[24-Sept-2011] Coldplay @ Atlanta's Music Midtown Festival

[flickahidalgo]

We started our journey to Atlanta, GA from Fayetteville, NC at about 7AM. 6 hours of excitement and boredom - passing by endless miles of cornfields and dense woods. The GPS ended up being programmed wrong and it took us straight to the hotel - The Hilton. Despite my wishes, we decided to check-in to the hotel and bring our light load to our room. Within 15 minutes, we were out of the hotel and on our way to Piedmont Park. It took us a while to walk from the entrance to the park to the actual Meadow.

 

Once found, we literally ran straight to the Electric Ballroom Stage to claim a spot up by the front of the stage. It being 3 o' clock, the Joy Formidable were now coming on-stage. Not going to say much. But, they were pretty awesome.

 

Next, Manchester Orchestra came on stage. Again, not going to say much.

 

Then, The Black Keys came on at 7:15. Now, I will say much. Being a fan of The Black Keys as well, I was equally excited to see them perform. Once they had blown up a massive inflatable tiki and tire, hysteria went through the crowd. Finally, they walked out on stage and the concert was in full swing. About 30 minutes to an hour later, the sunlight was dimming and the concert vibe was kicking in.

 

The Black Keys ended and exited the stage. Within seconds, it seemed as if with a few people leaving, a mass rushed in. Almost an hour before the actual Coldplay show was to start, we were smushed against the front railing. With people bumping elbows and stepping on feet, of course, everybody was getting a little antsy. We all talked in excitement about what was about to occur. Somebody asked a staff member, "How many people are behind us?" She answered with, "20,000 or so. You guys are really lucky to be up front."

 

When the guys finally came out on stage, all was smoothed out - people backed up a bit, in order to give themselves a bit of room to jump and dance to the beat of the music. The resonant sound of MX filled the open air. Then erupted Hurts Like Heaven and the connection between the band and the audience was built immediately.

 

Now, I'm not going to tell you about every single song, but one song did seem to stick out in presence more than any other for me - God Put a Smile Upon Your Face. It seems to me that this song is delivered best - especially with the new intro. It also gives a nice, roaring beat to jump to.

 

One thing I was disappointed about was the fact that they didn't play Us Against the World as an encore. In previous shows that week, they had played it both times as an encore and I was sure that they would play it again. But, sadly, it didn't happen. But, all is well. They did end up delivering a fantastic cover of REM's "Everybody Hurts".

 

With Every Teardrop is a Waterfall sting ringing in our ears, we walked back to where we entered. But, I couldn't help but think, "Geez, I feel sorry for whoever has to clean this mess up!"

[hahninator]

I lurk on Coldplaying all the time without posting much but I was just looking at my pictures from this show the other day and I remembered I never posted my full review of this show that I wanted to post. It's been ages since the show but it really seems like it was just yesterday! I also saw part of the Atlanta Philips Arena show last year (only half sadly due to school, but the second half) so I'll review what I saw there after this.

 

Here we go!

 

So earlier in 2011, we heard rumors that Music Midtown was coming back to Atlanta and initially the rumors I believe were Coldplay, Pearl Jam and Prince or something over two days. Anyway the announcement comes that Coldplay is indeed playing, Music Midtown is going to Piedmont Park and I am head over heels. My girlfriend in 2011 had just moved into a new apartment less than a mile from Piedmont Park and while I went to school 3 hours away (long distance relationship haha), we would be so close to the show it'd be ridiculous.

 

I bought us two tickets ($55 for that lineup? epic!!!) and we were set. After keeping up with Coldplay all summer at Rock am Ring and all the other festivals, and then getting anxious when they first started playing Paradise (and also Up In Flames right before this show), I was really stoked to see them. What would they play? The night before the show, we were eating at a restaurant called Noodle before the show (across the street from Vortex in Midtown ATL) and I get a Twitter notification that I won two tickets from Red Bull ATL to the show! Sweet!

