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[2016-08-29] Pepsi Center, Denver, CO


jc90

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Here it is!! My review!

I had fun writing this as I basically got to relive the concert while doing so! It is practically a song-by-song review of my experience. I have put it in a spoiler because it is fairly long. (nearly 3000 words).

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

A Concert Full of Songs!

 

When I first started writing this review, I started out describing my trip starting from math class all the way down to Denver for the concert. Then I realized that that was quite boring, but just know it involved a lot of speed walking, some driving, and a bunch of Coldplay songs playing in the car. And some light rain. As Chris(?) or maybe one of the opening acts(?) put it, it was a “perfect day for an indoor show.”

 

Anyway, I was super excited to be going to my first ever concert, and on top of that, having it be my favorite band!!

 

After I got to the parking lot, I met up with my friend who goes to the university right across the street from the Pepsi Center, and we both walked over to the entrance.

 

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They had the merchandise stand set up outside, so I got myself the tour book (which looks so cool!) and tour poster (also neat!), and I also picked up an extra poster for my friend who couldn’t go due to having to get emergency surgery right before the concert. (shhh don’t tell her I got her anything, it’s a surprise!). One thig I thought was interesting at the merch stand was that there was one shirt with the Parachutes album cover on the front, but on the back it said A Head Full of Dreams Tour and listed the dates.

 

After we went back to the car to put that stuff away, we stood in line for about 45 minutes before the doors opened. While waiting, I saw the tweet about a song that hasn’t been played in five years and got really excited thinking maybe Coldplay would play Hurts Like Heaven (a request I wrote to them in a letter) or Moving to Mars (the request of the Coldplay fan I met at a party that one time…anyone remember that??)

 

Doors finally opened at 6:05 (5 minutes late smh), and I got to go right in since I was 6th in my line. I went through security, and there they were! Huge boxes labeled “Xylobands.” I freaked out when I saw those. The lady handed me a white xyloband and a love button. I asked if she could give me an extra button and xyloband for my friend who couldn’t go, and she handed me a love button, but said she couldn’t give me an extra xyloband because they don’t have enough xylobands for everybody. Fair enough…after I kept talking to her, she gave me another love button by accident I think haha. For some reason, they wouldn’t open the staris and escalators up to the seats, so we all just stood there being packed like sardines for a couple of minutes. From there, it was up 2 escalators and around to the opposite side of the arena to our seats. I didn’t see anyone from Oxfam, but then again, I wasn’t really focused on finding them. On the way there, there was a huge window looking east, and I could see all of the tour buses and trucks!

 

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We got to our seats, and it turns out we had a pretty good view! One guy sitting next to us asked if they would be playing Game of Thrones the Musical. To be honest, I totally forgot about that, and I felt kinda bad telling the guy no because he seemed excited about it.

 

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I tried to get the viva chant going a bunch of times, but no one really caught on haha. We called up the Coldplay fan I met at that party that one time and waved to her from our seats! The person I went to the concert with was the one who had the party, so she is the mutual friend between us two Coldplay fans! My friend wanted to go get a soft pretzel, so we walked around looking for one, and I noticed some people with colored xylobands like the ones they gave out in Europe. At first, I thought those people went to a show in Europe and wore their old xylobands here, but I started seeing a lot of people with them on. So, I asked someone wearing one, and it turns out they were giving out colored ones. The people at the front of the line got the plain white ones that were left over while the people later in line got the cool colored ones. I was pretty jealous, but I was determined to get myself some extra xylobands by the end of the night.

 

The opening acts started, and they weren’t bad. I had not heard of either Bishop Briggs or Alessia Cara, but, surprisingly, I knew a few songs by Bishop Briggs, but none by Alessia Cara. There were this group of four people in the front row who were going absolutely crazy for the opening acts. Not sure why they would want to waste all their energy, but whatever. Turns out they were the people who got chosen to do the intro video.

 

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And then it was time to get the stage set for Coldplay!

 

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The opera song started playing, the lights dimmed, and everyone went crazy!!!

