Nice guys may or may not finish first, but apparently they draw well at the Bradley Center.

 

Before an adoring crowd of roughly 12,000, Coldplay performed a 90-minute set that showcased the band’s strengths and gave even its shortcomings a rosy glow.

 

While technically a quartet, England’s biggest band of the moment is dominated by the sprightly, surprisingly flexible Chris Martin, whose rubbery stage poses suggested he’s been taking yoga tips from wife Gwyneth Paltrow.

 

Band mates — guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman and drummer Will Champion — stayed in the background for nearly the entire set, leaving Martin plenty of space for his stage acrobatics and aerobic piano playing.

 

The set opened with a strong trio spanning Coldplay’s career in reverse, beginning with the new “Square One” and then stomping through 2002’s “Politik” before dusting off its first commercial hit, “Yellow.”

 

Often (too often) compared with U2, Coldplay does share a number of attributes with its Irish peers, particularly in a live setting, where both bands’ more anthemic material — and outsized front man personalities — have room to stretch out.

 

Songs from 2005’s “X&Y,” notably “Swallowed In the Sea” and “Fix You,” both part of the encore set, benefited from the rush of energy, losing the somewhat sleepy sound of the album. Coldplay also understands how to augment its live performance with thoughtfully chosen visuals. On the enormous curved screen behind the band during “The Scientist,” for example, a satellite appeared to zoom in from space on a man along Milwaukee’s lakefront.

 

In a moment evocative of U2’s “Rattle and Hum”: late in the set, the band gathered at the front of the stage for the gem “Til Kingdom Come,” a hidden track on “X&Y,” and a rendition of “Ring of Fire.”

 

That mini-set was one of the evening’s highlights, but once the salute to Johnny Cash was finished, the band went right back to its repetitive formula of sensitive yet vague lyrics and thoughtful, mid-tempo rock with a big swoopy chorus.

 

Sure, there are far worse bands making far less interesting music. And, to Martin’s credit, his gratitude throughout the show came off as sincere. But one hopes Coldplay’s next move will be to skip yet another song about breaking up with “whoooHOOOwhoohooo” in the middle and instead flex more creative muscle.

 

Let’s also hope that some of Martin’s humility and enthusiasm for entertaining his audience might rub off on former Verve front man Richard Ashcroft, who opened the show. Ashcroft complained about lack of radio play and railed against Nike for paying him $500,000 to use The Verve’s lone hit, “Bittersweet Symphony,” before introducing it as “one of the greatest songs of all time.”

 

http://www.jsonline.com

Anyone got the setlist?

From coldplay.com

 

Square One

Politik

Yellow

Speed Of Sound

God Put a Smile Upon Your Face

What If

How You See the World

Don't Panic (Jonny solo)

White Shadows

The Scientist

'Til Kingdom Come

Ring of Fire (Getting Old, no?)

Trouble

Clocks

Talk

------------

Swallowed In The Sea

In My Place

Fix You

Favourable review:

 

It's not that U2 should be all that worried about hanging onto its heavyweight title for super-sized, heart-on-the-sleeve arena rock. But Coldplay's show at Milwaukee's Bradley Center on Sunday night showed that the British rock band is starting to figure out how to present its emotion-drenched songs in a live setting and is becoming a worthy contender.

 

In the past, frontman Chris Martin and company seemed at times to be a little tentative in concert, unsure of whether they should overplay or underplay the emotional content of a given song. But this time around, touring in support of the superbly crafted third album "X&Y," every gesture seemed right for its song, and the high-energy, passionate result kept the near-sellout crowd enthralled for nearly two hours.

 

Martin first appeared in silhouette at the back of the stage, framed against a giant wrap-around video screen that featured numerals counting down to zero. Hunched over, one arm raised, Martin crooned out the dreamy first verse, then raced to the front of the stage, leaping into the air and landing onto the sunken stage apron in perfect sync with the first, thunderous chord of the chorus.