 

We sleep in on Saturday (show day) and around 3-4ish, we drive about a quarter mile to Kroger at Ansley Mall (right next to the park) and walk to the show. What a great idea this was because traffic afterwards was so bad that we were glad we could get home within 25-30 minutes of Coldplay ending (most of it was spent walking through the park).

 

Unfortunately to get the tickets we have to walk to the BOX OFFICE which is on 10th Street....on the other side of the park! So our short walk turns kind of long but it's no problem. Right before we get to 10th Street, we hear sirens and then comes a police escort. One cop car in the front, two nice black vans, and another cop car in the back. Was it Coldplay? We'll never know but we'd like to think it was! They turned into the artist entrance by that restaurant near 10th. Maybe Coldplay or The Black Keys, but the latter has only two band members so it might have been Coldplay.

 

Anyway, we get our tickets from the box office and so I decide we should sell our other two for face value. Bam, it doesn't take more than 2 minutes to do that and we have now made our trip to Music Midtown FREE! My girlfriend and I go in, walk around the park and just chill for the afternoon. We liked the other bands there but we were there for one band, haha. Our Red Bull tickets had the VIP viewing pass for their tower thing at the back of the crowd, so we watched part of The Black Keys from there. After a drink, I do some SERIOUS convincing to her to let us go into the crowd. My girlfriend likes concerts but she likes to sit down and doesn't like to be in the middle of a ton of people.

 

This time I was able to convince her to try it, so with 20~ minutes left for The Black Keys, we head down into the crowd and start our way to the front. I know a few of their songs so watching them was enjoyable. After they were done, a million people leave the crowd and a million more join and we end up somewhere between 16-20 rows from the front, on the right side but still in front of the stage. A perfect spot - it really seems like at this point that everything in the day is going in our favor! Two new friends later, they give us both a beer and we are set.

 

99 Problems comes on and the crowd is jamming and then the lights go out, as everyone knows, for Back to the Future and here comes Coldplay! Wow the crowd is very loud at this point. MX starts and then the fireworks go off....wow. I mean wow. That really caught everyone by surprise and Hurts Like Heaven comes on (my favorite new song at this point...I had the live version on so many mix CDs all summer) and we're off! The band sounds GREAT. I couldn't believe I was finally seeing Coldplay and I was seeing so many new songs in their set at the same time. I LOVED the stage lighting and the running man on HLH.

 

The yellow lights on Yellow are great and the crowd at this point is eating it up through Yellow and In My Place. Chris is really jamming and Jonny too....I was really surprised at how energetic they were. I know he does the "Is anybody out there?" talk at most of the shows but it's really cool with everyone exploding haha. So at this point I knew the setlist had been changing slightly over the summer and the past few shows so I wasn't really sure what we would get. My favorite Coldplay songs in order at this point are Violet Hill, Clocks, Hurts Like Heaven, and Talk (or Death and all His Friends). I know Talk or DAAHF aren't in the sets and that's perfectly fine but I was REALLY wanting Violet Hill since I knew they'd for sure play the other two. I didn't know if they'd drop it for Paradise or Up In Flames, both of which I wanted to see as well.

 

Chris gives his speech about it being a new song and we're off on Major Minus. I really enjoy this song but some people around us decided they had had enough of Coldplay and they left! Wow. So we were able to get a few rows closer during this song. Major Minus didn't even sound like a new song to me at this point since I had heard it so much over the summer on my mix CDs but I did know some words to it which allowed me to sing along. This song is so catchy.

 

Then we get Paradise! Sweet! What is surprising about this song is that so many people in the crowd knew it. Everyone around me was dancing and loving Paradise, and it had just come out right before the show. I was caught up in the days prior to Music Midtown trying to figure out if the backing vocals were sampled (aka a few band members were lipsynching on it) on Paradise live, but in person you obviously can't tell and it sounded awesome!

