Rave reviews from Coldplayers who were in attendance on Saturday, at the BMW Welt, for the band's penultimate Ghost Stories show, including a gallery from the performance and exclusive audio from the concert!
Our featured reviews are from luci&lia and Cheeetaz on the forums and they both give a very detailed view of their experience. Have a read through.....
Coldplay at the BMW Welt, Munich
Review by luci&lia
There must have been some good ghost bringing me back to my computer on 6 - Dec.- 2014, high noon. Back to an open window right at that moment when one of the last returned single tickets for the Coldplay show in Munich, only a few hours later, suddenly popped up. After four weeks hopelessly trying to get tickets I still almost can’t believe I was there. So it’s easy to understand all those who did not get any tickets,they hope for vids and pics and are disappointed about less than 90 minutes show. To me in the end time is not really an issue. This Coldplay phenomenon is neither to explain in length nor in amount, there is no measuring jug for something unique like this.
Organisation
The sadness of getting no tickets for those limited Ghost Stories shows indeed is a torture for many fans, especially when you notice at the venue there were invited visitors who even not really knew the band, others who admitted they had bought from the scalpers, also from sellers who told them the event was for 400 people only. Those latest still were disappointed about a crowd of 1000, others did not know there do exist any fan forums at all - just to mention this about the “Information Age” and to agree, this "chosen" audience unfortunately did not exist of fans only.
The event organisation at the BMW Welt seemed to be missing in experience how to seperate leaving car lovers from entering concertvisitors. Online they had announced the museum would be “closed at 4:00 pm” because of the concert. A visible sign on the museum’s entry failed. People ignored the fences and were sent back person by person from the securities. At the same time inside the building the first concert visitors were sent out again for a ticket control, some could not get their jackets back from the wardrobe and had to stand out in the rain in their shirts for over half an hour. On this concertevening the song “Oceans” indeed was missing.
Location
That confusion was forgotten when we finally made it into the Auditorium. A small venue, a stage almost being disrespectful to distance. One of the security guys felt pity for us for “standing too close to those loudspeakers”. He told us stories about other artists and ended up with something like “you all here are interested in those (Coldplay) only anyway.“ Probably about this he was quite right, about the speakers he was wrong, the sound engineering was perfect.
Listening recently the GS live album and being back to a live concert now this reminded me what GS era was or still is. The whole thing, A.M.I.H. connecting to the high spirit of MX era (with Charlie Brown, Paradise,ETIAW), including the thrill of Clocks and so on. Between all those the new GS stuff never seemed displaced and the older songs never seemed to break the thread of those mysterious Ghost Stories.
The show
The setlist, the one from Royal Albert Hall in July,with little changes: without Don’t Panic, Everything’s Not Lost and Oceans, then the change for Christmaslights in the encore.
To me one more GS song except from the opener and the singles would have been welcome. The variable parts were placed very well with TheScientist and Til Kingdom Come. This Munich crowd (although they did come from U.K. , U.S., Italy, Romania, Australia and whereever else) apparently gave more heart to the classics, so the chorus during Ink indeed was missing, not to compare to that live version taped in Paris. So in the end this setlist was exactly the right one for this audience and this show.
An enthusiastic Viva going down into a dark and beautiful Midnight, that rises up again to a raging E.T.I.A.W., before it includes with Fix You four eras during four songs to one of the many highlights of this evening. Not to forget a very intensive and passionate performance of all four GS songs, especially True Love.
To be honest: if they really had played a big surprise like Ghost Story or Miracles for the first time, one of the rare O performances, a never played live song like Up With The Birds to this exclusive audience - would this not be harder to all those ticketless fans? Maybe not the most exotic setlist, on the other hand a fair one for sure.
To conclude
“Coldplay will celebrate the release of the upcoming Ghost Stories Live 2014 concert film and live album with a one-off concert at BMW Welt in Munich”, this is what it was announced. Whatever made them to play there and the policy of VIP-inviting might be a mystery and sometimes hard to understand. Still we seem to have a more commercial way of thinking like the band themselves. When we hear “release” we expect album merchandising, a bigger venue, Coldplay playing almost the complete new album maybe, plus adding a special like Ghost Story or All Your Friends, and of course the most famous classics.
I think the emphasis belongs to another word here, it is “celebrate”. Finally this is it what it turned out to. All songs played there made you feel that moment you want to hear nothing else but this song at this moment and nothing else. In ancient times before recording was invented music had this special quality we might be not aware of it anymore today: it was only there as long as it was played, by someone who was there to play it (anything else would have been a musical box). Maybe it is this special thing Coldplay make us feel again. This experience is not really to tin, not even in the best live tape. A look at the merchandise stall confirmed my impression. There were only some shirts to purchase, no live album campaigns or ads, nothing, and this some weeks before Christmas. It was clear what this evening was made for: pure music to reload energy or something “like getting some crack cocaine” - to quote Chris about the feeling playing live again after a few months. A dose of drug, one without unhealthy side effects, it is there too on the side of the crowd, a substance that consists of celebrating the moment, not of counting songs or minutes. Let's look forward to the next chance for it, any time.
Coldplay at the BMW Welt, Munich
Review by Cheeetaz
Ok guys, i'm back home. Arrived last night, got straight to bed and i'm at work right now. Since Viva is playing on the radio as i type this and the memorry is still fresh i figured why not start my review. I'm not very good at this so it will be fairly short and please dont expect too much from it. Pictures will be up tonight when i get home from work and have time to organize myself again.
