11 July 2009: Gorge Amphitheater, George, WA, USA
From WikiColdplay
Contents |
Setlist
- Life In Technicolor
- Violet Hill
- Clocks
- In My Place
- Yellow
- Glass Of Water
- Cemeteries Of London
- 42
- Fix You
- Strawberry Swing
- God Put A Smile Upon Your Face (Partial Techno Remix)
- Talk (Partial Techno Remix)
- The Hardest Part (Chris Solo Piano)
- Postcards From Far Away (Chris Solo Piano)
- Viva La Vida
- Lost!
- Green Eyes (acoustic)
- Death Will Never Conquer (Acoustic, sung by Will)
- Billie Jean (Michael Jackson cover - Acoustic)
- Viva La Vida (Remix Interlude)
- Politik
- Lovers In Japan
- Death And All His Friends
Encore - The Scientist
- Life In Technicolor ii
- The Escapist (Outro)
Photos
Photos from this show can be found at Coldplaying.com in the Gallery thread for George. http://www.coldplaying.com/forum/gallery/showgallery.php/cat/1699
Videos
Videos from this show can be found in the first post of the Coldplaying forum live thread for this show at http://www.coldplaying.com/forum/showthread.php?t=54385
Discussion
All post-show discussion for this show at the forum thread: http://www.coldplaying.com/forum/showthread.php?t=54385
Fan Reviews
All fan reviews have been submitted to us by the members of Coldplaying.com[1], unless stated otherwise.
Here here! Only Coldplay can make a location as beautiful as the Gorge even more gorgeous. And i can tell they have officially left the Pacific Northwest. It is now cloudy, cold and rainy, and for the two days they graced us with their presence, it was beautiful, warm and sunny Same setlist as yesterday, but where I was seated I spotted a few famous backstage players, Franksy, Hoppy, Jackie, of course Kelly, the girl from Oxfam Soha Yassine, Vicky Taylor and Dan the Trainer, oh is that man gorgeous!
The place was PACKED! I have never seen this many people before in my life, i was blown away. This pic is just ONE section, multiply this by FIVE!
Chris agreed as well, at the beginning of In My Place he said, "That's a lot of people!" Again, great crowd, everyone dancing and singing along, even the Event Staff.
This getting old I know, but the boys ran past me again, but no touchy this time, except i tried when Chris ran back to start VLV, but he zipped past by everyone, that boy should try out for the Olympics.
During Yellow, Chris mentioned something about an early birthday gift for Will, and embarrassed the hell out of him. Will had the cutest smile up on the jumbotron. I thought I was recording it, but didn't
Poor Guy looked emaciated to me, I hope I'm just over reacting, but I'm getting kind of concerned, did anyone else notice?
It's very windy at the Gorge and the Viva curtain that drops during DAAHF started blowing in the wind instead of just hanging, the boys got a big kick out if and they were all laughing
I drove over 250 miles for over 4.5 hours, got blisters on my feet from walking over an hour in the grassy parking lot looking for my car, my muscles and joints are stiff from SLEEPING in my car, because I was too exhausted to drive back 4.5 hours. But you know what? I'd do it all again in a heartbeat just to see them again.
[clisaj]
Howdy gang ^^ I was there too last night, took a bunch of videos and pictures, but I haven't loaded them yet or seen if any of them are good (had reserved seats, but was pretty far back and my camera isn't that great ). But, I'll look through them and post what is worthy!
But it's worth noting chris said the Gorge was the most beautiful outdoor amphitheater in the world, and maybe he says that often, but I have to agree. Everyone needs to see a show here!
[Oceana]
I just got back from an 8 hour drive across 2 state lines to get home from the Gorge but boy was it worth it!
I have been to other big shows like Dave Matthews and even Sasquatch music festival out at the Gorge, but I have never seen it packed in quite as tight as it was on Saturday! The show, the crowd, the scenery was amazing! Great night!
[Ann_20]
This was one awesome show. They say the Gorge does something to performers and that sure was the case with the Coldplay show Saturday. Everything seemed well...electric. Here are a few of my videos from the night. I apologize right up front if anyone gets ill as I was distracted from time to time.
[rockstarsweat]
My third time seeing Coldplay live, and it was hands down the best concert experience! The Gorge was incredibly beautiful, and we lucked out and got amazing general admission spots right beside C stage I wish every night was a Coldplay concert
[androo]
best concert of my life you have no idea. totally changed everything for me.
