Coldplay wants to salve your pain; Fiona Apple wants you to feel hers. They were a contrast in styles Sunday night at American Airlines Center, a big arena band that filled AAC with balladic rock and a feisty singer who channeled her anger into song without taking it out on her audience.
Playing Dallas for the second time on its X&Y tour, Coldplay balanced showmanship and earnestness with an efficiency that travels well from its UK base to the States, where the band's albums fly off the shelf like iPods the week of Christmas. Lead singer Chris Martin, whose recent comments have led to speculation on the band's breakup, has the rock star's gift of making every member of a massive arena crowd feel spoken to.
He also has a band that's sold enough albums to pay for some dynamite stagecraft, although some of the nicer touches actually fell on the low-tech side. For the megahit "Yellow," for instance, sparkling confetti fell from the ceiling in front of the stage ("look how they shine for you"), accompanied by a few yellow hankies (self-explanatory) and, finally, some massive yellow balloons that yielded still more sparklies when popped.
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