02 August 2002: MTV2, Chicago, USA

From WikiColdplay

Setlist

1. Politik
2. God Put A Smile Upon Your Face
3. Trouble
4. Daylight
5. Yellow
6. In My Place
7. The Scientist
8. Shiver
9. Spies
10. Clocks
11. The Scientist
12. Life Is For Living
13. Don’t Panic
14. Lips Like Sugar
15. Everything’s Not Lost
16. See You Soon

Review

In Chicago, when Jess and I got on the train I began to get really nervous like i always do. I told Jess that if we didn't stop soon I was going to pry open the train doors and run to the vic. but then i realized that the tracks are highly electrical and i would probably die, so i decided against prying open the doors. we finally reached the vic at about 5.02pm and there were already people lined up around the corner. we both started to become really excited. I saw the Irish guy that i was in line with last weekend, who is really cute and nice. They told the girls to get in line on the right and the guys on the left, and for once the girl line was actually shorter, and we got in really quickly. The ticket people tore my ticket stub in half, so i only have a partial stub to show for my wonderful night.

We walked into the concert viewing area and i was completely astounded. It was so tiny, you wouldn't believe it.

You walked in the door and you were already practically right in front of the band. There was a little main floor and another floor one step above that. Jess suggested we go on the step above because we could go right in the front and no tall people were in front of us. That was a great idea, because we stood right in front on that ledge and we had a perfect view, and it was only like 8 rows back or so. I noted the setup, which was a little different than what they usually do.

Chris had a real upright piano, and it was facing the left side. Jonny was set up on the left, and Guy was on the right, and Will was behind Guy.

We got in there at about 5.40pm and we just stood around until about 6.30pm, when Jim Shearer, a DJ on MTV2, came out. He announced the winner of some kind of contest they were having, and then left. We stood around for another half hour and finally Jim appeared again with this other lady who told us the rules of the show. "Scream really loud, because you'll be the intro of the show, and we want some really good screaming. Just think, you'll be seeing Coldplay!"

So then she said, "3, 2, 1, go" and we started screaming, and then Jim said something like, "It's August 2, and you know what that means, the 2 dollar bill show! This month, Coldplay is here all the way from England to give you a rush of blood to the head. let's hear it for Coldplay!"

Then it seemed like an hour went by, and I could hear the beginning part of Politik (which i had predicted to be the first song). It took them forever to come out, but they finally did, and there they were!!! Jess was whistling really loud, and I was just screaming "OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!" over and over again. oh, and I rewatched this on tape and it says "live" and it totally was not live! It began on television at 9pm, and our show was completely over by 9pm.

Setlist: Politik God Put A Smile On Your Face Trouble Daylight Yellow In My Place The Scientist

TV break: Hot In Herre Shiver Spies Clocks

Rest of TV show: The Scientist, once again Life Is For Living

Encore: Don't Panic Lips Like Sugar Everything's Not Lost

Encore 2: See You Soon

Ok, first was Politik, as I had predicted. They totally rock that song out every time they play it. It's a great song, and I haven't found anyone who doesn't like it. I was completely in awe at that performance, though. When you're right there in front of the band at a live show, everything is so much more vivid. The music just penetrates your soul. That song was fantastic.

'God Put A Smile Upon Your Face' has been around for like a year and a half (I heard it at the show i was at last June, but it's on the new album). They've done a really nice job on this one, and it's also an astounding one to see live. Chris started to go nuts, and he did this thing where he went up to the microphone a couple times and said "ah" but nothing came out.

After that they started Trouble, and everyone screamed really loud. Chris said, "Thanks for doing that... we only have two hits, and we need that reaction for TV effect."

Trouble sounded really nice as usual and everyone sang along. Then Chris did his little welcome thing, which was like "Welcome to our show, broadcast live across the world. Well, maybe not the world, maybe just Illinois. Anyway, we had the chance to do either Cribs or this, but we thought it would be better to do the live concert footage. We don't have a lot of cars and houses. We'll do Cribs next year when Jonny buys his mansion."

