15 July 2008: The Forum, Inglewood, CA, USA

From WikiColdplay

1 Setlist
2 Photos
3 Fan Reviews
4 Media Reviews
5 Videos

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
What If
Lost!
Strawberry Swing
Yellow [Acoustic]
Death Will Never Conquer [Acoustic, Will on vocals]
Encore 1
Fix You
Lovers In Japan
Encore 2
Death And All 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/1506

Fan Reviews

All fan reviews have been submitted to us by the members of Coldplaying.com[1], unless stated otherwise.

Some highlights:

-Chris was a BALL OF ENERGY during "Square One". He did a backward somersault. He tumbled around the side stage. He was nuts.

-I call them "The Orbs", the big balls that were circular versions of a big screen, were AWESOME. There were six altogether. One towards the center. Two on the side of the stage and three behind the band. Sometimes they showed color. Sometimes images. Sometimes images of the band playing.

In the beginning of The Scientist, Chris' piano was only playing. I think Johnny's guitar wasn't plugged in. Something happened. It was funny.

In the beginning verse of Speed of Sound, Chris forgot some lyrics and stopped the song.

My absolute favorite highlight: At the end of "Lost!", Chris was playing his piano, he sang "just because I'm losing", and I think he was pausing and was going to say the next part, but the audience finished it for him: "Doesn't mean I'm lost". Chris said, "Let's do that again because it was really fulfilling"....so we all did it again. And, like the last time I remember on the Twisted Logic Tour, he loves how were "all in tune".

-Chris mentioned that they were the older brothers of the Jonas Brothers, and they didn't have as good a relationship as Miley Cyrus.

-Chris wanted to tell us in "starbucks terms" that the first night was "grande" and that the second night was "Venti"

-When Chris was up in the Colonnade, he said "So this is what it's like?"

It was an awesome show!

[lillylove]

I tried reporting live before the show, but kept on getting booted from the site on my iPhone . I was on the floor this time, in the last row, aisle seat. Far cry from last night's colonnade 26! The show was just as awesome as last night. The only difference in the setlist (I think) was that they swapped Spiderwebs for What If. I would've preferred to hear SpiderWebs again. Tonight, the show started at 9:15, twenty minutes earlier than last night. It seemed like they let out more confetti butterflies tonight too, but that observation may've just been due to my closer proximity to them.

[ouiparis]

Insanely beautiful show. My first Codlplay gig, and so happy I was able to go. Got a seat in Section 11, seat 11 (next to section 12) and I couldn't have asked for a better seat. Unbelievably close to the stage at the comfort of my own seat.

As to the show, my only real gripe is they opted for a techno-ish pre-recorded version of Talk as opposed to the real thing. But aside from that, it was aces across the board. Viva La Vida, In My Place, Lovers in Japan, Strawberry Swing and a ton more...and closing with Death and All His Friends was just heavenly.

Chris screwed up a couple of times (Speed of Sound, and The Scientist, I'm pretty sure) but he's so damn charismatic all you do is laugh along with him. The happy foursome awesomely ran up to the nosebleeds mid-show to play Yellow and Death Will Never Conquer, which I can only imagine was crazy cool for those people up there.

Also, he compared our crowd with Monday's in Starbucks-speak. He said we were a Venti, while Monday's crowd was a Grande.

The best compliment....Cracked me up!

Awesome show all around!

[anima1]

I just got back from the concert and it was soo much fun! I was pretty far back in Col 23 row 16, but I was just glad to be there at all. This was my very first Coldplay concert & I was really impressed. I loved the part where Chris got all excited that we finished the lyric to Lost for him! He's so cute like that. After a few songs I realized though, that I have always thought of them as this big stadium band that needs that type of huge space for their music to feel right in. (if that makes sense) But I realized that they're really not like that at all. When you see them perform, they're just this little band in the middle of a huge stage playing really beautiful music. In fact I think they'd be so much stronger in a much smaller venue, like the Wiltern or something, where their music could really fill the venue to the brim. Having said that, I still loved it & that was only a fleeting thought I had for a minute during the beginning of the show.

