14-Jul-09: Sleep Train Amphitheater, Sacramento, CA - Tickets, Previews, Meetups, Reviews, Setlists,

[starfish42]

Hey, I was pretty close to the person who filmed the 'In My Place' video! That's really good quality. And yeah, I know. I can no longer judge you. :(

 

Those videos are pretty good, though the sound's kinda distorted. But it's still really good. :D Are you going to any other concerts, Starfish?

 

Thinline

:mudkip: :guitarist:

 

If the sound is distorted, are you watching them in HD? Sometimes I get choppy sounds because my connection speed can't keep up with speed of play; putting it on pause until it caches and then playing it solves the problem. Or, just play it in normal not HD.

 

No, unfortunately, I don't have the time, energy or the will power to go to any more concerts in the near future, though I did look at the Depeche Mode concert coming to the Shoreline. But I love Coldplay and probably would follow them around at least for a few shows after I'm retired. Then, I'd have the time. That's at least 2.5 years off.

 

Coldplay is doing their last U.S. show on Sun, 08/09/09 @ 07:00 p.m. at the Ford Amphitheatre in Tampa, FL. I thought about trying to go to that one, as I have relatives there whom I could visit.

 

I see one girl on other forums, TheAngie, who followed them through Texas, and plans to see them again in Wembley, England. She is devoted! She has a special love for Jonny. For most of us, our eyes are focused on Chris and his super-powered moves. I don't know if I've ever seen anyone who performs more energetically or more beautifully than Chris Martin. I wonder how he is able to tap such a deep well of energy, or to have the enduring strength that he has. He is a man of many mysteries and secrets, who gives me a profound sense of inspiration.

 

I can't believe it, they've already finished Texas, have done the Missouri show, and were in East Troy, Wisc. last night (pop. 3,564.) They will be in Saratoga, NY tomorrow, then a couple of shows in Canada: Toronto and Montreal. I can't even keep up on reading the forums about their shows, and they are out there, actually doing them! It's incredible to think that they move the whole show from town to town. I think they must have two sets since they did shows only one day apart in this area at Shoreline and Wheatland. I saw the huge black van with a beautiful yellow design across it, parked in front of the Shoreline, which they apparently use to transport their set. Also, numerous buses, probably for the oxfam volunteers, staff and roadies. I was wondering who were in the numerous limousines parked in front. I guessed they were for the producers, family and friends, in addition to the band, or just very wealthy fans of Coldplay. Hmmm... I wonder if they need an accountant? What a dream!

 

Did anyone notice if Gwenyth was at either of the shows? She might have been sitting in one of the box seats, but I didn't look. She didn't appear to be down in front of the stage as she is shown sometimes in the video clips, or at least no one said that they saw her.

 

Starfish42

Coldplay = Love

[Thinline]

Haha, yeah, I would if I could, but I don't want to travel. >.< I'm watching/listening in HQ, totally transforms the vid. Thanks.

 

Yes, TheAngie certainly has a large group of people waiting to hear about her high-fives! The band certainly recognizes her now! I know, they come and go so fast. I noticed several limos, but didn't give it much thought. What did their band van say on it? I've never seen it. And on their site, Roadie #42 ust posted something about their accountant. Speaking of roadies, it's amazing how people here can identify roadies so easily. People are all like, 'Oh, nice picture of Joe! He's a nice guy.' Devoted fans.

 

Yeah, I saw a vid showing her on Yellow, but I wasn't looking. XD I was sitting next to some VIPish looking people, but I don't know. I wasn't looking at the box seats either.

 

Thinline

:chris: :will: :jonny: :guy: :phil:

:guitarist: :mudkip:

[starfish42]

Sad that Coldplay is winding down its U.S. tour - I'm missing them already

 

I looked on LiveNation today. It is sad that Coldplay's tour is winding down now, with the last show Sunday 08/09/09 at 7:00 PM, at the Ford Amphitheatre in Tampa, FL. That's only 11 days from today! How time flies! Then Coldplay will tour Europe for a few weeks, with the last show of the Viva La Vida tour at Wembley Stadium, England in September. I wonder how one gets tickets to that show? I know that TheAngie, a true die-hard Coldplay fan, is going to that last show.