[simplygreen]
On Saturday I headed up to the Gorge Amphitheater in good ol’ George, Washington to see Coldplay in concert! We (Carol, Tony, Kara, Reid, Adam, Ty, Stacie, Joel, Dave, Adrianne and I) left Portland around 10:30am and we definitely took our time getting up there. I am not the most patient person when it comes to sitting in the car, but the drive actually wasn’t that bad. It was a little long, but I was able to see parts of Oregon and Washington that I’ve never seen before. Sometimes I forget how lucky we are to live in the Pacific Northwest. I don’t even think I’ve ever driven through Hood River and The Dalles before this weekend and I’ve lived in Oregon all my life. That part of Oregon was just gorgeous and I definitely want to take a trip up there and actually spend some time in the Columbia River Gorge!
We got to the Gorge around 5:00pm, parked our cars and headed to the amphitheater to get our spots on the lawn. I had never been to the amphitheater before, but I’d heard some pretty amazing things about it. Let me tell you, it did not disappoint. It is truly out in the middle of nowhere and has the most amazing view of the river. I was just in awe of God’s beautiful creation, especially when the sun started to set. It was fairly full when we got there, but we were able to find a good spot about halfway up the lawn and to the left of the stage. Coldplay didn’t come on until about 9:00pm so we sweated in the sun for awhile and pretended to enjoy the opening acts.
After being really anxious for Coldplay to take the stage, they finally came on and started the show off with Life In Technicolor! They played almost everything off Viva La Vida and their classic hits as well. We spent the entire show singing and dancing around on the lawn and it was an absolute blast! My favorite song they performed was probably Lovers in Japan. They shot off confetti and tons of paper butterflies during the song and it looked so cool. Politik was another one of my favorites, as well as the cover they did of Billie Jean. This was hands down, the best concert I’ve ever been to. Coldplay definitely knows how to put on a show and Chris Martin basically never stopped running around the stage. They even came out to the lawn and performed a few songs out there. The concert flew by and I was already wanting to see them again 30 seconds after it ended.
We slowly filed out, grabbed our free CD and trekked back to our camp site. Everyone was pretty much starving by the time we got back so we ate some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and set up our tents. I am horrible at sleeping anywhere but my house so I probably got about 3 hours of sleep, but it was well worth it! It was super windy the next morning so everyone woke up pretty early. We packed up and began the drive back that morning. After making a great hour long stop in Goldendale at Dairy Queen for ice cream and a quick stop for coffee in Hood River we made it back to Portland.
I am seriously still in awe at how great the concert was. I really just want to see them again…right now.
http://kelmaks.wordpress.com/2009/07/13/viva-la-vida/
On Saturday July 11, 2009 I made the trek over to the Gorge Amphitheatre in Eastern Washington for the Coldplay concert. I bought tickets months ago for Andrew and myself. Those who made the journey over the mountains were myself, Sophia, Hillary, Andrew, TJ and Jordan. The concert started at 7 as it is always so difficult to pick a time when a band is going to be on stage. With no idea when doors opened or if the opening bands started at 7 we decided to get there early.
We drove over and stopped in Ellensburg for some dinner. Campus U Tote Em is one of the best burger and milkshake spots in town. To say it was warm that afternoon was an understatement. While driving we all watched the thermometer gauge crawling up as it was about 95 when we arrived at the Gorge.
It was the first time to the Gorge for everyone except Sophia and myself. It was a beautiful evening. We arrived just in time to get a nice stretch of lawn on the upper part of the lawn. As the sun was setting everyone waited patiently for Coldplay to come out.
It was a fabulous show! The band set up 2 mini stages on the left and right sections of the reserved seating area. Some of the highlights of the show was when the band sang Yellow and they had giant yellow balls flying throughout the crowd. They also did a cover of Billie Jean in tribute to Michael Jackson.
One of the coolest parts of the show was the stage and the use of these 4 giant balls. They would be spinning above the band and have writing on them, then they would change the effects and have them project pictures and even just change random colors.
Coldplay as on stage for about 2 hours and played a good range of old music and new! We had a great time and I definitely recommend seeing Coldplay live!
http://tysongamblin.wordpress.com/2009/07/14/coldplay-concert/
Media Reviews
Say whatever you will about Coldplay. Plenty of folks already have, both here on Blogcritics and elsewhere. But rarely have I ever seen a band who works so hard to please an audience, and who obviously has such a great time doing it. At one point during Coldplay's stop at the beautiful Gorge Amphitheater near the Columbia River in Eastern Washington this past Saturday, Chris Martin thanked the sold-out crowd for "giving us the best job in the world." Sure, it sounds like the sort of thing performers like Martin say to their audiences every night, but you really got the impression that he meant it.
