[3-July-2011] Coldplay @ Main Square Festival, Arras, France

[wisna]

Haha love that people who weren't even there are blaming the crowd and saying I'm wrong. :lol: :facepalm:

 

If you guys enjoyed what you saw on the stream then great! But in my (and everyone I was with, I might add) opinion this wasn't up to their usual standard.

 

Oh, I'm so sorry, you were dissapointed :-(

It really looked like a good show from the stream.

 

Did Chris point at your banner at the very end? I saw him point at something and make some gesture. Was it you, or someone else?

[Matej]

What's wrong with you, guys? I came all the way from Croatia to see them (their first concert I've been to) and I loved it! I think that the errors made the concert even funnier and more realistic. Why would you look for perfection? It was a really wonderful concert to me, best 90 minutes of my life. And the new versions of songs they sang were wonderful.

 

One more thing. When they played Charlie Brown I started to sing along and few people from the crowd started looking at me like I was I don't know what… The crowd was really dead at some songs. You should have given them more support.

 

And I loved how Chris joked about the errors. Why do you all take it so seriously? After all, they did correct them and played In My Place twice. :)

[lndnsky]

^I'm not preaching you or anything, but I can understand you and all the others. It was your 1st show. I would be like you! All excited and crazy. But there are people who saw them for maybe 10th time and they've seen them in better shows.

 

Haha love that people who weren't even there are blaming the crowd and saying I'm wrong. :lol: :facepalm:

 

If you guys enjoyed what you saw on the stream then great! But in my (and everyone I was with, I might add) opinion this wasn't up to their usual standard.

So sorry for you! I know you looked forward to it and went all the way to see them. But at least you had fun with everyone. :D

 

the cameras and direction work can also help them to look good even if they weren't that good :nod:

 

Like football matches that look way more exciting on tv than in the stadium.

 

Some people will never accept that coldplay isn't perfect. Maybe they're just tired.

 

So true! The stream was like that. You could hear band perfectly but nothing from the crowd, but it was definitely directed/filmed like that. And people should accept the fact that they are human and can have bad nights and bad shows.

[*Sarah*]

The gig last night reminded me slightly of Hannover 2009. They also had to deal with technical errors then and lost a good deal of their magic because of that. It made them nervous. Last night when I was watching the live stream I had the feeling they wanted to get the gig done as fast as possible, to me it didn't seem as if they were enjoying themselves that much. Which can of course happen, since no band is perfect. :nod:

[Lauriane]

I'm so sorry you didn't enjoy it much Mimixxx.

From the streaming it seemed they put on a good show : new songs getting better, good singing, good mood... It sucks if it wasn't the case. Boys were tired, I guess ?

[chopotte]

I don't know if it has been posted, here are fans interviewed before the show

http://www.directstar.fr/video/Q0FidjRx

 

and to give my opinion about yesterday's show, I wouldn't say it was a bad show, I saw it on the stream and compared to Werchter where I was the day before, I would say that they were less into it, I don't know if it was due to the technical problems on IMP but after that the band (and especially Chris) seemed nervous and kinda struggling to achieve each song.... Now difficult to say about the crowd, not easy to judge from the stream so I trust the people who were there to tell us.... but reading you guys, I'm happy I did Werchter instead of Arras (Shiveeeeeeeeeeer :D), I had already done a Arras festival in 2008 and already didn't like the crowd at that time ....

[coldplay12]

The Scientist

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-2yPucthcg]YouTube - ‪Coldplay 'The Scientist' live @ Main Square Festival Arras 03.07.11‬‏[/ame]

 

Cemeteries of london

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRPAUTgCetY]YouTube - ‪Coldplay main square festival 2011 "cemeteries of London"‬‏[/ame]

 

Clocks

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy_EYgUhw5Q]YouTube - ‪Coldplay 'Clocks' live @ Main Square Festival Arras 03.07.11‬‏[/ame]

 

Yellow

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8jbih-4e30]YouTube - ‪Yellow @ Main Square Festival‬‏[/ame]

 

Viva La Vida

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8jbih-4e30]YouTube - ‪Yellow @ Main Square Festival‬‏[/ame]

[Noémie]

Disappointed. :( They totally phoned it in. No engery at all. They just banged it out as fast as they could and left.

 

I'm glad you're saying that. I had the impression everything went SO FAST!

As if they wanted to play the setlist as fast as they could.

No pause between the songs.

No time to breathe, relax, interact with the crowd.

It felt like it was a marathon for them.

Only a few jokes and "thank you for coming on a Sunday night" and "sorry for the technical problems" and the usual "désolé mon français est merde".

No interaction with the first row, which was a first (for me).

