June 3, 200818 yr Just seen the performance and I really don't get the criticism. I thought it was great, considering it was to a bunch of people who've never heard the track before, and the segment was produced by MTV. I'm sure the "magic balls" will be much more interesting than the confetti MTV tried to drown them in, but what you have to remember is it was an MTV production. Coldplay will have had little say in the "look" and will have been limited to what they could do with live instruments. And they were much better off doing Viva La Vida - I love Violet Hill as much as the next person, but it's really not a "party" song that would fit in at a glitzy Hollywood awards bash. The boys done good!!! the criticism comes from their inability to play this song or craft a live version suitable for four people instead of using some backing track, while two of them looked useless (johnny on the guitar was just an embarrassment, not to mention chris' voice), while will banged on a drum. i am fully aware that the mtv thing is show, but coldplay should be about the music and not putting on a show. i've seen them live and its not just this song, several songs they play require backing tracks such as square one. its rather disheartening that "the greatest band in the world" can't even play all the required parts of a song that they wrote, mold it into a song suitable for four in the live setting, or even scout some other people to help them out. take radiohead for example and one of their songs that has strings, reckoner, and look how they were able to mold it in the live setting WITHOUT a BACKING TRACK. pardon me but what coldplay does in the live setting is borderline despicable.
June 3, 200818 yr anyone notice the killer background music? i heard muse, racounteurs, and vampire weekend! good deal!
June 3, 200818 yr anyone notice the killer background music? i heard muse, racounteurs, and vampire weekend! good deal! Muse? Really?
June 3, 200818 yr the criticism comes from their inability to play this song or craft a live version suitable for four people instead of using some backing track, while two of them looked useless (johnny on the guitar was just an embarrassment, not to mention chris' voice), while will banged on a drum. i am fully aware that the mtv thing is show, but coldplay should be about the music and not putting on a show. i've seen them live and its not just this song, several songs they play require backing tracks such as square one. its rather disheartening that "the greatest band in the world" can't even play all the required parts of a song that they wrote, mold it into a song suitable for four in the live setting, or even scout some other people to help them out. take radiohead for example and one of their songs that has strings, reckoner, and look how they were able to mold it in the live setting WITHOUT a BACKING TRACK. pardon me but what coldplay does in the live setting is borderline despicable. I don't think we can judge this as a true Coldplay live performance though. VLV has a ton of "layers" to their songs, which has puzzled me from the beginning how 4 guys can handle 6 sounds or more. That requires some sort of backing, which I hope for the tour they will have LIVE backing like a live string orchestra (instead of footage of a string quartet, lol) . I liked their MTV performance despite them each looking somewhat useless.
June 3, 200818 yr I don't think we can judge this as a true Coldplay live performance though. VLV has a ton of "layers" to their songs, which has puzzled me from the beginning how 4 guys can handle 6 sounds or more. That requires some sort of backing, which I hope for the tour they will have LIVE backing like a live string orchestra (instead of footage of a string quartet, lol) . I liked their MTV performance despite them each looking somewhat useless. thats my problem though, i've seen them live and being in an arena certainly did not stop them from using a backing band. now dare i ask how its possible for andrew bird to layer songs in his live concerts playing numerous parts on his own (practically creating new versions of his songs every night) whether or not he's with martin dosh. check it out on you tube if you've never seen the man live. numerous other bands (i cited radiohead in a previous post, reckoner as a specific example of a song with strings) find a way to either re-create a song so that its playable by all members in the live setting, or provide a backing band worthy of fulfilling everything a given song needs. i dont think anyone can answer why coldplay consistently relies on backing tracks in the live setting, which says a lot about the musicianship of the members of coldplay.
June 3, 200818 yr I sincerely doubt that what we saw on mtv will be the same type of performances we can expect from the upcoming tour. I think it was mtv's input that made it all flash and little else like TOTPs or other pop culture music show. 1. I have a feeling that viva la vida is probably gonna be the only track that will pose this much difficulty in bringing it to the live stage. They said this album would have more focus on the live show. Viva la vida is probably the weakest example of that. 2. The MTV movie awards had horrible sound. Jonny's guitar was virtually silent, I don't think that was because there was any guitar-synching going on, in fact come another performance we'll be surprised how much guitar is really added to the song. In any case I hope things will improve for viva la vida. If not, this is the only song we'll have to worry about.
June 3, 200818 yr that confetti on chris's hair annoyed me. it got into his mouth too! stupid confetties
June 3, 200818 yr Muse? Really? yeah i heard that too. seems like it was knights of cydonia but i could be wrong. didn't they play that when someone really random won? lol seems like it might have been zac efron haha.
