available in the first few rows. Seats that I guess go to season ticket holders who don't bother to show up to every show or (more likely) corporate sponsor freebies who don't show up. Seeing how the Qwest Center even gets its name from a cell phone corporation (as seemingly every large venue does nowadays), it's obvious that a bunch of seats go to corporate yes men who get free tickets to every show while the rest of us are scrounging for fifty dollar (after Ticketmaster (boo!) charges) nosebleeds. Thankfully, my compadres just weren't into it. I would've felt the fool when "Tomorrow Never Knows" came over the PA (after a bunch of hip hop songs) signalling that Coldplay was only a few tripped out John Lennon verses from coming on stage. When the lights dimmed, the arena suddenly swelled with people. No empty seats were to be found. The show had sold out.
And so Coldplay came on stage and the crowd went a lot nutsier than I expected. Even though Coldplay is one of the two or three biggest rock bands in the country. I still didn't expect the audience to scream so loud. But then, a sold out show changes an audience. When a place is constricted to its highest level, one gets a sense of being part of something big. This also comes with a sense of privilege because, if a venue is sold out, then someone must've been denied entry (unless there were the exact number people wanting to see Coldplay as there were tickets) (also keep in mind that I only think the show sold out. I saw a post on a message board from someone claiming to be a Qwest Center employee who said the show sold out and from my perspective the show looked sold out, but then, you probably don't care do you, like I said, I'm a big nerd). This coupled with the fact that Omahans are still wowed at their new Qwest Center and that acts like Coldplay would even consider coming to somewhere like Omaha just to play in it.
So the band revved up Square One and began. Here was the setlist:
"Square One," "Politik," "Yellow," "Speed of Sound," "God Put a Smile On Your Face," "X&Y," "How You See the World," "Don't Panic," "White Shadows," "The Scientist," "Til Kingdom Come," "Ring of Fire," "Trouble," "Clocks," "Talk,"
--encore--
"Swallowed in the Sea," "In My Place," "Fix You"
Chris Martin turned out to be quite the showman. I remember readings reviews from their first US tour that said Coldplay was a really bland band wrong. But if success has changed any band in the 00s it's Coldplay. Mr. Martin really hammed it up, taking advantage of the whole stage. He was the only member of the band to even really move around. Every time the band hit a particularly big surge, Martin would stamp the moment with a soaring hand motion or throw his arms in the air. His charisma as a performer and the tightness of the band really set the concert going in the first batch of songs. I always think it's cheating to lead off a show with the first song on an album. Coldplay opened with two. But "Square One" and "Politik" are also the most charging songs in their itinerary. I suppose if you're going to wake up 15,000 people, you're gonna have to come out swinging. It worked. The crowd went nuts.
I would've skipped directly to "Speed of Sound" to keep the memento going, but the band instead trotted out "Yellow." "Yellow" is a bit mellower song, but the band jazzed the song up by dropping large yellow baloons from the rafters. Occasionally one of these baloons would pop into an explosion of golden confetti. If that sounds a little cheesy, it's no more cheesy than "Yellow" the song, but it was a cool moment nevertheless. One of the baloons even bounced onstage and Mr. Martin walked over to said baloon and smacked it just as the song peaked sending out its golden confetti over the chorus. It was a true rockstar moment. A few songs later, the band stopped for the obligatory guitar tune/talk to audience moment. Mr. Martin showed that he is a complete dork by comparing the band's belated first visit to Omaha to the long wait for the lovers to get together in (of all movies) "Captain Corelli's Mandolin." He also gave a shout out to Conor Oberst and Bright Eyes. "You should check them out if you've never heard of them." That he said that without a trace irony says more about Omaha and the Qwest Center audience than anything I have to say.
The rest of the show went by very well. The songs were great. The band played very well. But, Coldplay is a perhaps the most visual band this side of Pink Floyd. And what a light show they put on! It seemed every other verse was complemented by a flash of a giant light that lit up every body in the arena. However, all of that energy was directed out. From my position on the side of the stage, I saw more of the lighting rig than the lighting. Ironically the worst part of the show was when the band stripped down to play an acoustic medley (that included a cover of "Ring of Fire" that the audience really dug). A bright light shined off the far side of the stage right into my section. The only thing I could do was position myself so that the rail in front of me covered the light until the band went back to blinding the rest of the place. Plus the curveture of the screen that Coldplay played in front of ensured that I only saw about a third of it. That was a drag cause I loved the big light rig thingy that's in the "Speed of Sound" video and was looking forward to see them trot out something similar live. Things improved when a second screen was brought up late in the show that was bigger and flatter. Such is the price I pay for buying the cheapest seats available. But seriously folks, $70 a ticket (plus another twenty in Ticketmaster (boo!) charges) is crazy. I can't even imagine being a Rolling Stones fan with their $300 tickets).
Clocks was definitely the highlight and one of the few songs to get a real live treatment. At the end, they steadily sped up the tempo until crashing the song back down to earth. I found "Talk" to be a bit underwhelming as a set ender. It would work much better early in the set. Next time boys, trot out a ballad, like one of the ones that close out the albums. My suggestion is "Amsterdam." It has a nice guitar swell at the end.
After the obligatory encore break, the band trotted out a perfect three song encore. "Fix You" is the perfect song to end the night on. When the band was swelling to the big chorus at the end, Mr. Martin swung a light suspended over the stage and just as the chorus hit, he flung it over the audience. It was an awesome moment. I found out later that they do that at all their shows along with playing almost exactly the same setlist every night (I'm glad we got a "Swallowed" setlist over a "Hardest Part" setlist). Alas ignorance is bliss, but then it should've been obvious what with this light that's suddenly show up out of nowhere and serves little purpose. But that's all poppycock. At the end of the show "Fix You" had enlivened everyone in the audience. All the girls in the audience hugged each other and all the dudes high fived. And some of the dudes bent their girlfriends over and reinacted the famous Armistice Day kiss. Like I said, Coldplay is the most optimistic band on Earth. I'm still feeling the vibes man.
Oh and this show was the only show I've ever been cold at. Our seats were under an air vent. Three songs in and the coat went back on. It's fitting really.
posted by Jesse @ 9:29 PM
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