They didn't even look at the amazing banner the girls made. Which was quite surprising. If I remember correctly, they used to pay attention to banners, didn't they?

 

BUT, regardless of all of that, it was an AMAZING concert. I had such a great time! :) :)

Especially since I hadn't seen them in 2 years. Which felt like...forever.

I was second row and was screaming and jumping all around for an hour and a half.

The new songs are AMAZING live. Really loved all of them. :heart: :)

Stopped breathing during Us Against The World and Life Is For Living, which are extremely powerful live songs. :)

Same thing concerning Everything's Not Lost (one word: WOW!) and GPASUYF.

GOOSEBUMPS for all of them!

 

First time I saw Will stop playing in the middle of a song. I don't know what problem they had at the beginning of IMP but it must have been pretty serious. Was quite funny actually........for us. Probably not for them. :confused:

BIG congrats to Chris who's so talented at improvising in difficult moments like this one.....! :P :thumbsup:

No Chris & Jonny action during IMP. That was a first! (at least for me)

 

Amazing night after such an exhausting day. Especially since the other bands were such a disappointment. Except for Bruno Mars (who I didn't know) who was quite entertaining and Elbow who were amazing.

PJ Harvey and Portishead looked so......bored. Which was really disappointing, since they're so talented. But not great live acts, IMO.... :\

 

Can't wait to see the boys again soon!

I hope they'll REST after finishing the album and before starting their next tour! :)

 

Many thanks to Louise, Aurélie and her boyfriend, Camille, Chavi, Natascha,.... SO GREAT to meet you and share this special night with all of you! :) :kiss:

[coldplay12]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

more coming...

[FixYougirl]

My only day at Main Square Festival

 

The concert was amazing. Indeed, as Noemie said it seemed they hurried to give the concert. I enjoyed it though. I was not far from the stage but a tall guy was before me and I had to move my head constantly and remain on my toes to see the guys. It took 2 hours to leave Arras because of the huge traffic and got home at 4h45 am! We took great pictures. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

[coldplay12]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ColdplayFrance.com Staff :rolleyes:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ColdplayFrance.com Staff :rolleyes:

 

 

 

[Lauriane]

Nice pictures =)

[Steph589]

My impression when I watched the streaming was that the guys were full of energy, Chris proved again to be a great performer and to be really into what he was doing (just think of all the energy he put into Violet Hill, all those jumps and such, his face while playing The Scientist, and Politik, and...). I can't say much about the crowd from the streaming, but wasn't there a good singalong for The Scientist and didn't Chris say they sounded fantastic?

 

Anyway, just a thought: this time the guys were great and the crowd maybe not. At the festival in Sweden, the guys didn't seem at their best (to me) but the crowd was quite good. And I did prefer yesterday's show.

[chommy_16]

no one post it on youtube yet?

[AnnaElisabeth]

omg, that banner is AWEEESOOOMMEEEEE!!!

i know how much anna wants to be there but i need her to come home now though. miss her too much and i really wanna se photos + vids from WTAI. so, anna, get your cute butt home right now. skip the concert. ok? good? good!

 

Isn't it? :D I'll be home on Wednesday :heart:

 

Awesome banner! The boys are gonna love it! :D

 

 

 

Squeeeeeeee :dance:

 

Have fun everybody!

 

The boys didn't even see it :/

 

 

Okay...

 

 

Review!

 

We (Stefan, Laura, Anna, Mich, Tash and I) arrived at the queue (there were two entrances and we were at one of them) at around 8.30-ish and were later joined by Perrine, Chavi, Phil etc :wacky:

 

We had loooads of fun spray painting the banner (thanks again for bringing the paint, Phil!) I somehow got in charge of doing the lettering so that's my work right there :P

 

Then we waited and waited and waited for the gates to open (as one does).

Bag-search, wristband check etc (skipping all the boring bits :P)

 

After being forced to stand and wait between some barriers (like cattle) for 30 minutes in blazing sun we were told it was time to move (well, I didn't understand, I had to ask someone, my French is very limited, haha).

 

THE RUN WAS AWFUL. I swear it was probably a mile of sprinting :dead: (I might be exaggerating a bit there - still bad enough to make us all cough for hours after, though!)

 

I have to give the biggest props to the finest barrier runners in the world, Mich and Stefan! Without them we wouldn't have made front row. :hug:

 

Loved, loved, loved Bruno Mars (Anna, Mich and I had a dance party and the band were totally into us :wink3: :P) so that was a nice surprise 'cause I thought it was going to be shit! Elbow were amazing as well :heart:

 

Then after a lukewarm performance from PJ Harvey (disappointed!) and a slightly sleep inducing one from Portishead (might have been the +12 hour queueing, though) it was time for the boys to go on!