 

And then it was time for The Great Dictator…”a wonderful adventure!, wonderful adventure!, wonderful adventure!, wonderful adventure! *drums*”

 

I went absolutely crazy….as you can tell from this video

 

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Mobile Link: https://twitter.com/connor_177/status/771733477351751682

 

 

Yellow was amazing…I loved all the xylobands lit up yellow, and it was the first song of the night where everyone in the arena knew the words and was singing along.

 

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Chris messed up the beginning of ETIAW. He sang “I turn the music up, I got my records on, from underneath the ru…oh shit I fucked it up, let’s start over!” So we went all the way back to “sing yooooooo!” which was fun because I like that part.

 

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The Scientist was beautiful as always. I love it when Guy’s part comes. And it was cool because I could see the guitar techs running about the stage handing Jonny his different guitars…that is something you don’t see in Live 2003, 2012, etc! The tribute to Gene Wilder at the end was cool! I almost missed it because everyone was clapping and yelling and then I heard Chris and I was like, “Wait! He is still singing…What is he saying??!!” and I couldn’t really figure that out until I saw people talking about it later.

 

Setlist.fm says there was an “Extended Oceans intro” to Birds. To be honest, if they did do an extended intro, I can’t remember it. I’m not sure if this is a false memory, but as I write this I am starting to remember something like that, but I am not sure. Anyway, BIRDS!!!!! My favorite song on AHFOD and I got to hear it live!!! The energy during that song was so high! Or maybe it was just me, I don’t know. Not sure if any of the causal fans around me knew the song. I, for one, was jumping and singing along to every single song that night.

 

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I love Paradise. The way the stadium and xylobands light up when the bass drops is so awesome! It is one thing to see it in videos, but a whole other thing to witness it live. And then the REMIX oh my God!! Everyone was jumping and that was probably one of my favorite parts of the night.

 

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The band went to the B-Stage and started to play Always in My Head which is one of my favorite songs on Ghost Stories! People started to sit down during this part, but I was standing for the whole show! I was so happy that they played AIMH.

Magic was the next song, and it is the favorite Coldplay song of my friend who couldn’t go, so I videoed the whole song and emailed it to her the next day. There were some cute Buckin moments during both AIMH and Magic.

I don’t care too much for Everglow, so I took that time to check on the Coldplaying periscope and sit down for a few seconds. I still sang along though!

I swear Chris and I made direct eye contact during one of these songs.

 

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They headed back to the A-Stage and I heard Army of One intro, but I honestly could not remember what comes next. Once you are there at the concert, you are so tied up in what is happening that you forget everything else like what would come next in the setlist. I was so happy to hear the opening notes of Clocks! It is probably my favorite of the “hit” Coldplay songs. The lasers and lights were incredible!

 

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Midnight is perhaps my favorite song on GS, and they played quite a bit of it during this show. It reminded me so much of Live 2014, and at one point I could even see rainbow lasers like the laser harp in that movie!

 

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CHARLIE BROWN!!! This is the song that we all wait for at each show because xylOBANDS!!! The whole arena looked amazing!! I love that song so much, and being able to hear it live was an incredible experience I will never forget.

 

[MEDIA=twitter]770654600768557056[/MEDIA]

Mobile Link: https://twitter.com/connor_177/status/770654600768557056

 

(For those of you reading on a pc or internet browser, you might have to click on the link for that tweet to see it in full)

 

 

Hymn for the Weekend was cool. Especially the confetti at the end! Oh and the amazing screen visuals!

 

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And then it was time for Fix You…another song that got the whole arena singing! The Midnight background was pretty cool in my opinion! Although I’m sure many in the arena were sad during this song, there was no crying for me. I was going absolutely crazy once the guitars and drums came bursting in! So awesome!

 

Heroes was a great song. It is weird to say this, but it was one of my favorite parts of the concert! Jonny’s guitar work was awesome! Surprisingly, this was the song that I was humming on the way out to my car at the end of the concert.

 

At the end, I saw Will get up and head over to his Viva drum kit…this is when the fun starts! Viva really gets the crowd going. Just to be there and sing along to the Viva Chant with everyone else there made me so happy. I only noticed this when watching my video later (see below) that Chris sang “This is how they sound, in Coloradooooo!” before the chant, and I thought that was pretty cool!