Then he said, "Here's a new song from our new album, called Daylight. It's a disco song in the key of B."

Then they obviously played Daylight, which is indeed from the new album, and it sounded really cool. Jess really liked that one. I didn't realize that the main instrumental part was Jonny's guitar, because i thought it was a cello or something. Jonny sang a bunch of backup on that one that Chris totally does in the studio version. Let's see.

Chris ran back and took off his long sleeved shirt and he had on a make trade fair t-shirt. He came out in the spotlight and started going "your skin, your skin, your skin" and nobody realized what song it was until the band got like halfway into the first part of the song! He was completely making love to the camera on that song, he is so good with that. He is really a fantastic performer, and he's a lot more active than he used to be; a lot.

Anyway, it made him sweat like nobody's business and he mopped himself off with a towel (they put like 25 towels by his piano) and drank like an entire bottle of water, and then Will started #In My Place'. Surprisingly, a lot of people recognized that song. Maybe I shouldn't have been that surprised, because everyone there were obviously huge Coldplay fans, so they should have known it! 'In My Place' looked a lot like the video for it. It's the only song that Chris doesn't play an instrument on, so he just runs around and rolls and dances around everywhere; it's so fun to watch. You can tell he feels that song deep into his bones. He gets really emotional looks on his face, and he looked like he was near tears once, which of course made me near tears (I did not cry yet, amazingly). Also, he knocked over the mike stand and ran all over the stage and sang to people in the audience - he is so good.

So then he sat himself down at the piano. Let me tell you, i was dreading every time he was sat at the piano because I knew they were going to play 'The Scientist'. I've heard it exactly five times. It's so powerful, and it's the best song they've ever written. But I was terrified of them playing it because I didn't know how I'd react. Well, he played the first note and i was gone. I completely, completely broke down. I was weeping... of course it was in public. I couldn't stop.

I was so afraid MTV would tape me because I've heard them say they love getting extravagant reactions. Luckily they didn't notice me (although I swear Guy Berryman was giving me a concerned look for a long time... I like to think that, anyway). Well, I just covered my face and stood there crying and crying, and I wasn't even trying to be quiet, and everyone was turning to me and asking if i was ok. I can't handle that song yet. I can't even think about it.

So then Chris started playing 'Life is for Living', and I calmed down a little. Then the MTV2 lady runs out and goes, "No! Stop!" and Chris was like, "What?!?!?!" She said, "I'm so sorry, but we have to stop the show because we lost the TV feed to New York." and Chris was like, "Oh...um...okay...well, in that case I guess we'll have to improvise. I'll play a song that's at the top of the charts today." Then he started playing this really moody piano line and soon tuned in with "it's getting hot in here, so take of all your clothes...i am getting so hot, i'm gonna take my clothes off" and the girl part of the song he sang in a really high voice! the rest of the band chimed in with their respective parts. it was sooooooo funny!!! then he was like "now for some eminem... nobody listens to techno!"

Every single one of us was in stitches. he said, "I feel like I'm playing for my grandfather right now! This is so strange. Well, I hope you all got your two dollars' worth tonight!"

So then he got up and said, "Ok... what should we do now? Just whatever we want?"

We all went "WOOOOO!" and shouted out songs we wanted. Chris said, "Does anyone say WOO louder than this guy in the front? Come up here! Seriously, come up here! I'm going to have you announce our next song." So the WOO guy in the front came up and told chris to say hi to his brother. Chris was like, "Um, I guess your brother is somewhere up there?" and some guy went WOO in the back. Chris whispered the song to the guy on stage and the guy said, "WOO! the next song will be shiver! WOOO!" So they played Shiver, and it was awesome!