 

(Big thanks to the head of security who told us it was okay for us to hang our banner on the barrier! :heart:)

 

Some Jay-Z always gets the crowd going and we were rocking out in the front. Then Back to the Future theme :wacky:

 

Hurts Like Heaven was great fun but after that it... Kind of went downhill. No one in the band smiled (except a few ones from Chris). No contact with the front row whatsoever.

 

I was so utterly BORED during Viva that I didn't know what to do with myself.

 

The boys looked tired and angry (which I guess comes from the numerous festivals they are doing and the mess up in the beginning) and didn't seem to enjoy themselves at all. The set was done on routine. Poor Jonny is INCREDIBLY skinny and he looked ill, to be honest. He certainly needs a good rest.

 

I know a lot of you at home enjoyed it and that's great but I can honestly say with the exception of Charlie Brown and Hurts Like Heaven this concert was a huge disappointment for me (and that's not counting the huge amount of time and money I spent on getting there :rolleyes:). This was "only" my 5th time seeing them (I can't believe it's five already :wacky:) but I know with my entire being that they can do so, so much better than this.

 

That being said, I had a fabulous few day with all my friends from far away, I miss you already! Hope to see you soon (maybe at a gig when the boys are actually "present") :heart:

[Major_Love]

So suprising for me to hear all the reviews... I really enjoyed the show, for me one of the best Coldplay-gigs of all time. Especially the new songs (Major Minus, Hurts Like Heaven, Us against the world) were better then any time before. Great improvment! The boys seemed to be full of energy in my point of view, they had lot of fun. For me, the only thing which wasn't so good was the crowd.

 

And btw I really love Coldplay that they play most of the time. I was in Berlin to see U2 and it was so boring that Bono talk to the crowd after every song for minutes about god, the bad things in the world and so on... -.-

 

However, they guys play often the songs in row and this is what I love, because I'm there to hear the music and to see the guys playing. Yesterday I had not the feeling that they hurried. But thats only my impression.

[AnnaElisabeth]

My impression when I watched the streaming was that the guys were full of energy, Chris proved again to be a great performer and to be really into what he was doing (just think of all the energy he put into Violet Hill, all those jumps and such, his face while playing The Scientist, and Politik, and...). I can't say much about the crowd from the streaming, but wasn't there a good singalong for The Scientist and didn't Chris say they sounded fantastic?

 

Anyway, just a thought: this time the guys were great and the crowd maybe not. At the festival in Sweden, the guys didn't seem at their best (to me) but the crowd was quite good. And I did prefer yesterday's show.

 

Crowd in Sweden was awesome (as was the French crowd) but the boys did much, much better in Sweden. They actually seemed to be happy to be on stage in Sweden, which wasn't the case in France, I'm sorry to say.

 

/Crawls back under her rock and waits for LP5 to cheer her up

[Mimixxx]

For the record, the crowd were great. And I would know since I was actually in it! People had been queing for 16 hours to see them, people had balloons, banners, there were Viva chants before the show started, chanting of "Coldplay Coldplay" before the gig and before the encore. The singing was great and loud...

 

I'm afraid blaming it on the crowd isn't gonna change my opinion of it, I've seen them many, many times and this was the first time I've ever left not feeling euphoric. To me they were tired, they were disconnected, just going through the motions. And yes Coldplay on a bad day are still miles better than alot of bands on their best day but I was disappointed, as were most of the people I was with, I know they can do better.

 

Sorry if you don't like it, but that's my opinion I'm afraid...

 

On a more positive note Chris did a great job of calming down a very angry Will after he accidentally carried on playing during Jonny's solo in IMP. Charlie Brown was as always amazing as was Life is for Living. It was painful them being on at 11.30pm when the doors opened at noon though...my feet will never be the same!! :P I had SOOOOOO much fun with my Coldplaying friends too :hug:

 

Also I hadn't noticed before but Jonny is so skinny, he looks ill :(

 

Edit: Oooh nice review Anna :nice: Was too tired to write a coherent review like that! :nice:

[Guest howyousawtheworld]

Isn't it? :D I'll be home on Wednesday :heart:

 

 

 

The boys didn't even see it :/

 

 

Okay...

 

 

Review!

 

We (Stefan, Laura, Anna, Mich, Tash and I) arrived at the queue (there were two entrances and we were at one of them) at around 8.30-ish and were later joined by Perrine, Chavi, Phil etc :wacky:

 

We had loooads of fun spray painting the banner (thanks again for bringing the paint, Phil!) I somehow got in charge of doing the lettering so that's my work right there :P

 

Then we waited and waited and waited for the gates to open (as one does).