Getting there:
I basically had 2 options to get to munich. Train or Plane. Car was never an option because i would have had to cover 700km in just a few hours and had no idea in advance how the weather would be. So i decided to fly there. The cheapest flight departed at 6:35 in the morning on Saturday. Got up at 4, drove an hour to the airport and hopped on board. Quick 1 hour flight and i was in munich. As the sun began to rise i began to deccent back through the clouds into darkness, cold and rain. Great, not.
I then quickly got to my hotel and checked in. Since i waited until a week before the show i had to take what i could get. In my case, a very cheap, old hostel. One night was enough...
Munich:
After i checked into my hostel i went to the BMW Welt to make sure i know how to get there by subway and to chek out the place. It was 10am and i had the whole day in front of me. I took a quick walk through the Olympicpark. Pretty cold and windy... *freeeeezing* It was weird when i tried to imagine that the Olympics took place there in 1972.
After i almost froze to death and walked miles i decided it was time to get some food and load my phone back at my stay for the night. So i did just that.
The Show:
It was about 1pm when i made my way to the Welt for the thing i was there for in the first place. When i arrived at around 2pm there were 40-50 people waiting. I met Max aka. Lost Boy who i gave my spare ticket to and we walked around the Welt for a bit just enjoing the place.
Well, then the hole number and list confusion started. I dont want to get in it to deep because it will just confuse me again and it probably will confuse you too.
All i know is it was pretty much a chaos and very, very unorganized.
Greetings to the lady from Poland who almost started fighting and throwing punches at people. Maybe you should think about starting some kind of meditation routine to calm yourself down.
After all the madness, which resulted in one girl getting transported to the hospital, we finally got in and i got a pretty good spot in the middle/2nd row. We sat down and waited another 1 1/2 hours. Thank god it wasnt as hot as it was in Cologne earlier this year.
At 7pm it was finally time to rock. The show was pretty similiar to Cologne. Same stage, pretty much same setlist. No surprises. I loved how Chris was telling stories and jokes every few minutes. You could really tell they had a great time.
So did i. Obviously it was no comparrison to the RAH show but at the end of the day you cant really compare these two. I mean, the RAH is just one of the best venues in the world and since there were only seats back in July i had space to move and yell and dance like crazy. You cant do all that when you have 5 people sorrounding you in not even a square meter of space.
Afterall the show was great, the band was in an awesome mood and i had a lot of fun. I hoped they would play Ghost Story or change the setlist a bit. But anyway, it is what it is.
A lot of people are complaining about the fact they only played 75-80 minutes. Yes, its not that long. If you fly in just for the show and spent 100Euro just on the ticket you could expect a little more and certainly i wouldnt have hated it. But again, it is what it is. Maybe they'll have a longer setlist during the next real tour.
Also dont forget they played Christmas Lights after they finished the encore. They usually dont do that. Chris was struggling a lot with Christmas Lights, which wasnt a bad thing. He had to play the last few notes 3 or 4 times until he got it.
The show was just finished and i was just heading back to the main area of the Welt when i spotted Phil sorrounded by a lot of people. Got in line, took a few pictures and waited for thim to sign something for me. Unfortunately i have no idea what happened to my ticket. After i got in and sat down i must have lost it somewhere. I havent seen it again since.
All i had with me for Phil to sign was my temporary ID i got just a few weeks earlier. Why not?
Phil was obviously a bit confused about what i asked him to sign. You could easily see he thought somehting like "what the hell is this"
He asked for my name and signed my ID anyway. When i told him it was my ID he looked even more confused. Well, who wouldnt.
And because i forgot it in the heat of the moment: Thank You Phil, it is much appreciated.
After the show i met again with Becky, Frank aka fraetes, and Oz. We chatted a bit, relived what just had happened and then decided to go for some food and a drink to some place in the city. We ended up at a small place where some birthday or something took place and where the owner looked like Tony Soprano. Kim Dotcom was there too!
So, that is about it. Flew home last night at 9:45 and was happy to get some good sleep in my very own bed.
Finally, huge greetings to Oz (hope you got some sleep and had a safe trip back home), Max aka. Lost Boy (it was great meeting you in person and thanks for showing me the Welt), Frank aka. fraetes (Thanks for a great trip to the airport at midnight , taking me to my Hotel afterwards and the great music during the ride) and of course Becky (Thanks for your overall great companion and introducing me to Glühwein...)
When the year began i hadnt met anyone of you before. Now it becomes more and more clear to me, this isnt just about the band and their music, it's about meeting great people in great places and having unforgettable experiences together.
I had an amazing time with all of you this past weekend and it was a perfect way to end the year.
See you all again very soon!!
Oopps, looks like it is longer than i expected it to be...
Spelling mistakes are yours to keep.
Gallery
Thank you to the Coldplayers who posted on the social and the forums, with great images from the BMW Welt concert and in particular to galle69 for a large portion of them!
[nggallery id=1038]
Audio Download
Thanks to KaeEM for the audio of the show!
You can find the link on the forums, here
google_ad_client = "ca-pub-2178348667918002";
google_ad_slot = "6330442176";
google_ad_width = 336;
google_ad_height = 280;
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.