Thursday, August 18, 2005

Coldplay! and 101 update!

Got to complete two items with one concert last night!

36. See Coldplay live Done 8/17/2005. Got the good seats and everything and got to see "Clocks" live. Awesome.

99. Attend a concert where I know every word to every song Done 8/17/2005, as I knew every word to every Coldplay song, even when they covered Johnny Cash. We also saw one song of the opening band, who was covering the Stones and I knew the words to that too. Ha-ha!

The concert was brilliant—very simple, but amazing at the same time. The stage was simple—just the instruments, a geometric backdrop/screen, and a lot of lights. We got there just in time to catch the opening band’s last song, which was a fairly loathsome rendition of “Satisfaction,” by the Stones. We weren’t terribly upset that we missed their set. However, they put on music between sets and the first song to blare out of the speakers was “Fix You.” Whoops. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a band playing its own songs between sets before. Some roadie totally got canned over that!

Our seats were insanely good—we were in the first section, about 20 rows backon the inner aisle. I could see the expressions on Chris Martin’s face and watch the band talking to each other and looking like actual people rather than little bugs on stage. It was a nice change, actually.

The people watching was fairly hilarious, as there were about 12,000 people there running the gamut from total hipsters to frat boys to parents and some girl with absolutely ginormous hair and a copper-colored sequined top that looked straight out of 1976. She belonged at Studio 54, I swear to God.

Anyway, the concert started with a totally dark stage, which was lit up when the guys walked out and started playing “Square One.” They followed that with “Politik,” to which Chris Martin promptly forgot half the first verse, so we heard two lines and then “oh, fuck.” It was awesome. After that, they launched into a few songs from X&Y before playing “Yellow,” which is much better live. Also, they threw out a bunch of huge yellow balloons that had yellow confetti in them for the crowd to play with and then burst at the end of the song. It was hilarious, and probably the only time during the night that Indie Rocker cracked a smile. He was a little tired.

They played a good range of music from their albums (which is nice, as they only have three.), so I got to hear most of what I liked. Hearing “The Scientist” nearly made me cry, as it’s painfully good. They performed “God Put a Smile on Your Face,” “A Rush of Blood to the Head,” and “Speed of Sound,” which I also liked better live. They also did some rather funny improv to some of the songs, which included inserting the phrase “Ducks and Beavers” into one and then discussing smoking joints on the lawn in another one. The band appears to collectively have a good sense of humor and doesn’t take itself too seriously, which is nice.

“Clocks.” Ah, yes. Essentially, we could have left after this song, since it’s the entire reason I bought the tickets to begin with. It was the second to last song in their first set, and I can die happy now. It was brilliant. At the end, Chris Martin is furiously pounding on the piano, just challenging the drummer to keep up, it’s getting faster and faster and all the sudden just crashed to a halt. It was incredible.

We left before the encore, mostly because I had heard everything I needed to hear and Indie Rocker was fading fast. I figured that he had been a trouper up until then and didn’t need to stand around anymore.

Quote of the Day: “We’re called Coldplay.” Chris Martin.

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