But anyway... Chris sounded great tonight. I was proud of him! haha My only complaint is that I wish they would have played fewer singles. It was kinda like Coldplay's Greatest Hits concert. I really wanted to hear Swallowed in the Sea or Green Eyes or anything a bit lesser known. It's cool though...it was my first Coldplay concert so it was new to me to hear those all live for the first time.

[NeonWonderland83]

Cold_Huntress view of the stage

Coldplay was soooooooooooooooooo awesome last night!! This was my 2nd Coldplay concert and I had such a great time! (I had better seats this time too) I've finally calmed down a bit, er sort of! It was a great show! I loved the magic balls! Coldplay is already awesome but the magic balls just made it magical! Seriously they were cool! My favorite part though was Lovers in Japan with all the butterfly confetti floating in the air! It looked so beautiful and I actually got one of the butterflies and brought it home with me as a souvenir since it fell on me. Chris was a goofball as usual! He was jumping around and at one point he actually kind of slid down on his back on one of the side ramps of the stage while he was singing and he didn't miss a beat! I loved that!! I loved how he referred to our audience as a 'Venti' in Starbuck terms! lol! Oh just good times all around!! Well I'm still kind of hyper so I'll leave the rambling here!!!

[Cold_Huntress]

For tonight's concert, I was selected to volunteer w/ Oxfam and so I arrived at the venue around 4:40PM-ish (LoL too excited and it was better safe than sorry...LA traffic is downright ugly everyday). So while waiting for the volunteer-call-time @ 5:30, my friends and I took a lovely stroll around the building to kill some time and....well see what else was around. Walking around the venue we caught a glimpse of the tour's parking area, and heard Shearwater doing soundchecks/warmups as we were going around the back end of the venue. *sigh* Nothing too crazy happened (although I could've sworn I saw Phil , but then I figured that he had to be inside the venue already with the guys....so it might've been someone else? ). Then right around the other side was the KROQ booth with the couch and KROQ-ed out Escalades. Hahahh I should've just gone up to them and say 'hi,' but my friends and I chickened out and so the guys there were probably thinking we were weird since we kept passing by them and stare at the area ((and on a side-note, I'm still partly bitter about the horrible ordeal + aftermath with the KROQ-Coldplay contests!)).

Soooo....then 5:30PM was only a few minutes away and I pretty much headed off to the meeting area for Oxfam volunteers. It was great meeting everyone, by the way (I know Freddie lurks around here somewhere....LoL HI again! ), and after an hour of orientation we headed off into the venue. For the rest of the work time, my experience has been wonderful! LA folks tend to be 'jaded' in ways, but what surprised me the most was how many people showed or developed an interest in this organization, regardless. For those of you who took some time to listen and allow yourselves to know about Oxfam, THANK YOU! <3

Well right around 9:20-ish, the crowd goes off and after getting my ticket from Pete, I was thinking "OMG IT'S STARTING!!!" so I placed (....or tossed, LoL) the signups/pins/stickets/postcards down on the table and made a run for it into the concert! Linh (another Oxfam volunteer) and I had a hard time finding our seats, at CONNOLADE 7, ROW 21!! Sorry, I know I shouldn't be in a position to complain at all, but that a downgrade from my original seat @ Loge 8 (I ended up giving that to Stephanie, aka StephBerryman. BTW Steph: sorry we couldn't meet up in time, but I hope you had fun at the concert. And thank you again! ). Anyway, that was just two seconds of regret, but the concert was well underway, at the time going into "Violet Hill", so my negativities were immediately pushed to the side.

~Right from the beginning the boys sounded SO GOOD! Chris was just full of energy, along with Johnny, Will, and Guy (though Guy's a bit more subdued, I assume...).

~"Clocks" came on and *squeee* LASERS!! LoL my first time seeing lasers done for "Clocks" live too!

~"Viva La Vida" was so exciting, to hear EVERYONE sing along!!! ~when Chris spent a minute to say "HI" to everyone, he went on something like this: "Hello. We're the older members of the Jonas Brothers. We are no way involved with Miley Cyrus..." ROFL <3

~42 was AMAZING! LOL and Chris made us sing the last two lines again, cause it actually sounded so good with most of us singing along in-tune.

~Yes! was played, all to my heart's desire ((too bad the people around me were sitting down ))

~Chinese Sleep Chant was....errmm...quite interesting. Hahah I definitely saw the blank faces of people around, watching.

