East Troy review 3: Coldplay at Alpine Valley Music Theatre (plus more new pictures)

World tours tend to have a way of draining even the most vivacious of bands. Between buses, airplanes, groupies, booze and constant ass-kissing, the energy can dissipate—leaving us with robotic, by-the-numbers performances, writes Time Out Chicago.

Entering Saturday’s show at Alpine Valley, Coldplay, known for its anthemic arena rock and distinct falsetto tones courtesy of lead singer Chris Martin, had played 137 shows on its Viva La Vida world tour. With a show practically every other day since the tour began, it would be safe to assume the boys from London were a wee bit tired.

Yet, from their animated performance before a less than sold-out crowd (the Live Nation ticket prices, $115 for a pavilion seat, may have kept some fans away) at Alpine, either Martin and co. drank a hell of a lot of Red Bull before prancing onstage, or these guys are truly enjoying every minute of their success.

With a thin veil of a curtain shielding the stage from the crowd, Coldplay tiptoed onstage with sparklers in hand. A perfect half moon cut the sky above, which only hours earlier had been enveloped with rain clouds. Having never witnessed a Coldplay show, I assumed it would be in the vein of U2— a spotty performance intermixed with a grand spectacle of lights and lasers to overcompensate the music. Surprisingly, as Martin, donning a black army-style patched jacket, with the British flag adorning his right tricep, belted into a throaty version of “Violet Hill” off 2008’s Viva La Vida, it began to become crystal clear that these boys could rock. After the tension of the opening song subsided, the melodic piano notes of “Clocks,” the band’s signature song, danced atop the amphitheater.

In the vein of Mick Jagger, Martin seems to play every show as if it’s his last. Running like a fleeing prisoner from one side of the stage to the other, the mop-top vocalist/pianist churned out a charged rendition of “In My Place,” (off 2002’s A Rush of Blood to the Head) ending the song laying on his back, mike in hand, head draped in theatrical sorrow. Moments later, Martin was trying his hand at comedy during a melancholy rendition of the band’s first smash-hit “Yellow,” demanding that the crowd “create the largest band of all time, the four of us and the 34,000 of you. That makes us have more members than the Dave Matthews Band,” Martin said while giggling. When a weak choral performance ensued by the audience, Marin chuckled and muffled into the mike, “I just asked you to join the fuckin’ band…that was shit!”

While starry-eyed teenage girls may have enjoyed when Martin and his bandmates ventured up into the lawn area for a few acoustic numbers, including a soothing cover of “Billie Jean” sounding eerily reminiscent of Chris Cornell’s take on the MJ classic, the stunt felt like a group going Hollywood in an attempt to be one with its audience. Martin claimed the Alpine audience was in his “top one” of the tour, but it’s hard to believe that the band could actually feel an intimate connection after 137 previous shows.

Running back onstage for spirited versions of its recent hit singles “Viva La Vida” and “Lost!,” Coldplay ended the show as paper butterflies simultaneously drenched the audience in rainbow-like color. Album-style versions of “The Scientist” and “Life in Technicolor II” made up the band’s encore—closing out a show that clocked (no pun intended) in at just under two hours. Coldplay’s 138th this tour wasn’t just another number, it rocked.

Source: Time Out Chicago

Pictures of Coldplay at Alpine Valley Music Theatre, East Troy, WI (25th July 2009)