Last Tuesday I was able to see Coldplay at White River Amphitheatre. Needless to say it was a great show. I was kind of in a bad mood by the time I got down to the amphitheatre. I actually had a hard time giving away an extra ticket to my VIP box. I thought a friend who I really had not hung out with in quite a long time was finally going to be the person who was going to go but she had to have a work dinner at the last minute plus she had a final to turn in a day or so later. I guy I work with had expressed interest in going and when I gave him the ticket I find out that he just wanted the ticket so he could bring another friend to the show. He and a bunch of other people where going out to dinner before going to the show (which somewhat negates the fact that you do get a free dinner in the VIP club) and he was going to drive down with his friends leaving me without a carpool. It was already 6:15 pm and traffic sucked looking at the traffic maps on-line but I headed out still wishing that my friend could have come along. It only took me a half hour to get to the half way point of the drive and instead of going the normal route which I think is always the fastest I went the back roads route which is the recommended way to go but at the same time is longer and has slower speed limits. It ended up being stop and go but I found out later that going the normal route would have been worse. When I finally got to the concert it was 8 pm which was the scheduled start of the show. There was already a band playing on stage. I grab a plate of food and headed to my box and watch them perform for 15 minutes and they were done. I thought to myself this must be some extra act because there is no way Black Mountain was only going to play for 15 minutes. It turns out that they started to play at 7:45 pm so I missed half of their set because they started early. I had heard really good things about Black Mountain but I really found that they are not my cup of tea.
Coldplay was scheduled to take the stage at 9:15 pm but they announced due to traffic that they were going to delay the start of their set about ten minutes. They ended up taking the stage at 9:30 pm. I have noticed and maybe this is a bit of a stereotype in that many band from the UK have minimal sets and use lots of lights for their stage setup. This is the case for Coldplay. They do have a big screen set up behind the stage which was cool and it is also interesting in position a piano at center stage instead of have a drum set at center stage but of course this makes sense for a band like Coldplay. Throughout their show they used the small cameras like on the piano or in front of the performer and projected that onto the screens which was cool. Coldplay started with the song Square One. Next up was Politik and I thought it was great that Chris included in the lyrics "Give me Jimmi Hendricks and Kurt Cobain" "Give me Soundgarden and Pearl Jam" and he did it in a way that fit the song and just almost exactly fit with the song. I always wonder who bands listen to and if you are going to give props to Seattle bands you really cannot go wrong with that set. The next song up was Yellow. Before he went into the song Chris told the story that their first North American concert was here in the Seattle area that the Showbox back in 2001 on a tour mostly because of the success of the song Yellow. The crowd went wild. I thought to myself that I kind of remember them playing in town for the show and thought about how abused it was that a band playing for 20000 people would have been playing for less than 2000 only four years before. As the song started from the rafters of the covered area of the amphitheatre these large yellow balloons, like beach balls, were tossed out and as you popped them yellow confetti would burst out. The crowd had a lot of fun with them although Chris did feel the need to tell everyone that it was OK to pop them. A few made their way down to the stage and Chris kind of paused at the end of the song and looked over and would not finish it until the bass player had kicked the one in front of him back into the crowd. Over the band sounded great. I was kind of surprised that on a couple of songs Chris sounded a bit flat but he seemed to pull himself together and sounded great on others. Before they did their Johnny Cash cover Chris introduced the band. He said "I would like to introduce you to my rock band, well soft rock band" saying the second part as kind of a correction and I thought it was very interesting that he would try to correct and the same time label himself in that way. He went on to say how their record label over the years had not been good at promoting or helping to sell their records and how they had to get by on poster and calendar sales and how it was great to have someone like Guy who was so photogenic. The encore was great. At one point Chris jumped into the crowd and I thought he was down in the front somewhere singing in the crowd but the next thing I know he is up on the grass behind 10000 seats sing with another 10000 people on the grass grabbing and hugging him. The impressive thing was that he ran all the way up and then ran and jumped all the way back down (at least 100 yards each way) and he was not winded or tried and in need of a break before the next song. I am glad they ended with Fix You because they song has such a great build up and ending to it.
On the drive home I was actually a bit disappointed that I no longer had my tickets to the "Portland" show (in Ridgeway, WA) the next night because it would have been fun to see them again but considering I had had so much trouble giving way one extra seat I am not sure I could have found three others to pay plus help pay for the expensive gas to make the drive. Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Vancouver, WA were able to use them which is a good cause for some kids instead.
Square One
Politik
Yellow
God Put a Smile on Your Face
Speed of Sound
Low
A rush of blood to the head
The Hardest Part
Everything’s Not Lost
White Shadows
The Scientist
Till Kingdom Come
Ring of Fire (Johnny Cash song)
Don’t Panic
Clocks
Talk
Encore:
Swallowed by the Sea
In My Place
Fix You
A digital recording of my life 