OnlookerDelay

I tweeted her to get more of the details... I'm sure if it did indeed happen, she'll fess up under duress :cool:

I'm pretty sure that she was the one, but I'm trying to get confirmation from someone else who was in better position to witness it. Surely we've got to have someone tuned in here who was in a better position to see it.

Isn't that the girl that Chis kissed during the "B" stage set? I was looking elsewhere when he bent down to her, but I saw him right as he pecked her and I could tell she was ecstatic afterwards. I thought the a cappella treatment (with Will and Chris) of the third and fourth verses of Us Against the World was a neat twist during that set, BTW.

We just got a back from the concert, after hanging around for a few hours after the concert to absorb some of the downtown flavor. It was my first Coldplay concert in person, so I wasn't sure what to fully expect. First off, the people that are attracted to a Coldplay concert are by far and away the most interesting and coolest group of people I've ever encountered. They are also considerate and polite... well, most of them ;) Due to an unexpected trip to the drug store to buy a memory card for our camera, we got there about half way through Wolfgang's performance, which I thought was pretty good. I'll give these guys a second look! As for Robyn.... (sigh) let me just say she isn't my slice of pie. The funky, techno production took any hint of musicality away from most of her performance, IMO. Her best song was her cover of Coldplay's Every Teardrop is a Waterfall. It actually sounded like she could possibly sing without having her voice modulated and processed to the nth degree. She actually hit the inflections of "raise" during the transition break in the song "so you can hurt, hurt me bad, still I *raise* the flag" quite well. Overall though, it was an assault on the senses, IMO. Coldplay's show was a spectacle to behold. I wasn't quite prepared for the vastness and complexity of it all. The glowbands added a new dimension to concert going. I really think the crowd felt more immersed in the proceedings. The light show was superior to what I'd seen in the Pink Floyd concert I attended in '96. What I wasn't expecting was what I judged to be a percussion and bass dominated audio mix. It was bad enough during the Wolfgang and Robyn performances, but the mix was so geared for percussion and bass that it was overbearing, much of the time. There was a harshness that came across in the audio mix that went beyond simply being just too loud, IMO. I never thought I'd be saying this, but my two favorite songs from the concert were God Put a Smile Upon Your Face, and Warning Sign. Close seconds were Us Against the World and Speed of Sound (acoustic numbers from the surprise satellite stage. This was a new arrangement of Speed of Sound, but I liked it better live than the electric versions I've heard them play live. My biggest disappointment of the night was "Clocks"... it was easily the weakest version I've ever heard of my favorite song of all time. Not only did the percussion/bass heavy audio mix step all over the piano, guitar, and vocals to where many of the characteristic trademarks of the song were AWOL. Then there was the ethereal, warbling synthesizer break where a chilling reprise of the piano intro *used* to be, follow by an awkwardly premature ending that almost makes it sound like they forgot the music!? Fix You was decent, but there were new problems with the audio mix during it. Chris' mike got really hot and he went from sounding like he was singing to hollering in a few spots. The rousing closing verses of the song were once again impaired by the overbearing percussion and bass mix. Still, this is such a powerful song that it withstood the mix problems... it is without a doubt, the most emotional piece of music I've ever heard... well, in the rock/pop field anyway. ETIAW was a fitting finale, even though its mix was once again, harshly heavy in the percussion and bass realms. I left the arena in a rather confused state about what I'd just experienced. Honestly, I've been more moved by their concert videos - at least in terms of audio... the visceral, seeing it doesn't hold on candle - on my surround sound home theater system than the concert. It's mostly because I can hear everything in a proper balance, or at least adjust it to a proper balance on my home system. I'm not hating on percussion and bass, I just want to have them served to me in thier natural balance. Anyway, I was wondering if it had something to do with where we sat. We were in section 102. We were in the next to upper row of the lower mezzanine, about maybe 5 degrees from face center stage (from the opposite end of the arena). Anyone sit somewhere else in the arena where it didn't sound like you were in a bass and percussion well?

Downtown Charlotte between 5 and 7 PM is a nightmare, in terms of traffic. We're about to head out to the I-485/South Blvd CATS park & ride station and ride the light rail to the arena from there. I'm afraid I wouldn't be in the right frame of mind if I had to deal with the Charlotte traffic inside the outer belt at this time of day. I would suggest finding the nearest CATS station, and taking it to the arena from there. The downtown station is a 2 minute walk from TWCA.