 

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Mobile Link: https://twitter.com/coldplaying/status/771096271574536192

 

(Again, you will probably have to click on the link under that tweet to see the full video)

 

 

Balloons started raining down from the ceiling, and I knew it was time for Adventure of a Lifetime! This song brings back so many memories of waking up in the middle of the night for its release. This song really got the crowd going, especially the whole “Get down!” part, which I started doing about 5 seconds before Chris told us to. Balloons kept falling from the ceiling basically throughout the whole song, but sadly none came up to my section, so I couldn’t take one home.

 

I couldn’t really figure out how the band got to the C-Stage, but they eventually stepped up into the light over on that stage. I don’t think they went through the crowd, but rather out the back of the stage, around the arena, and down the steps into that section.

They started out with In My Place, and that made me so happy! I really wanted to hear that song live on this tour, and now my wish came true. Most people sat down for the C-Stage songs, but once they recognized In My Place, a lot of them stood up and started to sing.

 

Another song I really wanted to hear was Don’t Panic, one of my favorites on Parachutes! And they started to play it! There was no stop before Jonny’s verse; Jonny just started to sing. I started screaming and shouting “JONNY!!!!” as loud as I could. Like me and 5 other people did that. After Jonny’s part, Chris stopped and said Jonny just sang and no one made any noise for him. I was like “excuse me, did you not hear me yell at the top of my lungs??!” Chris then compared it to Van Halen doing a backflip on stage or something idk. He told us they were going to start over and we all had to make as much noise for Jonny as we could. And he also told us not to look this up on YouTube because they have definitely not stopped Don’t Panic before to have Jonny sing. ;) Then everyone screamed as Jonny sang, and they finished the song.

 

Til Kingdom Come is usually a song I skip. I’m not sure why because it is a good song. Anyway, hearing it live gave me a whole new appreciation for the song. It was pretty powerful, and Chris did a cool extended outro to the song as the rest of the band walked back to the stage.

 

At this point, I was very confused because they were heading back to the stage without having done an Instagram request. Apparently, Us Against the World was on the printed setlist for Denver’s show, but they never played it live. That is kind of sad because I like Us Against the World.

 

I have wanted to hear Amazing Day live since the first time we heard it almost a year ago! I don’t think there was too much Buckin during this song this time because I think Jonny headed back to the main stage before Chris left the B-Stage. We all started waving our arms slowly back and forth this during Amazing Day, and Chris seemed to like this. Here is the great part…!! Chris walked out to the B-Stage, turned and waved right at my section!!!! We all started screaming and waving back at him!! In my letter to them, I told them what section I would be sitting in, so, even if they didn’t play my favorite song like I asked, maybe they did read my letter.

 

Next up was ASFOS, and that song was so beautiful with all the xylobands lit up white and all the confetti stars flying through the air! I would jump during all the instrumental parts, and had to keep energy up for like a full minute and a half at the end of that song when everyone was singing and jumping because once you start, you just can’t stop.

 

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And now for the ultimate closer!! Not sure if everyone knew the words to Up&Up, but it sure made the crowd feel great like we were one big family singing this song!! Jonny’s solos were lit. The light design for this song was spectacular! I loved all the green, purple, and yellow light moving around! Just thinking of this song makes me want to scream and get up and dance and do the air-guitar! (which I may or may not have done while taking a break from writing this just now)

Singing “Believe in Love” at the end is so bittersweet because you are so happy to be there, but you know in just a few minutes, it will all be over.

 

And then the band walked around, waved to us, did their final bows, laid the Love and Colorado flags down on the ground and walked off stage!!

 

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We kinda rushed out of our seats because I wanted to get down to the first level before security closed it off in order to get some confetti and maybe get an AOAL balloon. Unfortunately, we didn’t get down there in time for that.

 

On the way down, I noticed some people were carrying their xylobands (both colored and uncolored), so I asked them if I could have it if they weren’t planning on keeping it. Everyone I asked gave their xylobands to me, so I got an extra white one and green, orange, and purple ones! I am going to give the extra purple love button and xyloband and also the extra white xyloband to my friend who couldn’t go. I shoved all these xylobands into my pocket so people wouldn’t notice when I was leaving.