 

After Paradise, the Lost! intro starts and that's one of my girlfriend's favorite songs so she is ecstatic. Balloons fall and I'm in awe as I wonder how the Coldplay production can be so good! The band at this point is really ON and Chris is all over the place rocking. After Lost!, I hear the intro part of Violet Hill and my entire 2011 has been made. One of my favorite songs by any band...I was so happy to see it in person. Everyone knew the song too and it was great having so many people sing along to it. Chris at the end of this song got REALLY into it and was lifting his guitar up and slamming it down across his body near the end....so awesome. Oh what a great track.

 

God Put A Smile was next and WOW is this song a total jam live or what?! I was really surprised how good it comes across live. The band continues rocking and impressing us through the whole song until we get to The Scientist next, which of course the whole 40,000 person crowd knows! The singalong to this song was sooooo loud. I'm sure a lot of hardcore Coldplay fans probably want them to change the setlist up some (probably me too sometimes haha) and drop some of the most popular songs, maybe even this one, but these songs sounded so great in person.

 

I have no idea what's next in the setlist - I was lost the second Paradise entered the show so I was legit surprised the rest of the show as to what they would be playing next. Chris mentions R.E.M. is one of his favorite bands of all time and they just "finished", so they wanted to do a song to show "how much they meant to us". And I'll be damned, it was Everybody Hurts! Wow. Literally my favorite R.E.M. song and my girlfriend and I had been singing it the entire week before. Coincidence? It sounded great and I knew this was something really special. Chris at one point mentioned how Atlanta is such a special place for the band (yeah I know the Tabernacle story from over a decade ago) and they LOVE playing here. It felt like we were really a part of something special, versus just being at a concert. I know it's a concert for Coldplay but that night seemed like it meant something to them and they were truly happy and honored to be playing for us. You don't get that feeling for a lot of bands, you know? So many bands go through the motions on stage but Coldplay took the time in their hectic schedule (they were in Austin and Toronto and Las Vegas in the week before the show - wow) to learn a cover and play it for us & for R.E.M. Really cool.

 

So Politik was up next and I looooove it. I didn't think they'd play this one so I was glad to see it. Next came Chris's little piano part which I knew was time to start roaring the Viva melody haha. And tens of thousands of other people knew it too, which was crazy! Viva was really impressive live, which I'm sure everyone knows haha....that's a really strong one. I love the singalong at the start and how it continues through the beginning of the song.

 

What could be next? Charlie Brown! At the time of the show, I liked Major Minus better than Charlie Brown but now I like Charlie Brown a lot more. Almost no one knew this song sadly even though it came off GREAT on stage. Solid performance! Then I felt almost ashamed because they were playing a song I didn't know. I know most all of Coldplay's songs but I didn't know what this was. It sounded good though, but it was slower, and then the set was over! I was shocked they decided to close the main set with a slower song instead of something like Viva La Vida. Afterwards I found out it was Life Is For Living and I introduced myself to it the next day.

 

And then the encore chants came and the crowd was alive again. The band returns and oh hell yes, Clocks! This song never gets old no matter how many times I hear it, and the lights on it were really cool. At the end of the song, Chris did the thing where he bends over backwards on his piano bench and acts like he's swimming in air....great touch to the end of the song. Everyone noticed it and knew he was really into the performance and the crowd really let out a roar of appreciation. The next song was Fix You, with the Georgia On My Mind intro, which I actually thought Chris would do at this show. Fix You sounded great and it was just mesmerizing watching hit after hit after hit be played and the band be so into the show with so much energy. Chris dancing around at the end was so cool.

 

Unfortunately I knew this meant the end of the show was up next. Every Teardrop closed it out and I'm a pretty big fan of this song even though it's so different for the band. It sounded great, the lasers were awesome, and Chris even kissed the stage after the show. Wow. I've never been so impressed with a band's performance before this show and I had seen over 100 shows before this. Coldplay was an instant top 3 show for me. What an awesome day, an awesome performance and an awesome crowd. The backdrop of the ATL skyline was perfect for the show and Coldplay really brought an amazing show to Atlanta. It couldn't have gone any better!