Coldplay at Philips Arena
Last nights show by Coldplay at Philips Arena can only be described in one word
AWESOME!
More of that later… After my ingenious plan of using a disposable camera as a decoy to allow me to sneak my digital camera in proved to be pretty must worthless as soon as I entered the arena as security didn’t particularly care about people using cameras (as this shot shows).
Anyways, onto the show… The support act was Rilo Kiley and they were pretty good, a few catchy songs in their set, most noteably a song called “It’s A Hit” which I think I had heard before, but never knew who it was by.
Then there was a huge wait for the main act but once they arrived (complete with countdown on the video screen behind the stage) it was just a great show… Though, I’ve heard them play live before they mixed things up slightly by playing most of the memorable songs like “Politik,” “Yellow” and “Speed of Sound” early in the set. Usually you would expect these to be played later on.
Anyways, Chris Martin was downright bubbly throughout the night, running around the small stage like a man possessed and also taking a moment to run through the capacity crowd to the back of the arena during “In My Place.” He also managed to screw up the start of “The Scientist” which he compared to being voted off American Idol… He was also throwing out special mentions to Atlanta left and right, even managing to work OutKast, Michael Stipe and “Georgia On My Mind” into the lyrics of “Politik” and later on during the encore he brought out a special guest in the shape of Michael Stipe who then went on to sing “Nightswimming” with Martin on the piano to the delight of all there.
The show was a hugely enjoyable spectacle, well worth the wait and extortionately high ticket price… I doubt you’ll find anyone who was there who’d say a bad word about the show, easily one of the best ones I’ve been to…
I really like Coldplay but I still insist that they are not an “arena” band. Large, cold, vacant spaces like Phillips Arena and the thing at Gwinnett are not good places to see, listen and truly enjoy bands. I understand that when bands reach this height of fame they want to accomodate as many fans as they can but these venues stink.
And yes, I saw them at the Tabernacle and that venue was perfect for a band with their sound.
Philips Arena wasnt all that bad last night, admittedly it’s only my second time there, but I actually enjoyed the setting. While I’m all for small intimate venues I certainley wouldnt say Philips stinks.
Only the prices do…
Oh they are an arena band for sure – they were perfectly at home with the well orchestrated spontenaiety. Speaking of which – I have read at least one other occurance of him ‘goofing’ & starting over with “The Scientist”.
I could have done without all the heartfelt suck ups to Georgia & Atlanta, particularly the occurances of the ‘shout outs’ as he was singing.
But as for the show – it was enjoyable, I don’t have any negative thing to say about it, music was good & the production was stellar.
But was it memorable? No.
I’m not a fan of arena shows at all, but this was one of the best concerts I’ve been to in a while. The stage show was amazing, and as I’m a HUGE R.E.M. fan, I thought I was gonna lose it when Stipe came out.
I’ve read stuff about Martin “goofing” Scientist too, but I think that kind of stuff is ok. I mean, these guys are actors putting on a show as much as they are musicians, ya know? Even if it’s something he does in every show, it worked last night, he got a good response, everyone was happy. I’d pay the 60+ bucks to see a show of that caliber again.