14 July 2008: The Forum, Inglewood, CA, USA
From WikiColdplay
Contents |
Setlist
- Life In Technicolor
- Violet Hill
- Clocks
- In My Place
- Viva La Vida
- 42
- Yes
- The Scientist
- Chinese Sleep Chant [Sidestage]
- God Put A Smile Upon Your Face [Sidestage - new version]
- Square One
- Speed Of Sound
- Trouble
- Lost!
- Strawberry Swing
- Yellow [Acoustic]
- Death Will Never Conquer [Acoustic, Will on vocals]
- Fix You
- Lovers In Japan
Encore - Death And All Of His Friends
Photos
Photos from this show can be found at Coldplaying.com in the Gallery thread for Inglewood. http://www.coldplaying.com/forum/gallery/showgallery.php/cat/1505
Fan Reviews
This page became too large. Fan Reviews & Videos can be found on their own page.
Media Reviews
Coldplay Kicks Off Summer Tour In Los Angeles
Coldplay opened its North American tour last night (July 14) at the Forum in Los Angeles, treating the sold-out crowd to a career-spanning, 20-song set list. The 90-minute show, complete with floating video globes, confetti and flashing laser beams, went heavy on new material in various different incarnations on multiple stages throughout the venue, including a two-song jaunt up in the top most colonnade of arena seats.
"I can tell it's gonna be a good one," singer Chris Martin told the audience while catching his breath after "Violet Hill" -- the first single from the band's new, chart-topping, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends."
Content to let layers of pre-recorded backing tracks fill out most of the new songs, Martin was free to spend much of the evening hopping, skipping and jumping around the stage like an over-caffeinated gymnast, while his bandmates -- guitarist Johnny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, and drummer Will Champion -- tucked into their instruments behind him with satisfactory aplomb.
Barring a few to-be-expected missteps along the way, (missed instrumental cues in "Death and All His Friends," botched parts in "Speed of Sound") the show moved like clockwork, as teams of stagehands hustled to move pianos and makeshift drum kits back and forth onstage between songs.
Clever enough to try and keep the audience from getting too bored at any given time, the group successfully interjected a variety of audio and visual amusements throughout the evening. Peppering new material with at least two songs from each of its previous three albums, Coldplay offered older hits like "Clocks" and "In My Place" early in the set.
Eight songs in, the group decamped to a smaller platform that extended outward from the right side of the main stage into the crowd for "Chinese Sleep Chant" and "God Put a Smile Upon Your Face", both of which featured a leaner guitar-and-bass arrangement, as well as sampled 808 electronic drums.
Back on the main stage, the group wisely ditched the orchestral backing tracks, albeit temporarily, for stripped-down versions of "Trouble" and "Speed of Sound," the latter of which sounded refreshingly under-rehearsed.
Later, the group was led by security onto the floor and up the stairs of the venue to a third platform all the way up in the highest group of the Forum's seats, where, huddled together like sardines, it performed acoustic versions of "Yellow" and "Death Will Never Conquer," which featured Champion on lead vocals.
Los Angeles in certainly no stranger to big-budget, high-production-value extravaganzas, and as Martin befittingly joked, "Where better than to kick off the paid professional entertainment portion of our tour!" Coldplay returns to the Forum again tonight.
http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/..._id=1003827530
Coldplay re-emerges tremendously at sparkling tour kickoff
“I can tell this is gonna be a good one,” Chris Martin declared just two songs into Coldplay’s rousing tour kickoff Monday night at the Forum, the English band’s first of two shows at the hallowed arena.
Even at that point, after the crowd erupted for “Violet Hill,” singing along as if its melody were as ingrained as those of “Clocks” or “Yellow,” it wasn’t hard to determine why Martin felt so optimistic. Here, like at no Southern California show the quartet has played, you could feel waves of ecstasy and electricity rippling through the audience the way they so often do at U2 shows – that overwhelming, inspirational sensation Coldplay has been aiming to achieve all along, and now finally has.
The fervency was palpable and rarely waned; the enthusiasm for and familiarity with material from the band’s justly acclaimed but not even month-old fourth album, Viva la Vida or Death and All his Friends, was startling, fans strongly responding to new stuff as U2 fans did at the time of The Unforgettable Fire and The Joshua Tree, or, more recently, like the instant reaction that followed the arrival of Green Day’s American Idiot and My Chemical Romance’s The Black Parade. And the performance itself was tremendous overall, despite the occasional cracked vocal (Martin’s falsetto gave out at one point during “Square One”) and a few flubbed starts during attempts at new arrangements – like the retooled opening to “Speed of Sound,” for instance, which hadn’t been completely worked out.