Then Chris said, "What song do you guys want next?" It was bedlam. Everyone was shouting something different. so he was like, "Okay, let's do this like a good, old fashioned classroom. Raise your hands, everyone!" So everyone raised their hands and he picked someone, but he couldn't hear what that person was saying. Finally, he picked someone else and couldn't hear them either, and he was like "I can't hear a f$%#ing thing! I'm just going to pick." so they picked Spies. (I think that's what happened, anyway. Someone could have picked Spies for them, but I can't remember. At any rate, the classroom thing did happen). Jonny did a really weird, long guitar thing at the beginning and then they played the whole song and at the end chris went around and whispered something to the rest of the band. Then he sat down at the piano and went "NOW!" to Jonny.

Jonny started melding his part into something different, and suddenly the song turned into clocks. How's that for cool? they can just turn Spies into Clocks - I really like Clocks. And I was able to discern some lyrics from it that I was having trouble with this week, so that was nice.

After that, Chris said, "I suppose now would be a good time to introduce the band. this over here [Jonny] is Dave... I don't know what his last name is. this [Guy] is Adam Clayton, and this [Will] is Phil Collins. And I'm Elton John!" Then he went into like a 5 minute speech about how he was really Elton John's son and what it was like to have a gay father or something. I didn't hear him very well because i was watching the MTV lady, who was behind him trying to get his attention. Jonny and Will were just laughing at him. Finally he turned around and noticed the MTV2 lady and talked to her for a minute, and then Guy, Will, and Jonny went over and talked to her.

then Chris said, "Ok, here's what we're going to do. We have to play a song again. So pretend you didn't hear it before. and give it up for Jen. that's Jen, who's sorting out all our television problems for us." So we all cheered. Chris: "This next song, we can't really believe it's our song. It's called 'The Scientist' and it's from our new album. So here it is." Then they had to play 'The Scientist' again. I held myself together better this time, because I wanted to actually watch him play it. I did still cry, but it was much less than the first time because I made myself watch them. I also didn't want to make a fool of myself again in front of all my fellow Coldplay fans. I just couldn't believe that of all songs to play twice, they chose that one.

Well, then Chris said, "We have one more song. Then, I'll tell you what. We'll go backstage, take some drugs, change clothes and all that, and we'll come back out and play a little more for you. So this is our last song, and it's older than the hills. It's older than Chicago, even." Apparently he said something about George Bush, too, but I didn't understand that part. I think it had to do with 'Make Trade Fair'. Then they played 'Life is for Living' (or 'Life is for the living,' as MTV called it). It's the hidden track at the end of Parachutes (which is evidently a real track everywhere in the world except in the US). They did a really nice job on that. They really rocked out on it (they rocked out on all the songs... I think that's what they do nowadays). Chris added some lyrics at the end, like "In the end there's only us." So we all screamed and Jim came out and said "That was another 2 dollar bill show, we'll see you in September!"

We all kept screaming, and the cameras flew over us a couple times, and then Coldplay came back out and started playing this weird song. I had no idea what it was, and i started to panic because I should know everything they do. but then it suddenly turned into Don't Panic. What do you know? It was cool, of course. Jonny actually played the harmonica part this time, and he threw his harmonica into the crowd at the end.

Chris said, "How many of you have heard of 'Echo and the Bunnymen?" A lot of people cheered, and I did also because Chris is obsessed with Echo and the Bunnymen, and he makes a lot of his music sound like theirs. He said, "We're going to play a song by them, and our tour manager Dave said this one was a big hit here. It's called 'Lips Like Sugar."

They played that, and of course it sounded really good.

Let's see. They then went into Everything's Not Lost, and at the last part when it's just ahh's, Chris pointed the microphone out to the crowd and had us sing for a while. You could really hear Will's backup on that song, which is unusual. Will threw out his drumsticks.

Then they left stage and we screamed a little, and Chris came back out and did 'See you Soon'. Then, just like that, it was done. I sat down for a minute, and then we went around the block to the station. i called my friend sarah, who was just beginning to watch the "live" show.

I think, overall, that was the best show I have ever attended. It's tough to explain it in words, but I just remember being completely in awe at every song, because they do such a great job. The whole show just put me in a trance. You wouldn't believe how incredible they sound. Besides that, they are just so fascinating to watch.

~Elizabeth Baker