Last night, Coldplay played at the Rock Werchter Festival in Belgium for the fourth time (2nd July 2011). The setlist was exactly the same as the previous performances at the Open'er Festival in Poland, the 'Where The Action Is' festival in Sweden and Glastonbury before that, which means they once again played live favourites Shiver and Everything's Not Lost from the first album Parachutes. The same new tracks from the previous festival performances were also played, minus of course Princess Of China, which hasn't been seen since Rock im Park.
Belgian website Skynet.be streamed the first 3 songs of the setlist only online, but payview channel Belgacom showed the entire performance on their Belgacom Zoom channel. Already, someone has recorded the WHOLE SHOW and uploaded it to YouTube - if you're going to watch it then don't delay, as they say! The show will appear soon no doubt on filesharing sites if you missed it or just want to relive it again - keep an eye on the Multimedia forum for updates. Some excellent photos were also taken and uploaded by ProximusGo via Flickr which you can view in their galleries, and also some more pictures here at the messageboard [thanks juanif94 & zzz]
Setlist (confirmed):
MX/Hurts Like Heaven
Yellow
In My Place
Major Minus
Lost!
The Scientist
Shiver
Violet Hill
God Put A Smile Upon Your Face
Everything's Not Lost
Us Against The World
Politik
Viva la Vida
Charlie Brown
Life Is For Living
-------
Clocks
Fix You
Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall
Photo by Photocero @ Flickr
More live discussion on this show is at the Coldplay Live forum. Thanks to everyone who has contributed on the forums, Youtube and twitters. We'll have more on this show over the next few hours/days!
Only just woke up a few hours ago. I freaking loved it. I was front row, left side of the stage all the way to the right, so almost the center of the stage. Waited all day and it was totally worth the wait if you ask me. they blew everyone away from beginning to finish. They were having loads of fun and the crowd loved it as well. Festival shows are soooo much different from their regular arena shows. More energetic, less routine. It was a lot of fun. [thanks doritji]
Back from two days Werchter, and I oddly feel like I have to give a review of the Coldplay show that nobody will read. It was great, but since it's Coldplay and we're used to nothing less, I'm going to be a bit severe. This was the second time I saw the band, also the second gig at Werchter after the one in 2009. Coldplay only compares to Coldplay, so a comparison between the two concerts is inevitably made. I can't help thinking that they were better this time. Why would this be the case? Because Chris finally had a haircut? Possibly. Because I can't remember too much about their previous Werchter gig and because I was even closer to the stage this time (10th row)? Probably. Because they played their songs in a more concentrated, mature way? Definitely. Two years ago they gave us an incredible show with Chris jumping around and exploring every corner of the Werchter meadow, a show including acoustic intermezzos and fuckloads of confetti. Unfortunately this meant that the quality of the music, although I didn't realise at the moment, was lacking. This seemed to be caused by Chris' carelessness, I may be wrong. Now they're back the way I like it most, playing the songs like they mean it. Confettis, light effects and lasers added a bunch (way too much actually) to the show, but everything was centered around the music. Politik is a good example to show the difference between this Coldplay and the one of the Viva era: not as good as in the Live 2003 DVD, but at least capable of inducing goosebumps. I wish I hadn't watched the previous shows of this tour too much. I knew what was coming and it all felt oddly familiar and they didn't blow me away like they did in 2009 when I wasn't too prepared. Nevertheless, it was evidently (one of) the absolute top gig(s) of the festival and a perfect festival closer for me. The greatest moment for me was Shiver. Performed brilliantly, and I sang along from beginning to end. I hope my weak singing skills didn't disturb anyone.
The Scientist was an amazing singalong experience, but it wasn't nearly as unforgettable as it was two years ago, when it was in the encore. Although one of the best songs in the set, I also expected more from Everything's Not Lost, possibly because the rest of the crowd wasn't too much into it, compared to Viva La Vida for example. The latter, along with Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall, seemed an unavoidable cause for a cheap festival party, although the show would've been great even without those. Out of all the new songs, even though I like Major Minus most, this time I was more impressed by Charlie Brown. It was loud, it was awesome, it rocked. My opinion: *** (out of 5, Coldplay scale, the standards are ridiculously high. Five stars would be Live 2003 and/or Glastonbury 2002). Meanwhile, the band and their show is being torn apart by Belgian media. I can even understand their point at some level: maybe too arty-farty, and 1,2 million euros is a price so high that it makes their fair trade activism almost seem like Bono-esque hypocracy. That being said, I still love most of what Coldplay do and the media are there to break down everything that is too popular anyway. [thanks Tryptophan]
It was amazing ! I really liked the setlist, although I really hoped that they were going to play PoC but it was still incredible ! All those lights, people... oosebumps ! The crowd was amazing too. During the performance of Portishead (they were on stage before Coldplay) some people already started to sing Viva La Vida. Chris Martin also tried to say some words in Dutch like: goedendag (good day) [thanks lukaveer]
Nice review Tryptophan, thanks! You said a few things about which I felt the exact same way. So last night I saw my favourite band for the second time in three weeks (I know, lucky...) and it was way better than the one at Pinkpop. It was now dark when they started, so the light show was amazing. And the crowd was a thousand times better, just awesome. Everyone was so loud and even the new songs were sang along word for word. I was in the right front section as well and it was completely packed. Or in Chris' words, we were fucking squashed. The sound was much better as well. Great that they're playing so many from Parachutes. I do miss Cemeteries though, man I love that song. Basically hey did a fantastic show, great singalongs, lots of dancing. Chris wasn't the only one sweating this time. But personally, just like Tryptophan, I wasn't overwhelmed like I have been in the past. I was surprised when The Scientist somehow didn't make me cry like it usually does. Don't know what happened there. Next time I'm not gonna watch any of their shows before I see them live. Or at least I'll try... Still I loved Clocks, Hurts Like Heaven, Yellow, Shiver, Violet Hill, Politik (including minor funny screw up)... oh fuck I loved everything. But next time I will love everything more. Nice that they bowed and took their (huge) applause at the end, did they start doing that at Glasto? Because at Pinkpop it was ETIAW drum solo and boom, gone. Felt a a little shitty. Elbow kind of blew me away a few hours before. Guy Garvey is so charming and the reverse Mexican wave made me tear up. I also quite enjoyed PJ Harvey, especially the second half of her set. We saw Chris watching her from the left side of the stage. Touching to see huge artists showing their respect to each other. And poor Portishead, I felt really bad for them. It was just so crowded and we weren't allowed to sit down, so it was just another band we had to get through before finally seeing Coldplay. I'm sure I would have loved them at any other moment. That's it I guess. Looking forward to the other reviews! Oh and Tryptophan, the Dutch media also tore Coldplay apart after Pinkpop. Sucks. But at least us fans have each other. So in the end there's only love. [thanks Blue Nails]
New photos of Coldplay - Rock Werchter Festival, Belgium (2nd July, 2011):
[Photos by Proximus Go @ Flickr]
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