That they weren’t afraid to let some stitching show, however, was endearing, humanizing compared to U2, which typically strains to have every last kink ironed out before opening night. Such minor errors were also negligible in the face of such an engaging, at times enveloping show — one perhaps not so ironically held on Bastille Day, considering the group’s peasant-revolutionary garb and the use of Delacroix’s iconic painting “Liberty Leading the People” as backdrop here and Vida la Vida cover image. For once, Coldplay has ditched the austerity that has defined its previous tours and designed a sparkling, colorful, intimate production – loaded with lasers, framed by Stones-y catwalks and an enormous backdrop, and sporting several reflective balls that often resembled giant Christmas ornaments (and owe more than a little to similarly ghostly and up-close video tricks Radiohead has used for years).
And the group has one great gimmick up its sleeve – better than throwing in “Clocks” and “In My Place” so early into the set, better than the tribal tom-tom and clanging bell employed during “Viva la Vida,” better than the butterfly confetti that accompanies a main-set-closing “Lovers in Japan/Reign of Love,” better than the INXS-ish groove concocted for an abbreviated “God Put a Smile Upon Your Face” and what I think was “Chinese Sleep Chant” while the quartet was amassed amid white-hot footlights at the end of one of the stage extensions.
Toward the end of the performance, just as it seems they’re wrapping up to await the traditional encore, the guys instead book it through the crowd, winding up high in the loge section at the opposite end of the arena, where they lead a sing-along on a mandolin-tinged “Yellow” and then let drummer Will Champion handle lead vocals on the just-released country-spiritual download “Death Will Never Conquer.”
“Sometimes you gotta visit the cheap seats,” Martin said. The crowd understandably went bananas for the move – more so than the Stones sauntering out to second base or Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora strumming acoustic guitars just off center ice, this was an intimate moment like you rarely find at large-scale concerts these days. It was as fresh and compelling as Coldplay’s show itself, a burst of energy so infectious and invigorating (and so resolutely focused on the new, as only “Cemeteries of London” was left out) that even staunch X&Y fans must now realize just how uncertain the band was during that transitional period three years ago.
“Welcome to the first night of our tour since we became the new version of our band,” Martin remarked halfway in. He’s got a point — this is a dramatically improved Coldplay. Here at last, just as he and his mates have insisted they would all along, they have risen to the excitement level of the forebears they so obviously emulate. When next I encounter a cynic who says all the great populist bands are dying off – the ones that can bring together disparate audiences behind a joyful noise – I’ll buy ’em tickets for a Coldplay gig.
Main set: Life in Technicolor / Violet Hill / Clocks / In My Place / Viva la Vida / 42 / Yes / The Scientist / Chinese Sleep Chant* / God Put a Smile Upon Your Face / Square One / Speed of Sound / Trouble / Lost! / Strawberry Swing / Yellow / Death Will Never Conquer / Fix You / Lovers in Japan/Reign of Love
Encore: Death and All His Friends
- Best guess, and radically rearranged from the fade-out of the new album. Anyone who knows better and believes it was a different song I’m just forgetting, please correct me.
http://soundcheck.freedomblogging.co...-tour-kickoff/
Lights, Camera and.. Action!
What a show. Lights, cameras, and action. The band and the crew did a fantastic job tonight. As if the crowd weren’t excited enough by doing the ‘wave’ before the show. They then had the pleasure of watching Coldplay at their best. What a great way to start the week..
The light show was awesome tonight. The Forum lending itself perfectly to all sorts of illuminated activity. I thought they’d be ironing out problems for the first couple of weeks. It looks like they’ve nailed it already. On the way out, people were still singing the chanting chorus to ‘Viva La Vida’. It didn’t take them long to learn those words.. (w-o-a-h, w-o-a-h!).
We had a really positive bunch of Oxfam volunteers too, who signed up 705 people for further action. The end of the night made my day, with www.oxfam.org/coldplay being projected on a huge rotating sphere in the middle of the arena. Once the confetti butterflies had fluttered down and the stage swept clean for tomorrow, it was off back to the hotel. I’m too tired to keep typing, but I just wanted to let you know how awesome it was!
http://www.oxfamblogs.org/coldplay/?p=14
Coldplay kick off North American tour in LA
The band connect with crowd by performing in the 'cheap seats'. Coldplay launched their highly anticipated North American tour in Los Angeles last night (July 14) with the first of two sold-out shows at the Forum.
