06 September 2005: Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, USA
From WikiColdplay
Setlist
- Square One
- Politik
- Yellow
- God Put A Smile Upon Your Face
- Speed Of Sound
- Low
- A Rush Of Blood To The Head
- Amsterdam
- White Shadows
- The Scientist
- ’Til Kingdom Come
- Ring Of Fire (Johnny Cash Cover)
- Green Eyes
- Clocks
- Talk
Encore - What If
- In My Place
- Fix You
Reviews
Coldplay Bashes Mariah Carey
Coldplay has the big epic stately tasteful rock band thing down: reassuringly gawky self-effacing frontman, sweepingly vague and heartfelt lyrics, melodies big enough to reverberate around in a cavernous venue like Madison Square Garden without losing much of their soothing punch. People pretended to be surprised a little while ago when Jay-Z said that he liked Coldplay, but chances are Jay sees the same thing in Coldplay as me and Justin Timberlake and the guy standing behind me at last night's show doing the worst white man's overbite I've ever seen: they make big mushy pretty songs that sound wonderful on too-expensive stereo equipment after a long day writing reviews or selling used cars or figuring out how to market the Young Gunz. It's easy to fault a band for keeping us comfortable and lulling us into a nice purring coma, but that doesn't make Coldplay bullshit. If anything, Coldplay is a sort of model for rock music for grown-ups. They write gorgeous, graceful songs that don't lose any beauty or grace when they're played between Rob Thomas and Bowling for Soup on adult-pop radio. They make use of the insanely great production values at their disposal, usually without fetishizing their analog origins (more on that later). They speak up on political causes without haranguing. They enjoy celebrity and mass adulation in a vaguely bemused way, not reveling in it but also not bitching about paparazzi. They're the only rock band that was allowed to play the VMAs without wearing eyeliner, and if it weren't for their mostly-boring new album and the way they focus everyone's attention on their frontman to the complete exclusion of the other three guys in the band, they would be pretty close to great. Coldplay was one of a huge gaggle of post-Radiohead sooth-rock bands to emerge from England at the beginning of the decade, and there are probably a million reasons why they broke through in America while Travis and Turin Brakes and whoever else didn't. But I'll submit just one: they're good, and those other bands aren't.
Madison Square Garden was sold out last night, filled with people who probably don't ordinarily go to see rock bands, who videotape the whole show on their cell phones and consider buying $35 T-shirts and maybe even leave before the encores because they don't realize that there are going to be encores. But they knew every word to these songs, and they screamed when the lights went down, and they played right along with every goofy little bit of call-and-response that Chris Martin thought up. An audience like this might not be as animated as the last crowd I saw at Madison Square Garden, but it was still a great crowd to be a part of, the sort of happy mass that turns a rock show into an outsize spectacle, thrilled to be there way more than, say, the crowd at the Wilderness show I saw a little while ago.
And the band Martin gave the crowd exactly what it wanted and expected: kneeling and singing with arms outstretched, running up the center aisle, even doing the spinny-lantern thing from the "Fix You" video. The band sounded crisp and overwhelming, even without the sweetening synths and string sections from their records, making the songs as grand as they needed to be. Other than the obligatory "Yellow," they completely avoided first-album material; those songs, after are, are too thin and spindly and Jeff Buckleyish for a venue as big as the Garden. The tracks from their boring new album got nowhere near the response of stuff from A Rush of Blood to the Head, but even those new songs had a certain open majesty, and it made for a touching moment when Martin dedicated "Kingdom Come" to Johnny Cash, for whom, according to Martin, the song was written. (They also covered "Ring of Fire," which was a bad idea.) Martin even got a big cheer doing the U2 topical-lyric-change thing on "Politik," singing, "Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, and Queens / Spread your love to New Orleans."
The only really bad obnoxious of the show came during Martin's false-humility stage-patter bits. It was bad enough when he said self-effacing trash about only having two hits (a blatant lie), but he insufferably thanked the crowd for paying attention to the band even though they didn't have any dancers or explosions, even though "we have to rely on our hands and feet." I don't know if this was a cheap crowd-pandering move or if Martin really thinks his music is more genuine than Mariah Carey's or Nelly's or whoever's just because he knows how to play guitar. Coldplay's best singles ("Clocks" especially) are great in part because they absorb the swooping overblown textures of dance music without locking into the beat, adding all these lovely little understated electronic flourishes to songs that were already pretty gorgeous. So it's not like they're Mississippi Fred McDowell or anything, and Martin shouldn't try to fool himself or anyone else that they are. Besides, the success of Coldplay's show had a lot to do with their lighting crew, who deserve an Oscar or something. The light show was just breathtaking, giving each song its own look: falling bars of color on a screen behind them on "Speed of Sound," blinding lights facing the audience on "In My Place," sci-fi planetarium starscapes on "The Scientist." During "Yellow," someone released giant yellow beach balls into the crowd. I love that stuff.