I'm thinking about taking the CATS Train from the park & ride station near Pineville in to TWCA. It would be a lot less of a hassle than trying to deal with the traffic, particularly at that time of the day. Anyone else in the Charlotte area had any experience with the CATS for concerts at TWCA?

Hmmm... they played at Verizon? I would have thought that was too small a venue for them, but they do mix it up a bit. I didn't pick up on the Xylobands until yesterday... what a creative idea. It's a great way to get the audience more immersed in the concert as well :cool4:

Thanks Tash... that was quick! :) It shows how out of the concert loop I've been :embarrassed:

From some of the videos I've seen posted on this tour, it certainly sounds like everyone is singing every word together... all too often to the point of drowning out Chris Martin because they're right in the microphone. I don't have a set of pipes that would do justice to anything Coldplay sings, but when Chris solicits a choral participation from the audience, I'll offer what I've got.

I saw a very recent setlist and was surprised to see Warning Sign is among the tunes. I'm not complaining, I just found it an interesting choice. I personally would have preferred to hear my all time favorite Coldplay live song, Moses, but I doubt they'll ever trot that one out again. Speed of Sound is also one of my Coldplay favorites, but I've never heard them do a really compelling version of it live. The music always sounds a bit thin during the live versions I've seen on video. I'm curious to see if they've changed this one up a bit to make it work better live. How these guys and the entire production team can put on epic shows, night after night is beyond me! I just hope they have another one in them for Charlotte. BTW, I don't recall Coldplay having played in Charlotte before, but I don't stay on top of the concert scene like I did 20 and 30 years ago. Any of you ever see them in Charlotte? I think TWCA will be well suited spatially and sonically for a Coldplay concert.

Thanks for the reply erynf... I just saw some of the videos posted from their Dallas and Houston performances. While they were all lacking in capturing the video dynamic, I did get a sense of the holistic, spiritual nature of the concerts. I'm always paranoid that Coldplay is going to get lost in gimmickry and get overly lush with their use of backing tracks. Honestly, I don't like the inclusion of backing vocal tracks in Hurts Live Heaven live, but I still think the live version of the song has a much broader dynamic than the studio version. I have a hunch that I'm in for a surprise tomorrow night. We'll be sitting on the left side of the stage at what would amount to about center court, in the lower rows of the upper deck. I'm not sure how much presence we'll get there, but these lads seem to have a way of making everyone in the arena feel "included" :)

This will be my first Coldplay concert. My wife and I are going with our daughter and son-in-law. I gradually warmed up to Coldplay after hearing Clocks on the radio in 2003/2004. I didn't know who it was, but I knew that I liked it... kinda reminded me of a cross between U2 and Bruce Hornsby and the Range, at that time. Oddly, it wasn't until X&Y came out in 2005 that I really sat up and paid attention. Since then, Clocks has been solidified as my #1 favorite song of all time. Anyway, I just about feel like I'm too old to go to a Coldplay concert, but I look at some of their live videos and I see folks who are easily ten years older than me. I swear though, I feel like a teenager when I see some of their live videos. We have Live in Sydney 2003 and it's one of the best live concert videos I've ever seen. The version of Clocks and Moses they do on that DVD are absolutely exquisite! I'm eager to see them in concert, but I've got to be honest... they seem to be getting further and further away from being faithful to their older songs. The way they end Clocks now sounds like they bail out on it early and it's sort of antimclimactic. Then again, I like just about every song off Mylo Xyloto better live than off the studio album. Therefore, I'm keeping an open mind about tomorrow's concert, realizing that videos can't come close to conveying the enormity and presence of the live event! :happy2:

I'd give the nod to Sara Bareilles. A

Seriously!? Princess of China doesn't even sound like a Coldplay song :stunned: I think POC would have been a better choice for a single... that way, people who want to hear Coldplay dabble in synth-pop as "featured artists' could have done so on their own dime, without compromising an otherwise mostly solid album with an experiment.

POC is easily the worst Coldplay song I've ever heard. They totally compromised their musical identity with this one. I would have far less of a problem with it if they had just released it as a single or a B-side. I consider it a novelty piece that has no place on a Coldplay album... especially when a masterpiece like Moving to Mars is languishing in the B-side realm.