Martin wore a shit-eating, schoolgirl's ear to ear grin for much of the night, and he also made several remarks about the natural beauty of the Gorge. He even ad-libbed a lyric at one point with the words "If you want to play the place that's the best, come to the Gorge Amphitheater in the Pacific Northwest."
Of course here in Seattle, we already knew that. Nestled high in a beautiful mountain desert surrounded by steep slopes overlooking the Columbia River, the Gorge has been Washington's worst kept secret as a favorite stop for touring musicians from Dave Matthews to Steely Dan for years now.
On this particular hot desert night, Coldplay responded to the picturesque setting—as well as a red hot crowd that seemed to know the words to every song they played, often breaking into impromptu sing-a-longs—with a powerful two hour set that was both energetic (and yes, I am talking about Coldplay here) and at least as far as these sorts of big rock shows go, very interactive.
About midway through, the band briefly disappeared from the stage, only to reappear on a platform, that as luck would have it, was literally five feet away from my seat in about Row 30. Seriously, these guys were so close during this mini-set that included "God Put A Smile On My Face" and "The Hardest Part" that I could actually see that guitarist Jon Buckland was very likely stoned (or at least that his eyes looked awful glassy).
Chris Martin was also in great humor during this portion of the show, introducing "The Hardest Part" as the "Phil Collins portion of the show...and this is called "Another Day In Paradise."
The band returned to the main stage for a powerful version of "Lost!" from the Viva La Vida album, with drummer Will Champion, in particular, earning his paycheck here. At this point, the band once again left the stage, reappearing on another small stage—only this time it was high up in the nosebleed section. An acoustic set there was highlighted by a tribute to Michael Jackson in the form of a cover of "Billie Jean." The crowd responded to this by singing the words right along with the band (as they did several times throughout the night).
There was also a part here where Chris Martin led the audience in one of those crowd waves you see at sports stadiums, only this time done with cellphones. Whether the "cell wave" was successful or not is debatable, but all those cellphones against the desert sky was still a striking visual.
Although a fair chunk of Coldplay's set was devoted to songs from Viva La Vida (and its companion E.P. Prospekts March), many of Coldplay's biggest hits were played very early in the set. Of these, "In My Place" and "Yellow" were textbook (the latter played with the prerequisite yellow balloons filling the air). Personally, I was quite pleasantly surprised by the band's inspired showing on "Clocks" though. This is a song that Coldplay have to be somewhat tired of playing every night, yet here they made it sound fresh as new by adding some new vocal nuances and a nice additional keyboard part near the end.
Over all, Coldplay really impressed me on this night. They played their tails off, sounding so tight to my ears that I'm ready to go out on a limb here and say this is a band that could be right on the edge of becoming one of the truly great ones—if they haven't already done so. From the differing vantage points where they performed not one, but two mini-sets, to the free live CD they handed out to everyone at the end, Coldplay also seem to genuinely care about their fans.
I'm not afraid to admit that I was already a fan anyway. But you know what? These guys deserve a lot more respect than they get in some quarters. It's time to stop dissing Coldplay.
George Coldplay preview: Chris Martin talks about the band, writing songs
Despite being the adored, much analyzed and fantasized about lead singer of one of the planet’s biggest rock bands, Chris Martin of Coldplay is practical, even humble about his role.
“It just comes from pure gratitude at being given this job, particularly in a period of time when music is hard to be employed by,” Martin says of the free CDs that Coldplay is giving to concert- goers on their U.S. tour, which kicked off in Florida in May and stops at The Gorge Amphitheatre on Saturday night. “We wanted to give something to the people who have paid money to come see us or buy the album,” he adds, referring to “Viva La Vida,” the best-selling album in the world in 2008. “It’s like a reward system in a grocery store.”
Material sustenance is not what most fans think of when it comes to Coldplay’s music or its live shows, which are known for the passionate connection that Martin makes with audiences. The free CD, “LeftRightLeftRightLeft,” with nine live songs culled from the band’s last tour, is partly an attempt to capture that link. “It is like a snapshot of where we’re at at the moment as a band,” Martin says.
Given that Coldplay is returning to the United States so soon after finishing another North American tour last November, audiences seem to like whatever the band does. The combination of Martin’s charisma and emotionally introspective, obliquely poetic lyrics, and Coldplay’s darkly anthemic, lushly melodic music has proved to be potent. The group has grown in stature and sales since debuting in 2000 with “Parachutes,” quickly shooting from indie darlings to the top of the U.S. and global charts. Their third album, 2005’s “X&Y,” sold 8 million copies in the first year, while “Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends” sold 6.7 million physical and downloaded copies – stellar figures in an age of free downloads and splintering audiences.
