Toronto fan reviews (part 1): Coldplay rock Rogers Centre

More excellent reviews of Coldplay's concert at the Rogers Centre, Toronto, ON (30th July 2009) have been posted at the Coldplay Live forum, that didn't quite make the main review article in time this morning. Here is part one, of just some of the many:

Okay I had the craziest day ever yesterday. Got up early, drove to Toronto, shopped, got ready, and then we went to the venue... Well we were staying at the hotel there but we had to get our VIP ticket things... at first they wouldn't give them to us since I was with my friends and we're only 16 so I don't think they believed us even though we had proof we knew Chloe. -_-

Anyways, my mom went down and got them for us, and then at about 7:30 we went in and were sent on a wild goose chase around the venue because no one could find where the family room was. FINALLY, we found it, and hung out there for a bit. Johnny came in after he warmed up and signed my ticket for me saying, "Best wishes Katie. Nice to see you again! Johnny" I'll upload it in a bit. My friends and I also got a picture with him and then a group shot with him and Chloe. I need to wait until they're uploaded on facebook, but I'll maybe post the one of me with him...

Then a bit later we were escorted to our seats. It was really stressful because the show was just about to start and the security guy taking us to our seats had no idea where he was going. So finally Chloe was like fuck this and found it herself, ahahhaa. She's really awesome. We were in section 111 and row 1... if anyone was near there. When the band started playing a few songs in the middle of the crowd, Chloe let us is move to get closer and we were standing in the middle of the crowd on this weird elevated thing. Then the confetti started! Haha we were taking so many pictures with that, and the confetti machine was right there so the dude who was in charge of it, told us when he was going to turn it on so we could get a pic. xD The concert was amazing and my feet are KILLING me from standing/dancing/running around the venue.

After the show, we went back to the family room for about an hour and then Johnny came out again. He got me directions for the after party cause my friends and I didn't know where to go. :$ He was so nice about it. So Chloe gave us wristbands for it and my friends and I ended up getting a ride with her cousin. It was Will's birthday as you all know, so we sang him a happy birthday and my friends got a picture of the cake, so I'll probably post that too, once it's uploaded. Johnny, Will and Guy were at the party but this time Chris didn't come. I'm assuming it's because it was outside and there were random drunk people walking by so I'm sure that wasn't the best situation, plus I heard he doesn't really go to the after parties because having to talk loud over the music strains his voice. Either way, he wasn't there, but it was rad nonetheless.

My friends and I just hung out and took pictures and took a cab back to the hotel at 3am. We didn't sleep till 4am and we got up at 6am to drive home. I'm so tired right now, haah. But yeah, I'll definitely upload a few pictures once they're up on facebook. [thanks sandersidle]

I was the only one in my area who knew all the words to every song. My sister came in second only because she didn't know Death and All of His Friends, Green Eyes, and Glass of Water. Kitty, Daisy and Lewis were not the best band and we decided to get some overpriced pizza while they played their set. Then Elbow came out and were totally amazing! We started a small chant in our area for the dancing roadie. Then pit started a wave then the lights went down and the band walked out.

Right after Violet when Chris sings "If you love me, won't you let me know." I shout "I love you Jon!" into the crowd. I spend the next bit of the concert chanting Jonny and singing along. When they ran to the acoustic stage I thought I'd lost them then saw them right below me. Jonny did a cute little dance during Death Will Never Conquer. The Lovers butterflies didn't come into my area so we had a fun time collected them after the concert. When Phil gave Will the birthday cake, all I could say was Phil's name I could barely sing. It was beautiful and few things could make it better. Oh, and we were the ones struting around in birthday hats. Thank you Coldplay!! [thanks AngelsHaveBlueEyes]

ohgezz, that was frickin awesome!!! My FIRST CP concert! So a few hours before the concert, i was still at home but just finished re-reading a bit of Harry Potter so i was a bit sleepy...i managed to stay awake by listening to Coldplay for the remaining 2 or so hours before i left at 6:00...wasnt as big of a hastle to get downtown as i thought (from Scar.)...when i got to my gate (gate 5) i saw that they had signs showing a female sign (like the ones u see on the doors of the washrooms), but no male sign, i figured, how the fuck do i get in then? Eventually got in and right away i was tempted to buy something from the merch section but a fucktonne of ppl were there...so had to wait in line for a long ass time...around 30 ppl in a small space in front of the table...felt sorry for the ppl around me, i was sweating my ass off....but got slightly annoyed by ppl who didnt get the shirt ideas, like, theyre like, "Why 42, what does that mean?" eventually though, i thought the shirts were a bit too expensive ($40?!?!?!?) so i got a nice viva bottle, last one in stock too!