Ditto here! In fact it is in place of POC on the album tracklist on my MP3 player:D I personally find POC unlistenable... it doesn't sound like Coldplay, IMO, and I'm not a fan of heavily distorted synth warbling. Now I've got to find a B-side to take the place of Paradise, and I'll have a solid MX album...

I rated it a 7, overall. The first part fails to grab me, but keeps me hanging on to see where it will go, so I gave it a 5. It really takes flight with Jonny's brilliant guitar transition and turns into a "9"... thus my overall "7". The best thing about the song is it best suited for the role of album closer.

It's easily the worst song on the album, IMO. I cut it from my mp3 player and put Moving to Mars in its place. There's just no musicality to POC... it sounds more like a special effects exercise, one in which Coldplay loses their identity.

I prefer the live version... too much of the vocals are overprocessed on this cut. I can't tell who I'm listening to at times. It's great when they let the natural splendor of the voices carry the song, as it tends to do in the latter half. I also think the music is overproduced at times. Once again, when the song has life when they ease off on the effects. I hope it will grow on me over time, but I can't get the live version out of my frame of reference.

I hear "bring back the water let your ships roll in"... while both options work, I think "let" fits the logical context of the verse a little better. "That" implies that the ships roll the water in, whereas "let" implies that the water has to be present to let the ships roll in.

A video would be nice, but I see an easier, cheaper way to get this song some massive exposure on the mainstream... how about the next time Robert Zubrin (aerospace engineer who's written extensively on terraforming Mars), or Richard Hoagland (former NASA consultant who revealed the presence of liquid water on Mars over 10 years ago and speaks openly of its suitability for habitation) are guests on "Coast to Coast AM" (5 to 8 million listeners nightly), use "Moving to Mars" as bumper music coming out of breaks? Hoagland is especially hip to pop culture and he would pick up on the lyrics and point how how poignant they are to the subject. It would be a great way to get this song in the minds of many who would otherwise not have a clue about it :cool: I'm going to write the producer of C2C AM (Lisa Lyon) and suggest this to her. Both of these chaps are fairly regular guests. Zubrin's almost always talking about Mars, and Hoagland speaks about it in roughly half of his appearances.

Is it just me or does it sound like Chris is saying "path" here? It's probably just the style of delivery they chose for this song... I notice also that Chris doesn't annunciate "Government" and "overthrown" very clearly either. It's understandable what he's saying, but it almost sounds like he's delivering some of the opening verses with his last bit of strength. I'm not criticizing the song for this as I think it somehow seems to fit the tenor of the song at that point. I think the music and the lyrics are brilliant.

I saw this one right after I saw and heard your "Moving to Mars" cover. I found it to be almost as enthralling as the MTM cover (to which I'm more partial due to my personal preference for the song). It's amazing how you capture the soul of these songs in such a short period of time! I've now heard five of your Coldplay LP5 covers and the original songs. They each have a unique, symbiotic relationship with one another in my estimation. I can appreciate each version of the songs more, having heard both. They are both stronger and more multidimensional with the other as a compliment... I hope this makes sense:confused::) Anyway, thanks again for sharing your gift... I'm thoroughly enjoying your work!

Kacey, that was simply breathtaking... I'm speachless:o That's the first time I'd heard this piece. I'm a bit late to the party on the new material. I can't thank you enough for this introduction to "Moving to Mars"! Thanks for sharing your gift and efforts with us. I don't think Chris could have played it any better :)

I see where you're coming from on this Laura, and yes... I agree that a big part of Coldplay's appeal is their propensity to write lyrics that are subject to multiple interpretations. I wouldn't expect them to write a Christmas song that fits any conventional sort of Christmas or Gospel orthodoxy. However, the underlying theme of this song (for me anyway) is that of a guy having a fight with his girl on Christmas. That doesn't make it any less appealing as a piece of music, but it sort of misses the mark for what I expected from what I expected from what is being marketed as a "Christmas song". I'll be curious to see if our local "light" FM radio station, which becomes a Christmas music only station from Nov. 1st though Dec. 25th puts it in their rotation. That will be an interesting Christmas music litmus test for me. I listen a bit more for Jonny's stamp. I'm now hearing some trademark Will Champion percussion here and there...