Bag-search, wristband check etc (skipping all the boring bits :P)

 

After being forced to stand and wait between some barriers (like cattle) for 30 minutes in blazing sun we were told it was time to move (well, I didn't understand, I had to ask someone, my French is very limited, haha).

 

THE RUN WAS AWFUL. I swear it was probably a mile of sprinting :dead: (I might be exaggerating a bit there - still bad enough to make us all cough for hours after, though!)

 

I have to give the biggest props to the finest barrier runners in the world, Mich and Stefan! Without them we wouldn't have made front row. :hug:

 

Loved, loved, loved Bruno Mars (Anna, Mich and I had a dance party and the band were totally into us :wink3: :P) so that was a nice surprise 'cause I thought it was going to be shit! Elbow were amazing as well :heart:

 

Then after a lukewarm performance from PJ Harvey (disappointed!) and a slightly sleep inducing one from Portishead (might have been the +12 hour queueing, though) it was time for the boys to go on!

 

(Big thanks to the head of security who told us it was okay for us to hang our banner on the barrier! :heart:)

 

Some Jay-Z always gets the crowd going and we were rocking out in the front. Then Back to the Future theme :wacky:

 

Hurts Like Heaven was great fun but after that it... Kind of went downhill. No one in the band smiled (except a few ones from Chris). No contact with the front row whatsoever.

 

I was so utterly BORED during Viva that I didn't know what to do with myself.

 

The boys looked tired and angry (which I guess comes from the numerous festivals they are doing and the mess up in the beginning) and didn't seem to enjoy themselves at all. The set was done on routine. Poor Jonny is INCREDIBLY skinny and he looked ill, to be honest. He certainly needs a good rest.

 

I know a lot of you at home enjoyed it and that's great but I can honestly say with the exception of Charlie Brown and Hurts Like Heaven this concert was a huge disappointment for me (and that's not counting the huge amount of time and money I spent on getting there :rolleyes:). This was "only" my 5th time seeing them (I can't believe it's five already :wacky:) but I know with my entire being that they can do so, so much better than this.

 

That being said, I had a fabulous few day with all my friends from far away, I miss you already! Hope to see you soon (maybe at a gig when the boys are actually "present") :heart:

 

Like I said to Mich it's up to the band to give it 110% at every show. It seems by your accounts that the full effort wasn't there from them which is disappointing and unlucky for you - but I really do understand it why they would be like that. I thought by other people's account that the crowd weren't great but as by you say they were but even if the crowd isn't great it's still up to the band to make the crowd "great". It's only natural they have off days I guess.

 

They've done a hell of a lot this past month what with releasing 3 new studio songs, numerous festival dates along with the stress and pressure of Glastonbury AND working in between festival dates to complete recording.

 

Is it too much though I wonder?

[coldplayisawesome]

Also I hadn't noticed before but Jonny is so skinny, he looks ill :(

 

there was an article someone had posted on here yesterday which talked about Glastonbury; Jonny's dad had been interviewed and he said something about how Jonny was basically exhausted what with the new baby and apparently his daughter had the chicken pox, so maybe he's just stressed out or something. :P

[AnnaElisabeth]

Like I said to Mich it's up to the band to give it 110% at every show. It seems by your accounts that the full effort wasn't there from them which is disappointing and unlucky for you - but I really do understand it why they would be like that. I thought by other people's account that the crowd weren't great but as by you say they were but even if the crowd isn't great it's still up to the band to make the crowd "great". It's only natural they have off days I guess.

 

They've done a hell of a lot this past month what with releasing 3 new studio songs, numerous festival dates along with the stress and pressure of Glastonbury AND working in between festival dates to complete recording.

 

Is it too much though I wonder?

 

I know they have been having a stressful couple of months but the performances itself should be a way for them to let go and really just have fun for an hour and a half. I'm a performer as well and it's so important to be able to leave stress and other things backstage and just go for it :shrug: I think they might have bitten off more than they can chew - at least right now.

[Stefan8]

I was not far from the stage but a tall guy was before me and I had to move my head constantly and remain on my toes to see the guys.

 

:evilgrin:

[42JTR]

Video:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t55uy0irg9k]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t55uy0irg9k[/ame]

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9zl97ZbtpE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9zl97ZbtpE[/ame]

[Lauriane]

I'm sorry for all of you who went and were disappointed...

Jonny did look sick and all of them were tired. I think they have to much to do at the moment, they should refuse sometimes. I mean, they ask for 1M2 f'cking € each evening ! If you can't do it then you just don't !

Hope they're going on holidays after they finish LP5.

[mayurshikotra]

i remember Will saying, to jo whiley that on their VLV tour they were happy when they played in france as in the past they felt like they've done somthing wrong in france, and maybe they felt like that again?