Back to the concert, actually, before that...ELBOW...honestly, i never heard them play before...i knew they would be a support act since i read the reviews from the other concerts...but yeah, they were pretty damn good... right before the concert started at 9:30ish, they played Magnificent by U2 and Give it to Me by Jay Z and of course that classical piece then...THEY CAME OUTTT. LiT was awesome esp. the OHH OHH OHHHHH part near the end, everyone sung it...Clocks, In My Place and Yellow of course, big crowd pleasers, esp yellow imo, they played it with the little pause in the beginning and sped up, love it that way, and the BALLOONS, frig, didnt bounce to my section though...but hahaha, no one knew Glass of Water around me 'cept me.......next real big songs were Fix You and Strawberry Swing. They came out to the b-stage to do their bit (GPaSUYF, Talk, Hardest Part, Postcards)...i thought they would come out further then that though ...as they were playing postcards, i told my sister to get ready to stand up for...

VIVA! everyone went crazy of course for viva, and joined in for the Ohh ohh OHHHH ohhh part at the end, i kinda started it for my section. Next they came into the audience which i knew would happen, but my sister did not, i told her they would but didnt believe me....sucks though, they went to the wrong side, as in not my side....i think Chris messed up Billie Jean though but owel, still ace. Next was Politik, i fully forgot they would do that and it caught me off guard (one of my fav songs)...i pointed out the magic ball turned into a globe and everyone around was like, oh yeahhh! LiJ followed and everyone went bonkers again for the Butterfly Confetti...like the Balloons, they didnt reach my section ....after Death and all his friends, ppl started leaving and my mom and sis and her bf wanted to leave, and i said "dont worry, they'll come out for a few more songs...and they did!

finished off with scientist and thats when my camera died....also, they sang happy b-day to will which i also said would happen and phil came out!!! all in all great night, Chris made a lot of jokes about the garbage strike and his hair (even the hairdressers in toronto are on strike) and about how big and loud toronto crowds are. so we were filing out and i rushed to get LRLRL, got me 4 in total..on the way out, i saw a butterfly stuck to some lady's show, i wanted to get it SO bad....and also, a few kids with the 'Yellow' Balloons!!! [thanks jc90]

The concert was AMAZING. This was my fifth time seeing Coldplay All in Toronto. And I think I start every review off with that one statement. Alright so I went with my sister, we got down pretty early because we were going to do some shopping but then decided we didn't have enough time. I kind of wish we did go so I wouldn't have to listen to the first opening band Kitty, Lewis and whatever. They gave me a headache which kind of made the whole show not as good as it could have been.

So after the first band were off Mindy (my twin sister) and I went to the bathroom...and someone had left their ticket in the bathroom, a floor ticket. So my first thought was...oh no this poor person! What if they need it to get back to the floor? (I later saw that people had wristbands so I hope she managed to get back). I told Mindy about it and spent a few minutes deliberating whether or not to just leave in the the stall or not. I thought that somoene would just take it, so I grabbed it and gave it to someone who worked there, hoping that it would be in better hands but also worrying that the person might go back to the bathroom and freak out if it was missing. I really hope the person managed to get back, I felt really bad.

Anway so after that was over me and Mindy split a $10 beer and then watched Elbow who I actually really enjoyed. The wait for Coldplay to come on took a while, 40-45 minutes. I think there might have been some problems with the lights because they had some guy go up on this lighting rig. Definately didn't look too safe. Then FINALLY they came on! So great. We were in section 129, row 21 so it wasn't that bad seating wise.

The music was amazing, and the sound quality was actually really good. The lights, butterflys and balloons were great. They didn't hit our section, but I grabbed some butterflys that were in this little pile on my way out. Chris was bouncing and jumping around and falling all over the place as usual.

One of the highlights for me was that the third stage was right at the end of the aisle next to me! So at one point Mindy spotted that the instruments had been set up and suggested we stand on the steps because it had to be soon. So we headed down there and in a few minutes they were running over to us! We had a rear view of the stage (not SUCH a bad thing ). Thought to point out that I spotted Phil running back with Chris. I'm surprised no one mentioned the light wave! I might have missed someone mentioning it but it was beautiful! Basically, Chris told everyone to take out their phones. Instantly thousands of blue lights appear. Then he tells us all to put our phones by our side, and that we were going to do "the wave" with cell phone lights! It was amazing to watch, it looked like thousands of stars going up. We did the whole thing a few times and before that he had just one corner waving their phones around. [thanks twin4life]

More new pictures of Coldplay at Rogers Centre, Toronto, ON (30th July 2009):