 

I'm posting a copy of Austingirlmusicguide's review of the Texas shows here because it is too good to be missed. I hope it is as interesting -- fascinating is a better word -- to all of the true Coldplay fans of this forum as it was to me. For the original review and for links to her Coldplay videos, her blog is found at:

 

 

http://austingirlmusicguide.wordpress.com/2009/07/25/concert-review-coldplay-dallashouston-721-722/

 

 

CONCERT REVIEW: COLDPLAY (DALLAS/HOUSTON 7/21-7/22)

July 25, 2009, 4:42 pm

 

 

The very first time I listened to Coldplay was in December 2005 and coincidentally enough, it was at a simulcast of their taping of Austin City Limits. At the time, my husband became privy to the knowledge that Michael Stipe was going to be making a guest appearance during Coldplay’s set and worked quickly to secure us two tickets to the spare seating that had been set up in a nearby auditorium on the UT campus (the demand for tickets was so high, they filled up the ACL studio and the entire auditorium). It’s funny to think about now, but I couldn’t have cared in the least that Coldplay was going to perform; I literally only wanted to see Michael Stipe. I owned no Coldplay albums and was really only familiar with “Clocks” from the radio and “Speed of Sound” from its video. I vividly remembered reading an interview with Chris Martin from years earlier before the release of A Rush of Blood to the Head (2002), where he claimed that he was afraid that he wouldn’t be able to write anything as good as “Yellow” ever again. That being during my grunge rock phase, I thought it was one of the most ridiculous things I’d ever heard. How much things can change…

 

 

 

My husband and I got set up with the free beers they use to lubricate the audience for ACL and waited for the show to begin. Coldplay started their set and pretty much immediately, we were both won over. What they show on television now is only a fraction of what they played that night; they played a full concert, nearly two hours of music, hitting a variety of songs from their three albums that had been released up to that point. I remember Chris being very charming; he was talkative, funny, and smart, and engaging with the small studio audience, wandering off the stage to high-five mayor Will Wynn much to the chagrin of the cameramen attempting to follow him. Of course, the highlight for me was when Michael Stipe came out and they played “In The Sun” and “Nightswimming”, but I specifically remember Coldplay’s performances of “Clocks” and “Talk” as well. After the final encore, Chris came back out and played “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” solo on the piano and that sealed the deal. I was thoroughly impressed.

 

I had seen Coldplay twice since then, once during the X&Y tour in early 2006, and once last year in November at the onset of the Viva tour. While both of those concerts were great, I was in no way prepared for how far they have come as a band in concert in the past eight months, and was blown away by the sheer spectacle of the show in both Dallas and Houston last week. It was a rare treat to see a huge band in a relatively small outdoor arena, and Coldplay goes to extremes to make sure all of the audience feels included. The main stage itself is impressive with the “magic balls” that project light and distorted images, their amazing laser light shows, and intricate backdrops, but the band also makes two trips off stage. First they play some techno-d up and highly danceable versions of “God Put A Smile Upon Your Face” and “Talk”, followed by Chris on piano playing “Trouble” in Dallas during an impromptu setlist change, and then “The Hardest Part” in Houston. During their second trip into the audience, even closer to the lawn this time, they play a fun and jaunty acoustic set that includes drummer Will Champion singing on “Death Will Never Conquer” while Chris and guitarist Jonny Buckland dance merrily, and a crack version of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” where Chris hits some killer falsetto notes and Jonny and Will provide excellent guitar riffs.