 

For the rest of the song, and much of the night, Martin sprinted from one corner of the giant stage to another, leaping, twisting, collapsing to the ground and then popping right back up again. Even when he got behind the piano, adorned with a bumper sticker promoting fair trade, Martin would rock back and forth furiously and somewhat suggestively on his stool, as if he could barely contain himself.

 

As the band moved to the slamming "Politik," the swirling "Speed of Sound" and the emotive "Yellow," it was clear that Coldplay wanted to rock back the naysayers on their heels, the ones that say Coldplay is a snoozy soft-rock group masquerading as arena rockers.

 

At almost every turn, the band chose to go louder and bigger rather than smaller, and whenever Martin took a turn on solo piano or guitar, you knew a big callback from the band's other three members was right around the corner.

 

Martin, sporting shaggy hair and a scruffy beard that he quipped made him look like a "Bee Gees impersonator," seemed very comfortable with his frontman status, able to confidently handle the sweeping catharsis of a song like "Speed of Sound" but also to come across as unpretentious and even self-deprecating.

 

The entire band, for some reason, wore all black outfits with blindingly white tennis shoes, an outfit that Martin said was equally inspired by Johnny Cash and Venus Williams.

 

Speaking of Cash, the band effectively scaled things down in the show's midsection to pay tribute to him. The quartet gathered in a tight clump at the front of the stage to play "Ring of Fire" and "Till Kingdom Come," the latter a Coldplay song the band had written for Cash, but were unable to record with him before he died in 2003.

 

Then it was back to the grandiose for the finale, with the anthemic "Clocks" and "Talk" rounding out the main set and the encore featuring a tender "Fix You" and a high-energy version of "In My Place," for which Martin raced all the way to the back of the arena to perform for the fans in the cheap seats.

 

Bono, if you're reading this, you might want to start working on your 100-yard dashes.

 

http://www.madison.com

i thought last night's show was great. i have some great pics and 6:42 of Bittersweet Symphony avi from the 3rd row center. trying to figure out how to post.

they played what if? wohoo, nice! :)

I was there last night too!! :) I thought it was good...

I shot Bitter sweet and almost all of the show. No Swallowed in the Sea ( batteries being changed), hit turbulance on the plane home and accidently deleted Yellow ( fuck all! :angry: ), and only half of How You See The World ( memory card full half way through the song). But the show was great. I'll have stories and videos up soon, need to get out of travel mode.

 

Here's a pic from the paper

Thanks for posting that picture out of the paper! I turned to the girl I was with, at the beginning, and said he looked like God with the spotlight shining through him like that.

 

But it's possible he is God! ;)

OMG THAT WOULD SUCK SOOO MUCH !! i would cry if i deleted yellow

hey.. the coldplayer has sum kinda clip wth chris talking to sum1 turned around.. who was he talking too

Someone was turned around and screaming so loud, even I could hear them. Chris stopped the show. I have it on video.

I went to this show also...Simply incredible, loved every second of it! That whole thing of Chris stopping the show was HILARIOUS. He is god :)!!

I'm starting to up load my videos and will post them in the multimedia section when done.

ok coool

I have started putting the videos in MM section.

 

http://www.coldplaying.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1475622#post1475622

Thanks hun!

 

Did anyone take any piccies?

Someone was turned around and screaming so loud' date=' even I could hear them. Chris stopped the show. I have it on video.[/quote']

 

Thanks for the newspaper clipping and the vids...;)

 

Shame about losing the Yellow vid - that must suck...:(

I just feel lucky to have got home in one piece. Word of advice, if the airline asks for "volunteers" to get off the plane because of "high winds"....take the offer and get off the fuckin plane.

i swear the photo in the paper was stolen from me. you think that is good, you should see my other ones. I have them up on face book, but not any other website yet.

LOL, I just listened to the clip of that on the Coldplayer. Oh my god *dies laughing* :P