Source: villagevoice.com
You'd have to have a hot hate for Coldplay not to have enjoyed the band's do-or-die Madison Square Garden gig last night.
The British "it" band, which had problems connecting with New York at a more intimate Beacon Theatre concert this past spring, planted a sloppy wet kiss of a show on the Garden.
It was the kind of performance that made you believe all the hype that Coldplay is among the best groups in music.
At the opening show of the group's two-concert engagement, Chris Martin, the happy-go-lucky, playful frontman pranced across the stage displaying goofy footwork and interacting with the fans in the front rows.
That did loads to ease the elitist edges that many perceive this band to have.
Right from "Square One," the new song that was the apropos concert opener, there was an unexpected kick in the beats that grew when the band hammered an intense, fevered rendition of the older fan favorite "Politik."
If there was any question whether Coldplay can sizzle in an arena setting it was rubbed out with "Yellow," the song that pushed the British quartet onto the world stage five years ago.
As for being intellectually elite, it's hard to project a brainier-than-thou image when you drop dozens of yellow balloons from the rafters so the fans can play while you sing "Yellow."
The mischievousness in Martin came out when he urged unknowing fans to pop the balloons, which exploded, in confetti bombs.
The early portion of the show hit its high with the gorgeous, seductive "God Put a Smile Upon Your Face."
This lush ballad that started with acoustic strums and closed in an assault of noise, was actually made better with its arena treatment that lured even quiet fans into the house choir.
That happened again late in the show during the tune "Everything's Not Lost."
While Martin is a high-profile rocker - mostly because of his apparently happy marriage to movie star Gwyneth Paltrow - in concert, Coldplay is a band and Martin sings and plays piano.
He's important to the music, but the same case can be made for Will Champion, who is emerging as one of rock's top drummers.
Guitarist Jon Buckland and bassist Guy Berryman had a stiffness in their stage presence.
It was as if they were trying too hard to be relaxed.
Eventually that came, as the show progressed. In a way, it was interesting to see because it made the band seem less like this giant rock machine and a little more human.
There were other performance foibles and missteps that made you like these guys.
Martin personalized the show when, as an aside to a song, he inserted the rhyme "Brooklyn, Bronx and Queens, send your love to New Orleans."
He tries hard to be liked and has boy-next-door charisma. At the Garden that magnetism was at full power.
Source: nypost.com
Coldplay's music has always been supersized, but the band's members have, until very recently, clung tenaciously to the belief that they're not - perish the thought - an arena-rock band.
Last night at Madison Square Garden, however, the foursome proclaimed themselves just that, throwing a full-fledged coming-out party, replete with flashy video, flying confetti and a surround-sound aural assault that would've made Pink Floyd proud.
The transformation suits them well. In marked contrast to his dour early-summer performance at the Beacon Theater, front man Chris Martin seemed positively giddy to be onstage. And while his enthusiasm seemed a bit canned at times - like the choreographed midaudience sprint that accompanied "In My Place" - Martin worked the stage with a surprising ease throughout the show.
His voice, a mannered croon that packs more punch when it gives way to a powerful falsetto, is Coldplay's most distinctive instrument, one that all but single-handedly carries static songs like "God Put a Smile Upon Your Face" and "Talk." Martin is most certainly in control, but unlike U2 front man Bono - the performer with whom he's most often compared - he seldom oversings and never gives off a Messianic vibe.
That mild-mannered quality - which extends to the band's other members as well - can prove Coldplay's undoing. When delving into lesser-known album tracks like the piano ballad "Everything's Not Lost," the Brits gave the impression they were presenting a recital, not a rock concert.
That diffidence evaporated, however, when the band lit into any of the set's passel of sing-along-inspiring hits. "Clocks," for instance, took on a palpable sense of urgency thanks to a gradually accelerating tempo keyed by drummer Will Champion. "A Rush of Blood to the Head" had a bracing, all-hands-on-deck sense of togetherness.
Such precision is all well and good, but Martin and company have discovered that fans can't live by precision alone. As such, they punctuated the set with bits of flash - using video screens cleverly and releasing lemon-colored balloons that popped to drop the aforementioned confetti during a pulsing version of "Yellow."
Impressively, audience members weren't made to feel like mere bystanders during such interludes. For "Low," Martin handed out a slew of disposable cameras and encouraged everyone in attendance to snap photos at will - a stark contrast to performers who demand such gadgets be confiscated at the door.
Granted, the lengthy set had its fallow points, notably an overlong acoustic segment and an ill-advised attempt to channel the spirit of Johnny Cash. Those, however, are the sorts of missteps that a band takes when swinging for the fences - and Coldplay did just that last night, connecting more often than not.
Source: nydailynews.com