 

In Dallas, we were lucky enough to be at the front of the pit, so we really got to see some of the inner workings of the show and it’s clear that Coldplay works very hard at their jobs. From the very second the concert starts, with the dancing roadie and “Blue Danube” intro, the show is dramatic, finding the band coming out in silhoutte behind a screen waving sparklers before starting the first number, the instrumental version of “Life in Technicolor”. The set is two hours long, and it’s nearly non-stop, with only two short breaks, and the setlist itself is full of their most interesting tracks, enormous crowd-pleasers and rock numbers alike. Every member of the band is a key to the puzzle; we got to witness the knowing eye contacts and silent cues they’d give each other and it’s totally gratifying to see that they’re in synch like clockwork. Will drums like a machine, literally carrying the beat and turning out unbelievable performances during “Viva la Vida” and “Politik”, bassist Guy Berryman is steady and self-assured on his instrument, and Jonny completely rocks out during songs like “42″ and makes guitar lines like the one in “Strawberry Swing” look effortless and easy.

 

As a frontman, Chris is confident and affable; he comes across as down-to-earth and genuinely absorbed in entertaining the audience. His voice for both shows was in top form, transitioning between high and low notes smoothly. His musical skills are also highly admirable, especially his piano playing, which has become more classically influenced over the years with lovely numbers like “Postcards From Far Away”. He switches back and forth between piano, guitar, and manning the mic throughout the show, and does it all with boundless energy; running, jumping, and dancing, and whether it’s goofy or inspired, it’s always captivating.

 

Despite sitting in the back of the left side of the arena in Houston, I actually thought the Houston show was marginally better than the Dallas one. The crowd seemed to be a lot more lively in Houston, and the band responded well to that. All told, there isn’t much the band could do to improve; they’re performing at their absolute best each night, and that combined with all the other fantastic elements of their show – witty stage banter, falling neon butterflies, confetti filled yellow balloons, and silly fun like the orchestrated cell phone wave – make Coldplay’s concerts immensely exhilarating.

 

My long anecdote at the intro is the beginning of the story of how Coldplay became one of my all-time favorite bands. But that night was also sort of an important turning point for me musically. I was stuck in this weird in-between stage of musical taste; I’d been all Bob Marley’d out during college, and yet, I hadn’t discovered any new music for years because I hated the radio. I rarely ever listened to music at all. Seeing Coldplay live the first time reinvigorated my interest and passion for music; they’re are a huge part of the reason why I’ve gone so far as to have a music blog. Seeing them in Dallas and Houston during this tour was just icing on the cake.

Enjoy some more of my Dallas pictures here:

 

http://picasaweb.google.com/austingirl.mg/ColdplayDallas721?feat=embedwebsite#

 

Coldplay – Dallas (7/21)

 

 

 

More to come later and hopefully, video too.

 

*****************************************************************

 

Austingirl, I could not agree with you more.

 

Starfish42

Coldplay = Love

[starfish42]

Feel free to follow me to the Tampa thread

 

All Coldplay die-hard fans, please join me in following the Tampa concert thread, Coldplay's last show in the U.S. for the Viva La Vida tour.

 

http://www.coldplaying.com/forum/showthread.php?t=54397

 

Starfish 42

Coldplay = Love

[Thinline]

......wow Starfish, that's quite a story. I'll definitely be keeping up with that thread. 10 days....wow. I do miss them already. Well, at least they can get working on LP5 soon. My story is relatively simple: I loved the L.I.T. ii video, and researched Coldplay. I'd already heard of Clocks and the Scientist, but that was it. I even though Chris's singing was awful before....things do change. :lol:

[starfish42]

......wow Starfish, that's quite a story. I'll definitely be keeping up with that thread. 10 days....wow. I do miss them already. Well, at least they can get working on LP5 soon. My story is relatively simple: I loved the L.I.T. ii video, and researched Coldplay. I'd already heard of Clocks and the Scientist, but that was it. I even though Chris's singing was awful before....things do change. :lol:

 

Thinline:

 

We should find a flight and head out to Tampa. I have a cousin there, and about 1/3 of the pit seats are still available. I know, it's far away, expensive to fly, and $124 is a lot to pay for a ticket (the 3rd Coldplay concert for me since 7/13/09.)

