The band has made a clear decision to use backing tapes this tour. Whole sections of music that the band isn't playing. From the Life in Technicolor intro, the techno medley, almost all Viva La Vida, playing the Viva la Vida techno mix while in transit, full backing tracks on Lost and Lovers in Japan and ending with the played Escapist, its all piped in.

 

The beauty of bands like Muse, U2, and Radiohead is they are able to reproduce their songs in a live environment and with great results but Coldplay's approach is at this point to take large shortcuts and unfortunately not lengthen their performing time or shuffle around their setlists. Also keep in mind that Chris hasn't been performing at the same level as he had on previous tours. His voice cutting in and out (likely due to moving around to much) We saw this coming early on with the press tour and its unfortunate the band have not done anything to rectify this.

 

I'm really nervous that the $300 I'm paying (for a pair of substandard seats mind you) is going to produce another half-assed show. I was not wild about the Twisted Logic show in Denver last time and I'm really nervous to see the same experience repeated. I love the new album and of course I want to hear the new songs live, but I want the band the perform their parts. This level of backing music is incredibly worrying and its sad that the band seems to make thing easier for their performances and yet the recordings I've heard don't show the quality of output we saw say during the AROBTTH tour.

 

If you don't take care of your fanbase they leave and we've seen all kinds of turnover of fans from tour to tour. If I'm going to pay 2-3 times what I payed back when I saw the band in 2003 and get a far weaker and less authentic show than I really can't commit to future expenses for this band. I just don't think my money should go to confetti, backing tapes, and video screens when it should go to 4 band members all playing their instruments and maybe a keyboardist and a violinst or cellist if they need to.

 

Give me real don't give me fake

 

amen

Watch this

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFR3ByrCN3Q]YouTube - Coldplay - Politik/Lovers in Japan (Live in Munich 08)[/ame]

 

Then listen to Live from Munich - Lovers in Japan. He is singing in the video: They are turning my head out JUST TO see what I'm all about...keeping my head down JUST TO see what etc.

But word JUST is missing in the audio.

 

Same with Viva la Vida audio and video

 

I think someone on radio did this :-/

Sadly a lot of bands with big sounds do this. I believe above Muse have been mentioned (don't get me wrong, Muse and Coldplay are my two favourite bands), but the amount of synthesizers that Muse employ is quite large. I mean he doesn't play the synths in Bliss, or Take A Bow! (Though in one of their live recordings I did see Dom fiddling with something at the beginning of TAB, but it is not physically possible to do the synths at the end AND play drums). I think a fair bit of VLV is looped from the beginning, or there would be little point in pretending to do it. That may sound naive but Radiohead do the same thing in Idioteque (or at least have when I've seen them they have!).

Okay, I am not a Coldplay live expert as I have only seen this VLV Tour in Hamburg and Munich.

 

I didn't stumble about the differences in the show and in the audio stream from Absolute Radio, so thanks for pointing that out.

 

But what I was surprised about at my first show in Hamburg (Sept. 14th, 2008) was Chris 'perfect' voice.

 

I did see their London performance from the BBC earlier this summer only a few weeks before the concert and was a bit worried, as I thought that this live show at the BBC wasn't very good concerning live voice from Chris.

 

So the more surprised I was when I saw them in Hamburg and his voice was very clearly and solid - maybe it was just because of using backing tapes?

 

I totally agree on what 'Chris Nuts' *lol* said :)

The band has made a clear decision to use backing tapes this tour. Whole sections of music that the band isn't playing. From the Life in Technicolor intro, the techno medley, almost all Viva La Vida, playing the Viva la Vida techno mix while in transit, full backing tracks on Lost and Lovers in Japan and ending with the played Escapist, its all piped in.

 

The beauty of bands like Muse, U2, and Radiohead is they are able to reproduce their songs in a live environment and with great results but Coldplay's approach is at this point to take large shortcuts and unfortunately not lengthen their performing time or shuffle around their setlists. Also keep in mind that Chris hasn't been performing at the same level as he had on previous tours. His voice cutting in and out (likely due to moving around to much) We saw this coming early on with the press tour and its unfortunate the band have not done anything to rectify this.

