Coldplay on Thursday night was amazing. Go back and re-read that first sentence because there is no amount of italicization I can use to express how good that show was. It surpassed all expectations I had and thoroughly impressed me. It was more than a concert, it was a truly passionate performance, writes seangursky.com.
Basically, the concert started with ‘Life in Technicolour I’ and then we just got more intense then there. The band pulled out all kinds of REALLY fun tricks (which I don’t really want to give away to those who are planning on seeing an upcoming ‘Viva La Vida’ tour show).
And while watching, I thought, here’s the difference between a band who uses tricks to enhance what they do well, rather than using tricks to cover up what they can’t do (such as using backup dancers to distract from lip-synching), or using tricks needlessly and senselessly (example: Mariah Carey’s numerous costume changes at her show back in 2006). When you have about 10,000 people screaming for you and wanting to get closer and closer to you, you don’t need lasers and confetti and gritty black-and-white jumbotron images. But… it only enhances the Coldplay experience in that the music takes on a kind of electrified, magical, whimsical dynamic that makes it both look and feel truly alive.
What the band did really well though, was demonstrate top-quality showmanship, fan appreciation, humility and professionalism without being TOO professional and TOO polished. Example: I saw Bryan Adams at the beginning of 2006, which is admittedly lame anyways, but it was like he just slept through a two-hour set; it was identical to the set on the DVD included in the greatest hits package, and so any uniqueness was kind of lost and I ended up enjoying the opener, Daniel Powter, a lot more who chatted with the audience and faltered a little bit, despite his piano-playing skills and pandering to an audience who had NO idea who he was, or cared really. Coldplay played this gig like it was their first-ever big break. The band members seemed to share a strong friendship and brotherhood, no one seemed to have a bloated ego and there was no ‘tension’; they were just a group of friends who love playing music together, and that’s just what they did, and did VERY well. Christ.
The set was a kind of predictable but great collection of songs that lasted about two hours; while ‘Parachutes’ was largely ignored, the band played their best material from their later three albums and tossed in a few moments from their ‘Prospekt’s March’ EP (which by the way, includes some of their best-ever material). I would have liked to see a few more of my personal favourites, but with a stadium of thousands and thousands of people, a set should be about soaring crowd-pleasers.
The band did some really cool things though, including the ‘cell phone wave’ which is one of the coolest things you’ll ever see. As well, they walked through the audience (I high-fived them – totally epic conquest) and played a little acoustic set in the stands at the back of the stadium while throwing in a little ditty about Edmonton that was so cute and funny I, standing on my chair so I could see from the floor, almost fell over. They also played ‘Green Eyes’, one of my all-time favourite songs, and then a harmonica made an appearance and I screamed out loud, “THIS IS THE GREATEST NIGHT OF MY LIFE!” and meant it. And it was. Really, it was.
There’s such a joy in seeing a favourite band live. But that joy is amplified when that live show is so incredibly good, it puts even some of the best shows you’ve seen in life to shame. I can’t talk today, and I feel like I have whip lash in my neck. But this show was worth the money and the pain.
I know that there are a lot of people who are cynical about the band and regard them as bad and repetitive and self-indulgent. I disagreed completely already anyways, but I REALLY believe that seeing the show that I saw last night would turn around ANY of those cynics. Some people go to shows and say that every one of them is amazing, but for me only a select few get to be shelved among the elite, special gigs that really are amazing, and this gets the number 1 place of honor.
Also sources: http://newyorkfruitstand.wordpress.com
Coldplay at Rexall Place, Edmonton (18th June 2009):
Pictures by Dave McNeil
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