 

Here's my Coldplay story, which is a little more involved as it spans over many years. I used to feel an indescribable curiosity about Chris Martin whenever I would see him on TV. I used to stare at him, wondering what he was about. There was something intangible about him, something about him that I could not put my finger on, or figure out.

 

It is ironic to think that Chris Martin used to seem a little boring to me, because back then, he was mostly shown sitting and singing at the piano, but sometimes I felt that I couldn't stop watching him. For one thing, I noticed that he rocked back and forth enthusiastically on the piano bench. Something about him captivated me. Sometimes, when he was standing and singing, he would put his hand over his heart, patting it. [in the 2008 kick off of the Viva tour, at Coldplay's free show at the BBC, the hostess referred to Coldplay as the "Masters of Self-Flagellation."] Example of heart patting at the end of "Speed of Sound": [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwY_fDMU8j0&feature=PlayList&p=C2768B33BB47EC6A&index=0]YouTube - Speed of Sound - Coldplay Live TOTP[/ame]

 

That fascinated me, because it looked as if he was purposely focusing on his heart energy - love - as he was singing, and projecting love out from his heart, with a profound sense of sincerity. He did this in a way that I had never seen any performer pull off before. He seemed so sincere, that, with his frequent falsettos, I almost felt sorry for his showing as much vulnerability as he did.

 

But, I used to be able to pull myself away from staring at him and walk away. In 2006, when I saw Coldplay in the music video of "The Hardest Part," (from X&Y) I watched it once but I did not want to watch it again. That's the video in which Coldplay was blue screened into a 1986 clip of a show called "Attitudes Across America," in which an elderly woman is dancing with a young man, the latter almost throwing her around at times. The couple was not even dancing to Coldplay's music, but the editors made it look close enough to fit. In the video, no one recognizes or acknowledges the presence of Coldplay, and because of that, everyone seems distant and indifferent to Coldplay's presence, which I found painful to watch.

 

Later, I saw them on a PBS fundraiser, in which they were giving away their album for a membership drive. I remember the woman announcer's saying that the band had taken on a somewhat edgier sound in their recent album, X&Y. I remember Chris' heavy English accent, which one doesn't hear as much in his singing. I found myself being too drawn to Chris Martin and, still able to walk away, I didn't finish watching the show. I remember feeling almost resentful of the power I felt he might have over me if I let him. I think this is the same fear that resides in the hearts of the many people who are aptly called "Coldplay haters" and I encounter a surprising number of them in my own experience.

 

Everything changed when I saw Coldplay perform Viva La Vida on Saturday Night Live, SNL just three weeks before the 2008 election. I was excited at the prospsect that Obama might be president and hoped for an end to the horrible wars that Bush had gotten us into. VLV seemed to capture a sense of joy about the change that was about to happen. On the same SNL show, at the end of the song Yellow, Chris Martin looked right into the camera and simply said, "Barrack Obama." It was dramatic, and I remember that he was criticized heavily by some Coldplay haters for it afterwards.

 

I began watching videos of Coldplay on Youtube, and reading about them on wiki. There is a lot of information from interviews Chris had given over the years, and he has shared many interesting facts about them and how their songs came to be. What impresses me is that everything Chris Martin does seems to be intentional and intelligently planned. I made a playlist of 200 interviews on Youtube and have been fascinated at how open and honest Chris Martin is. My Coldplay channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/beigecamouflage.

 

From that point, there was no turning back, no ability to walk away from Coldplay. I finally surrendered, but I didn't mind because I concluded that Coldplay was good and trustworthy. I think much of Chris Martin's efforts have been put into assuring people of their credibility. Except for Chris' liberal use of the "F" word in concerts, the band has a squeeky clean image. They are all free of drugs and other vices. It is one of the band's two rules, the other is that they equally split the profits among the 5 of them (including the "invisible fifth band member" Phil Harvey, their manager.)