The band, whose new record 'Viva La Vida' debuted at Number One in the US last month, came out with guns blazing -- giving it their all from the very first song, 'Life In Technicolor'.
They didn't shy away from playing some of their biggest crowd-pleasers early on, and the crowd ate them up, erupting at the opening strains of familiar songs.
"This is the first night of our tour since we became the new version of our band, frontman Chris Martin said. "We thought where better to kick it off than our home away from home, Los Angeles. It's where we started here in America, but we'll probably end in Vegas," he quipped.
The band -- dressed in their now-trademark pseudo-military uniforms -- focused largely on their new album, playing only a smattering of earlier works.
Martin made the most of two walkways that extended down the sides of the arena by dancing, jumping and sliding down them throughout the night. Mid-set, the band set up on a mid-arena satellite stage for a couple of songs, giving the audience a thrill.
Before debuting a new arrangement of 'Speed Of Sound', Martin warned, "If it sucks, go get a hot dog." But the crowd loved it and screamed their approval. "It's a bit cheesy but we couldn't ask for more from an audience on a Monday night in sweltering July," Martin responded.
Before the night was over, the band ran up the aisles to the top of the arena where they performed a couple of songs. "Sometimes you've got to visit the cheap seats," Martin explained. Drummer Will Champion sang lead vocals on one of the songs. "We know our drummer Will will one day want to make a solo record like Phil Collins, so we thought we should give him some practice," Martin said.
Coldplay returned for two bombastic, confetti-filled encores before saying goodnight.
http://www.nme.com/news/coldplay/38176
Coldplay gets all rock-star at the Forum
IN THE title track of Coldplay's new “Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends,” frontman Chris Martin admits that "people couldn't believe what I'd become." He's singing from the perspective of a freshly deposed king, reflecting on the delights of his authoritarian reign, but the line also works to describe Martin's stature as a musician.
Eight years after "Yellow" made him the cheek-pinchable face of a new brand of bravado-less introspection, Martin -- a man once given to lyrical proclamations like, "I never meant to cause you trouble" -- has morphed into an attention-hungry rock star with no shortage of sex-bomb swagger.
Thank goodness for that.
Monday at the Forum, during the first of two sold-out shows that kicked off Coldplay's current world tour, Martin and his bandmates succeeded in proving onstage what strong sales of "Viva la Vida" have suggested on paper -- that right now there is no bigger rock group on the planet. "I can tell this is gonna be a good one," Martin announced after the band opened with the new album's “Violet Hill,” and he was right.
Goaded into experimentation by the producer Brian Eno, perhaps best known for doing the same with Martin's beloved U2, Coldplay shakes up its sound on "Viva la Vida," embroidering songs with sensual Latin grooves, African-inspired guitar lines and bleary keyboard textures Eno might've found on an old tape left over from the sessions for "Achtung Baby."
The music's textural adventurousness is matched by a renewed emotional vitality; these openhearted pleas for peace, love and understanding don't sound stifled, as older Coldplay material sometimes has, by an air of apology.
That yen for connection defined the band's 90-minute set Monday, which drew from "Viva la Vida" as well as from Coldplay's first three albums. Dressed in the vintage military garb they've apparently selected as the new CD's sartorial representation, the four musicians played on a relatively bare-bones set before a backdrop emblazoned with the Eugène Delacroix painting that serves as "Viva la Vida' "s cover.
In place of the Jumbotrons that usually flank the stage in an arena show, video was funneled to a tiny TV sitting atop a bank of keyboards.
The motivating idea wasn't so much a rejection of spectacle -- these guys love nothing more, as demonstrated by the butterfly-shaped confetti that fell to the floor during "Lovers in Japan" -- as it was a minimization of distraction.
Fortunately, the band mostly repaid the audience's attention: Martin sang his little heart out, hitting unlikely high notes while doing dance moves he appeared to have learned by watching clips of toddlers on YouTube.
During "Viva la Vida," Will Champion bashed away at an enormous kettle drum placed at center stage. Guitarist Jonny Buckland filled the Forum with playing that alternated between tart lead lines (as in "Strawberry Swing") and atmospheric washes (as in "The Scientist"). And bassist Guy Berryman anchored the music with a dependably steady pulse, even hinting at a submerged sense of funk in "Lost!"
On several of the weirder cuts from the new album, including "Yes" and "42," Coldplay didn't quite muster its in-studio precision, which made the songs seem unformed rather than unconventional. However risky it's become, this is still a band that thrives on big hooks, and when those disappeared, so did the concert's energy.