 

When we realized we couldn’t get back into the seating area, I noticed there were some confetti and streamers lying on the ground that people had dragged out. So, I ran around looking like a crazy person picking up what was basically trash but to me amazing souvenirs. The coolest piece of confetti I picked up was one of those clear, shiny, bubbly, plastic stars!

 

As we walked towards the exit doors, I noticed there was a big box near the security people for recycling xylobands. I shoved all my xylobands into my pockets and walked past the box out to the outside! I don’t think anyone was enforcing the recycling, so at least I got to keep these amazing pieces of technology!

 

It was a very nice night, and we walked to the car and waited for traffic to clear out a bit before heading home. I got this cool picture of the Pepsi Center on our way out!

 

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Here is a picture of all the stuff I got from the concert (minus the tour book and poster)!

 

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Overall, this was the best night of my life!! I think we can all understand why I say that. It seemed so weird because Chris, Guy, Jonny, and Will are just people I see in pictures and videos, yet there they were right in front of me!! There was an amazing feeling of togetherness in that arena, and it was truly something wonderful to experience, especially as a first concert! Chris thanked us for all coming out on a Monday night, and he said we were the best Monday crowd he has ever seen!

And now I got to update that little part of my Coldplaying profile labeled “Coldplay Concerts”

 

 

Thanks to everyone who made it this far in my review! I am glad I could share my experience with you!

 

 

 

 

WOW.

 

What an excellent review of probably one of the best nights of my life, too! I'm so so happy that you had an amazing time! All your pictures are wonderful!! :D I want to share some of my pics and videos from the concert soon, too!

 

One regret: not being up-to-speed on the forums so that I could maybe have met up with you :'(

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OK, I made a little Wordpress entry that has some of the better pictures I took embedded in it :happy2: They're not amazing by any means, but they mean a whole lot to me :pleased: I hope you enjoy them!

 

https://katieduckyjr.wordpress.com/2016/09/04/a-head-full-of-dreams/

 

I don't know how to upload the videos I took to here, but I will keep trying to figure it out because I think you guys will enjoy them!

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OK, I made a little Wordpress entry that has some of the better pictures I took embedded in it :happy2: They're not amazing by any means, but they mean a whole lot to me :pleased: I hope you enjoy them!

 

https://katieduckyjr.wordpress.com/2016/09/04/a-head-full-of-dreams/

 

I don't know how to upload the videos I took to here, but I will keep trying to figure it out because I think you guys will enjoy them!

Nice pics!

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OK, I think I figured out how to upload my videos :) I'm gonna share the two best ones I have; the first one is Hymn for the Weekend and the second is Don't Panic with Jonny singing! :D <3 Here's to hoping it works, I'm using Vimeo because they seemed like the nicest platform to upload them...

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[MEDIA=vimeo]181439013[/MEDIA]

 

Here is Hymn for the Weekend!! I LOVED the stage screen and how much dancing Chris does!! I also love the reference to the Mile High city ;)

Yes someone got a video of those amazing fire cannons!!!

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Here is my FAVORITE PART OF ALL when Jonny sings Don't Panic and Chris introduces him and tells us all to cheer as if Van Halen just did the splits hahaha

You were so close! Somewhere in the first part of that video, I am screaming "JONNY!!!" not sure if you can hear me there though....

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[MEDIA=vimeo]181439013[/MEDIA]

 

Here is Hymn for the Weekend!! I LOVED the stage screen and how much dancing Chris does!! I also love the reference to the Mile High city ;)

 

Katie, you had the best straight-on view I've seen. This video is fantastic! I also like the shot at the very end where you can see the control booth screens. Cool!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Katie, you had the best straight-on view I've seen. This video is fantastic! I also like the shot at the very end where you can see the control booth screens. Cool!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Thanks! We chose between those really nice head-on seats and some nice ones in one of the corners and we decided that the stage would look cooler if we sat right in front of it...we were sooooo right :)

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