June 3, 200818 yr Knights of cydonia was played when will smith came up to collect his award. I also liked how they played the bravery right before coldplay played. I stopped watching halfway through, but I thought those bits were cool.
June 3, 200818 yr Knights of cydonia was played when will smith came up to collect his award. I also liked how they played the bravery right before coldplay played. I stopped watching halfway through, but I thought those bits were cool. will smith, okay that makes more sense than zac efron haha.
June 3, 200818 yr Sound check a Fan's Delight Sitting in the Gibson Amphitheatre waiting for the gold carpet to begin, there emerged the sound of angels from inside the theater. Peeking in... it was Coldplay! One of our favorite bands, Coldplay is in the throws of their long overdue resurgence to the music world. After their last release "X&Y" in 2005, this is their first foray back into a world they truly dominate. To hear them in person performing their new single for the first time live on stage in a theater such as Universal Studios' Gibson, was chill-inducing. You can imagine the pure bliss of such a fan, recovering from smoke overflow from the next door Universal Studios fire, to hear the ‘you couldn't forget it if you tried’ passionate, string-heavy opening moments of "Viva la Vida." Then, there was Chris Martin's voice, unmistakable. It was a moment to treasure and one never to forget. "I used to rule the world..." Hearing them was all that was needed. Energized and reborn, this reporter headed out on the gold carpet ready to interview Hollywood's best and brightest. (Yes, you too, Paris!) Seeing Coldplay walk two feet from me in person would come within the hour. The band, led by Chris Martin and accompanied by a deafening roar of screams from the stands, dashed down the gold carpet before running inside and performing their awe-inspiring first single live. That was about as close to a Beatles-esque screaming fan moment as I can imagine. There is no way this band has not got U2 in its sights, ready to wear the crown as the kings of rock. Did you see that performance? Incredible! http://www.sheknows.com/articles/entertainment/music/804162-Catching-Coldplay-at-the-MTV-Movie-Awards.htm
June 3, 200818 yr apparently coldplay fans have really high standards cuz everyone else was blown away lol.
June 3, 200818 yr 2008 MTV Movie Awards - Red Carpet UNIVERSAL CITY, CA - JUNE 01: Coldplay arrive to the 2008 MTV Movie Awards on June 1, 2008 at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage
June 3, 200818 yr I'm sorry, I've just watched it again, and I still don't understand what everyone is so upset about. Given the context, it was a solid performance - what do you people expect from what is essentially a 3 minute promo on a tv show? No wonder Guy had butterflies in rehearsals - goodness knows how he'll feel if he reads some of the stuff posted here!
June 3, 200818 yr thanks for all the pictures! i especially love the one with chris and jason bateman! i guess we do have high standards, or maybe it's just that we know the guys' performances so well that we notice when something is slightly off. i still maintain that chris's voice was substandard, and the confetti could have been done better, but everything else was fabulous :D
June 3, 200818 yr anyone notice the killer background music? i heard muse, racounteurs, and vampire weekend! good deal! MTV does that all the time, and it drives me crazy. Generally the kind of music they promote is pretty lame, but then they'll play some really good music in the background of something totally random. Once I heard them play Trouble during "Next"!!! (a really stupid, scripted, fake dating show- which happens to be one of my guilty pleasures)
June 3, 200818 yr the criticism comes from their inability to play this song or craft a live version suitable for four people instead of using some backing track, while two of them looked useless (johnny on the guitar was just an embarrassment, not to mention chris' voice), while will banged on a drum. i am fully aware that the mtv thing is show, but coldplay should be about the music and not putting on a show. i've seen them live and its not just this song, several songs they play require backing tracks such as square one. its rather disheartening that "the greatest band in the world" can't even play all the required parts of a song that they wrote, mold it into a song suitable for four in the live setting, or even scout some other people to help them out. take radiohead for example and one of their songs that has strings, reckoner, and look how they were able to mold it in the live setting WITHOUT a BACKING TRACK. pardon me but what coldplay does in the live setting is borderline despicable. I was wondering how much of a part does jonny have and the other guys in this song excluding Chris, since it sounds like the song has a whole lot of other instruments going on (string instruments and such). Chris's voice was a little off...I think they just haven't had a whole lot of practice... I really don't ever hear Chris's voice straining to hit notes. I was a bit suprised. Was wondering if anyone else noticed.
June 3, 200818 yr I suffer when I know Chris has to hit high notes ..odds are he'll mess up :P I love his mess-ups but it causes a lot of bad critisism
June 3, 200818 yr coldplay made the mtv movie awards good!!! everything else sucked except them. i was screaming the lyrics at the top of my lungs, and jumping up and down when they were performing. :P it's been too long. :] but well done, coldplay. well done.
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