The same went for Martin's decision near the end of the show to present a video of Bill O'Reilly calling the singer a "pinhead" on the Fox News Channel. Petulance is rarely thrilling. Of course, an inability to countenance criticism often accompanies a transition into top-tier rock stardom, so it's probably unreasonable to expect a performance as powerful as Monday's without at least a splash from Martin's bottle of whine.
In this economy, that trade-off resembles a pretty sweet deal.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/music/la-et-coldplay16-2008jul16,0,1101653.story
Coldplay's world tour off to solid start
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Coldplay is striving for arena-rock epic greatness, but it's not there yet.
Still, the band turned in a solid performance, with only a few misfires, in launching its world tour Monday night at the Forum arena in Inglewood.
The quartet is good; it's just not consistently great. There's a lot of heart but little wallop, and that's where the group came up short.
Coldplay certainly has all the right elements: a personable frontman in singer Chris Martin, inventive guitar work from Johnny Buckland and a skillful rhythm section in bassist Guy Berryman and drummer Will Champion. Add a knack for warm-and-fuzzy songs and a social conscience (reps from Oxfam America were on site), and it should all add up.
Despite some free concerts in June that served as warm-up shows, the band was in work-out-the-kinks mode Monday. The Forum isn't known for pristine sound -- far from it -- but technology has improved, and yet the mix was surprisingly muddy, even shrill at times.
There was some gimmicky staging, with lasers right out of 1978 and dangling video globes and raining confetti that seemed more suited to the Hannah Montana set than Coldplay's adult audience, which also was heavily female.
The nearly 90-minute show kicked off with the instrumental "Life in Technicolor," which leads off Coldplay's chart-topping new album "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends" (Capitol). But the song is all buildup with no payoff, music in search of a film soundtrack. The band followed with the McCartneyesque current single "Violet Hill," which gave way to a gliding rendition of the older "Clocks" and head-bobbing "In My Place."
Frequently employing backing tracks -- they couldn't just recruit a tour keyboardist? -- allowed Martin to work the crowd with his spastic hopping about, the entire band making good use of catwalks jutting from each side of the stage into the arena floor.
The sold-out crowd was pumped up and ready for every ooh-ahh sing-along opportunity, like the new "Viva la Vida," and also went wild for all those Martin piano ballads of romantic introspection.
Some of the new material came off as clumsy and didn't click, but just when it looked like things might falter, the band got its act together, scaling down for a bittersweet "Trouble" and a slightly awkward though still crowd-pleasing "Speed of Sound." The ringing "Talk" was missing in action, though, and should be added to the set list.
A definite highlight came with one of the simplest moments as the band walked the floor toward the rear of the arena and headed upstairs to the back corner colonnade for a rearranged, gentle acoustic version of the swelling ballad "Yellow" and the folksy "Death Will Never Conquer" -- a free download on the group's Web site right now -- with drummer Champion on lead vocals. The two songs brought the group and audience together more than all the light and video trappings and layered backing tracks earlier in the evening.
The night's final numbers included an overdone "Fix You," with a church organ opening, and the galloping, U2-styled "Lovers in Japan," which came close to that epic heroism Coldplay is shooting for and just might achieve as the tour continues.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
http://uk.reuters.com/article/chinaNews/idUKN1536174420080716
Coldplay Live at The Forum July 14, 2008: Photographer's Journal
1:25 PM – Media contact sends an email informing that “the “Shooter” will not be shooting the show from the pit as originally indicated.” Ok, looks like I’ll need to bring a long lens. I’ll need to call Samy’s.
2:25 PM – Call placed to Samy’s. Everything’s good. They have the Nikon 400/2.8 and the 1.4 converter that I like when I have to shot from the sound board.
6:37 PM – Time to make the pick-up at Samy’s. They want to know if I want a reference on the order. I decide to tell it straight; Coldplay! The shit starts rolling. The boss man behind the counter tells me they couldn’t pay him enough to sit through three songs of Coldplay. I tell him it’s only two and that I only found out about the need for the long lens this afternoon. I’m smiling all the while. Before I leave I ask if they’re through. Yeah, they’ve ganged up on me. I’m still excited for this one. George Michael didn’t sell out two nights at the Forum.
6:59 PM – South bound on La Cienega just before Stocker. I remember that my mom called two weeks ago and I need to call her back. We have a nice talk. I tell her about some upcoming projects and she knows who Coldplay is. Says she saw them on John Stewart a few nights ago. Not exactly her type of music though.
7:24 PM – Inglewood! The Forum never looked so good. Just inside the lot and the scalpers are parked next to me working out the game plan. He’s got a grip of tickets. Good seats too!