The press, however, has been divided on Coldplay and on Martin himself. The band’s music has been criticized as indulgent and repetitive, while Martin, who is married to actor Gwyneth Paltrow (the couple have two children, Apple, 5 and Moses, 3), is sometimes faulted for being arrogant, a vegetarian, righteously well-behaved, and generally avoiding the classically entertaining rock star behavior.
While social themes don’t inspire Coldplay’s songs, Martin says he feels a responsibility to try to affect the world in a positive way. “It appeases the guilt I sometimes feel for being given such an incredible job,” he says. “I think when you are contributing to or talking about something that you know is important on an activist level, it somehow feels better than if you’re just sitting back taking coke.”
Portland and George previews: Viva Coldplay... Brit rock, well-done
Beg your pardon, but would you mind if we, well, took over the world? Quietly and politely, Coldplay has become one of the biggest musical acts on the planet. They did it with some dreamy piano pop, a sensitive, falsettoed frontman, and that U.K. magic that's worked for the likes of the Beatles, U2 and Radiohead, writes The Seattle Times, ahead of this weekend's shows in Portland and George.
Coldplay has been accused of being bland, even yawn-inducing (a British TraveLodge poll voted them the Band Most Likely to Put You to Sleep). But that hasn't stopped them from selling more than 30 million albums and trucking in a heap of Grammys. They're so big their tours are massive spectacles only appropriately launched with a trio of continent-spanning free concerts. (And speaking of gigs, they're playing the Gorge Amphitheatre Saturday — not free, but sure to be epic.)
But their fourth album released last year is a testament to Coldplay's willingness to change, evolve and improve to stay at the top. With "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends," the British foursome staged a revolution — a well-behaved one, of course.
Before you even get to the music, the album's cover art is Eugène Delacroix's painting of "Liberty Leading the People." And the first half of the name is a battle cry: "Long Live Life."
Dubbed by the band as their "experimental album," "Viva" does forge new territory, for them. Under the guidance of producers Brian Eno and Markus Dravs (Arcade Fire), the songs benefit from Middle Eastern instruments, exotic percussion and galloping guitar melodies. Chris Martin has reeled in his soaring falsetto and wraps the melodies with a deeper baritone. His lyrics veer more political than past albums.
Eno did what he could to break the band of old habits and shake them from their insecurities. They spent time in Spanish cathedrals ("Cemeteries of London" has some Flamenco-inspired hand claps). They built their own pianos. Eno even hired a hypnotist to put them in a trance for some of their music making.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the ever-self-deprecating Martin said, "Things like the hypnotism, all these little crazy experiments that he tried with us was just an effort to say, 'It's OK. Not everybody hates you because you're in Coldplay. Just play some music and don't worry about it.' "
Eno produced a number of U2 albums, most notably "The Joshua Tree." His influence comes through on a track like "Lovers in Japan," with its striding rhythm, or on "Lost!," with its Edge- inspired guitar solo. You can also hear strains of Radiohead, Blur, even My Bloody Valentine. "We look at what other people are doing and try and steal all the good bits," Martin said in an interview with MTV. "We steal from so many different places that hopefully it becomes untraceable."
They have created a blend that's all their own, but they're not reinventing Brit rock. Just doing it well. And for that, the album really wasn't the sort of experiment that proves risky. That's a smart move for a group with a huge fan base to keep happy and gargantuan arenas to fill on their current 100-stop Viva la Vida world tour, which begins in the Portland area tonight.
But fill they will (the Gorge has long been sold out). "Viva" does nothing except solidify Coldplay's place at the top. It was the best-selling album of 2008 and won the 2009 Grammy for Best Rock Album.
And it's arena-worthy for sure. Not only are the melodies soaring and the choruses begging to be sung along to, its themes tackle the big guns: life, death, love, war, peace. That is to say the album is universal. Appropriate for this moment's biggest band in the world.
[Source: Seattle Times]
Twitter Updates
- coldplay Ok, this is hands down the most gorgeous venue on earth. R#42 http://twitpic.com/a2ufb
- mattgambo The Gorge, Washington....gorgeous #Coldplay http://mypict.me/9tON
- DJ_SPEK The gorge and coldplay wow http://mypict.me/9uxk
- JustinKercher Sunset at the gorge! Coldplay concert... does it get much more epic!? http://twitgoo.com/1f85h
- JonasRachel Almost time for coldplay!!! I can't believe it!
- leslieramirez http://twitpic.com/a3446 - Sunset at the Gorge.. waiting for Coldplay to hit the stage