 

More than that, on a spiritual level, I'm totally fascinated by Chris Martin's level of self-realization. He is very focused and sure about what he wants in life, able to achieve more than anyone I know of. I feel completely mesmerized by who he is, his creativity, and his energy from seeing what he is able to do in concerts. He seems to be a kind of self-sacrificing divo with a purpose. I see this especially in his performance of Viva La Vida, during the sing along part. He is literally pounding his heart as the crowd sings along "Ohhhhh" and he seems to be in ecstacy. Then, at the end of the song, he lies down as if he dies.

 

I think he and the rest of Coldplay are able to do what they do because they have 100% of their hearts in it. No matter how much Chris strives to share the spotlight with the rest of Coldplay, everyone senses that he is the impulse, drive, and creativity behind the magic that is Coldplay. Chris Martin professes strong principles, like not allowing Coldplay's songs to be used for commercial purposes, and he lives by his principles. He has transcended the physical. He's on another plane entirely. That's how he is able to perform at the top form that he does at concerts, with boundless energy and strength.

 

Starfish42

Coldplay = Love

[starfish42]

"Glass Of Water" * I love replaying from 3:01 till the end!!!!!!

 

 

Duran, I particularly liked Chris' performance of this song as well. At the Shoreline, I could barely see anything in the back of the upper seats, but I specifically remember the feeling that Chris communicated through this song. I felt as if he put his soul, his personality, into singing Glass of Water. It sounds as if he wrote this for his son, Moses, and that might explain the profound feeling of love that Chris brings to it.

 

Starfish42

Coldplay = Love

[starfish42]

Flights to Tampa

 

The cheapest flight to Tampa costs $400 RT, so I won't be going. :cry: :angry:

 

I should have bought a ticket 2-3 weeks ago at a supersaver rate, but I'll keep looking. I'll go if I can find $200 tix. :inquisitive:

 

Starfish42

Coldplay = Love

[Solar Bozo]

Backup bands

 

Hi all. Does anyone have any names and info for the two warmup bands at the 7/14 Sleep Train concert?

 

Do these folks tour regularly with Coldplay?

 

Loved this concert, my first time for Coldplay.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Thinline]

You know Starfish, I never really thought about that. I'm not sure if he did the heart-patting at the Sleep Train, so I'll have to review my videos and yours. But you really bring out your own heart in sharing your story with us. You're very philosophical. :)

 

Unfortunately, I don't think I could make it down to Tampa......busy with stuff and not sure if I'd have the energy....but you should definitely try to go! Let us know if you have any luck with finding cheap plane tickets.

 

Solar Bozo: The two support acts were Kitty, Daisy, and Lewis, and Amadou and Mariam. Here's an interview on Coldplay.com: http://www.coldplay.com/newsdetail.php?id=447&page=0

 

I also posted links to their sites, respectively, somewhere back in this thread. Sorry to make you dig for them, but you could also just google the two. I know they were with Coldplay for a few weeks, but I can't find the list on Coldplay.com.

 

Thinline

:chris: :jonny: :guy: :will:

:mudkip: :guitarist:

 

I'm gonna copy you Starfish....

Coldplay=Love <3

[Solar Bozo]

opening acts FOUND

 

Solar Bozo: The two support acts were Kitty, Daisy, and Lewis, and Amadou and Mariam. Here's an interview on Coldplay.com: http://www.coldplay.com/newsdetail.php?id=447&page=0

 

I also posted links to their sites, respectively, somewhere back in this thread. Sorry to make you dig for them, but you could also just google the two. I know they were with Coldplay for a few weeks, but I can't find the list on Coldplay.com.

 

Thanks very much. I see that Coldplay has a wonderful support community.

[Caroline]

Hey, I just made this video combining all the videos and pics I took from the concerts I attended. There are a bunch of videos from this show. I hope you guys like it!

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo3EjBLZdbM]YouTube - Summer of Coldplay[/ame]