7:45 – Press Check In Here! Still plenty of time before Shearwater hits the stage. I hang out and sign the release form.
8:20 PM – Shearwater takes the stage.
8:35 PM – Back below the seats at the Forum. They have a little room set for the photographers. It’s like a Sunday school classroom. In one corner they have a fresh “Detention List” posted on the wall just waiting for the bad kid. I suggest portraits in front of this but no one bites. I wouldn’t either.
8:40 PM – News from the media contact that we’ll be shooting songs three and four; or is it four and five? No matter, they’ll be back to take us to the stage after the show’s started. I’m starting to like this little room.
9:10 PM – The natives are getting restless. Show’s supposed to start at 9:20 and they still have come for us!!! “What’s going on???” I smile.
9:25 PM – An announcement is heard over a passing radio that the box office is now closed, because “We’ve sold all the tickets we can sell! There’s none left!” I say that’s probably the announcement the band was waiting for! Shortly after, faintly down the hall, the roar of the crowd is heard which signals that the band must have taken the stage.
9:30 PM – We’re on our way to the spot. It’s not unlike being in some sort of catacombs under the Forum, except it just goes round and round. Kinda cool! We get to the spot and it looks good. There are catwalks on the stage that bring the band pretty close to our position. No problems. I leave the converter on anyways. I want a tight shot.
9:37 PM – No shooting until the after the song when Chris is done playing the piano. That’s not what we were told, but that’s what I find out. They’re not kidding either.
9:42 PM – Our first song is just over and the media contact lets us know that there is one more song and that security wants to see me (and another guy) after the shot. Christ, what now? Can I say that in church?
9:47 PM – Back in the catacombs and security is checking my images to ensure that I didn’t shoot Chris at the piano. I didn’t. I let her know that I was only setting up. She thanks me and one other accused and we’re on our way back to the “lounge”.
10:45 PM – We get to shoot the confetti drop near the end of the set. It’s actually butterflies. Tough to see clearly in the shots as I’ve opted for the wide shot. Look at that house though!
10:50 PM – Coldplay leaves the stage. I head for the car. I want to beat traffic. It’s been a fun night. Can’t really say I saw the show, but it sounded OK from down the hall. What else would you expect? It’s Coldplay.
http://blogs.laweekly.com/play/live-...e-forum-jul-1/
And it was all mellow
COLDPLAY kicked off their world tour in spectacular fashion — after ditching the electronic wizardry they just spent six months creating. The lads took the brave decision to sack-off the expensive computer graphics and video screens just days before the start of their gruelling 67-date Viva La Vida campaign.
And it wasn’t missed for an instant.
I was the only Brit journalist at the Stateside gig on Monday night and have to applaud them for their bold move.
At their dress rehearsal concert at Wembley Arena last month they relied heavily on a constant, dizzying stream of film clips and visual trickery to accompany the music. But in LA they dropped the hi-tech screen until the final two songs.
Instead a giant canvas of the album artwork hid it for the majority of the gig and the stage was lit by basic, subtle lighting.
This is an era when arena acts such as KANYE WEST — who was in the audience — spend bags of cash on digital displays to wow fans and outdo rivals.
But scrapping the gadgetry in favour of a more intimate feel was a brilliant move. I think the expression is “less is more”.
It made the arena feel a quarter of the size but the crowd enjoyed it four times as much.
And as a result it seems the band will abandon the technology for the rest of the tour — and why would they need it when CHRIS MARTIN has matured into the ultimate frontman.
The sound of 18,000 Americans roaring along to anthems In My Place and Viva La Vida was incredible.
Elated Chris thanked the crowd for their part in a special night as they finally took their record-smashing Viva La Vida album on the road.
He said: “We couldn’t have asked for anything better on a hot July night in LA. “Some audiences are s*** and we have to lie. But between you and me, you’re grade A. “This is the first night of the tour since we became the new version of the band.
“This is where we first started our journey in America so we couldn’t think of anywhere we’d rather be.”
There was just one negative point.
The giant globes Chris had been talking up for months were less spectacular than I had expected.
He claims to have splashed out nearly £1million on the massive spheres which hang from the ceiling.
I’d ask for my money back, Chris. They seemed little more than six over-sized lava lamps to me.
But the pacing of the show is now even better than at the London warm-up.
A barnstorming rendition of Lost showed the track is set to become a live classic.
Fix You raised the hairs on the back of my neck and Lovers In Japan was a perfect way to finish.
The lads swing by our way for a series of live dates in December.
If you want to see a band at the height of their powers, do not miss your chance.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...cle1427482.ece
Videos
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