 

I'm really nervous that the $300 I'm paying (for a pair of substandard seats mind you) is going to produce another half-assed show. I was not wild about the Twisted Logic show in Denver last time and I'm really nervous to see the same experience repeated. I love the new album and of course I want to hear the new songs live, but I want the band the perform their parts. This level of backing music is incredibly worrying and its sad that the band seems to make thing easier for their performances and yet the recordings I've heard don't show the quality of output we saw say during the AROBTTH tour.

 

If you don't take care of your fanbase they leave and we've seen all kinds of turnover of fans from tour to tour. If I'm going to pay 2-3 times what I payed back when I saw the band in 2003 and get a far weaker and less authentic show than I really can't commit to future expenses for this band. I just don't think my money should go to confetti, backing tapes, and video screens when it should go to 4 band members all playing their instruments and maybe a keyboardist and a violinst or cellist if they need to.

 

Give me real don't give me fake

Yea.. that's true :/

Sadly a lot of bands with big sounds do this. I believe above Muse have been mentioned (don't get me wrong, Muse and Coldplay are my two favourite bands), but the amount of synthesizers that Muse employ is quite large. I mean he doesn't play the synths in Bliss, or Take A Bow! (Though in one of their live recordings I did see Dom fiddling with something at the beginning of TAB, but it is not physically possible to do the synths at the end AND play drums). I think a fair bit of VLV is looped from the beginning, or there would be little point in pretending to do it. That may sound naive but Radiohead do the same thing in Idioteque (or at least have when I've seen them they have!).

 

 

Right, but Muse brings along a keyboardist and other musicians with them on tour who handles that. Plus Matt had his guitar specifically built with effects built in so they could be switched on the fly.

 

Case in point

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8WP7aOD_9Q] Knights of Cydonia - Amazing Clip [/ame]

 

2:00 - 2:15 Horn player in the background (keyboardist can be seen from the faraway pan shot)

5:12 Keyboardist also assisting

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reyWI2Gz2To] Bliss[/ame]

 

:42 Keyboardist

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBsLFNcnwGM]Idioteque[/ame]

 

Idioteque is another song that each member is doing something with it live whether its keyboards (Colin) loops (Jonny). You can't tell me any member of Coldplay is starting and tinkering with keyboards, loops, or their backing tracks while they perform.

The band has made a clear decision to use backing tapes this tour. Whole sections of music that the band isn't playing. From the Life in Technicolor intro, the techno medley, almost all Viva La Vida, playing the Viva la Vida techno mix while in transit, full backing tracks on Lost and Lovers in Japan and ending with the played Escapist, its all piped in.

 

The beauty of bands like Muse, U2, and Radiohead is they are able to reproduce their songs in a live environment and with great results but Coldplay's approach is at this point to take large shortcuts and unfortunately not lengthen their performing time or shuffle around their setlists. Also keep in mind that Chris hasn't been performing at the same level as he had on previous tours. His voice cutting in and out (likely due to moving around to much) We saw this coming early on with the press tour and its unfortunate the band have not done anything to rectify this.

 

I'm really nervous that the $300 I'm paying (for a pair of substandard seats mind you) is going to produce another half-assed show. I was not wild about the Twisted Logic show in Denver last time and I'm really nervous to see the same experience repeated. I love the new album and of course I want to hear the new songs live, but I want the band the perform their parts. This level of backing music is incredibly worrying and its sad that the band seems to make thing easier for their performances and yet the recordings I've heard don't show the quality of output we saw say during the AROBTTH tour.

 

If you don't take care of your fanbase they leave and we've seen all kinds of turnover of fans from tour to tour. If I'm going to pay 2-3 times what I payed back when I saw the band in 2003 and get a far weaker and less authentic show than I really can't commit to future expenses for this band. I just don't think my money should go to confetti, backing tapes, and video screens when it should go to 4 band members all playing their instruments and maybe a keyboardist and a violinst or cellist if they need to.

 

Give me real don't give me fake

 

I agree on several points.

Bravo, somebody really understands me, yes coldplay with viva la vida and this tour became confetti band