~the techno-ed version of "God Put a Smile Upon Your Face." IT SOUNDED SO GOOD, to my surprise! the reworking of that song was done just right! <3

~Johnny was just nailing all of the great guitar-ing at the concert! GO JOHNNY!

~it seemed like i was the only one around my area, throughout the second half of the concert, was rilling up everyone to excitement! LoL i was consistently the first one to recognize the next song (just by hearing the first 2 or 3 notes ) and was cheering out and stuff.

~CHRIS F*CKED UP DURING "THE SCIENTIST" (my absolute-favorite song!!)

~BEST PART OF MY NIGHT: so my seat turned out to be 'worse' than the one i had originally bought. BUUUUT....when the boys ran up to play in the crowd, THEY WERE ACTUALLY A SECTION AWAY FROM ME! I had snuck in my really-good camera too, so the pics and footage turned out nicely! ((semi-perv moment: GOD those guys look amazing in-person...Chris, Guy, and Will at one point turned around towards the general direction of where I was and....*SQUEEE!!!*)). So I guess in the end, the seats worked out JUST fine! I can't believe I got to be that close to them after all!!

~The footage w/ that old senile geezer commenting on how Coldplay steals other people's music. *Cue the collective 'booos and hisses' from the audience!*

~Fix You was beautiful!

~"Lovers in Japan" = confetti galore!! *squeeeee* And HAHAHAH we actually got to see clearly the stage personnel on top dumping the boxes of confetti down on the audience.

~Death and All His Friends....LOOOVED it when the music kicks in and the VIVA background drops down! <3

SIGH!* I can't believe it was over after that! I would LOVE for it to keep going, but obviously that wasn't going to happen. Nonetheless, GREAT JOB COLDPLAY! You guys are proving well to be stepping it up after all!

Soooo then, to quickly sum it up on my part, I stayed back with the Oxfam volunteers and did a bit more scouting/recruiting on signups, had a group picture, and finally left the venue to go eat at In-N-Out with my friends that i completely missed seeing throughout the concert (between the four of us, i ended up getting separate seats, so they weren't together with each other as well). We've compared stories and concert footages as well. One of my friends ended up with the BEST seat (Loge 10, Row E) and seriously had the time of her life cause it was her first Coldplay concert ever! The other two were nearest the stage, but seated higher, yet managed to....*ahem* seat-hop throughout the show.

Didn't get any concert goodies, other than Oxfam buttons/stickers, and the butterfly confetti on the floor from "Lovers in Japan." I'll be over @ the San Jose gig this Friday, so the party doesn't exactly stop yet!

(((LoL PHEW! Sorry once again...i know my recollections are very jumbled. TOO much happened for my sweet little self to contain all of it controllably!)))

[talkingonsquareone89]

That was such an outstanding show last night! I had so much fun. I was sitting in Loge 24, Row G, which was parallel to the stage and only four rows away from it so I had an excellent view of the gorgeous Mr. Berryman.

I thought it was awesome that most of the setlist was comprised of the new album's tracks. While I do wish I could see "Everything's Not Lost" or "Warning Sign" played live again one of these days, I was realy pleased to hear all my favorites off the new album played. I was kinda surprised "Viva La Vida" was played so early, it seems like it would be a better song to play towards the end. I also thought Will's solo part was lovely. It was nice to see most of the floor standing up the whole time- even though my section was close to the stage, the people in front of me seemed like they were VIPs or just had freebie tickets because they sat down every chance they could. And I had constant talkers sitting next to me and behind me...grrrrr. Oh and in addition to the list of celebs last night, I saw Blake Sennett from Rilo Kiley and The Elected walking around (Unfortunately I didn't see if he had Winona Ryder with him.)

[starbright31]

I have seeen them 6 plus times since ROBTTH. My first show was the El Ray show back in the day. All of the shows during that time lasted farrrrr less than 75 mins, so I knew with 4 albums I would get at least 90 mins of music. Its not the cure who play for three hours,lol. I could have or should say liked a 2 hr set but I took what I got and ran with my memories!!! All of you should do the same. The set was very good for opening night w/ a few miss haps to be expected. I knew going into the show that most of the set would be the new album but that was ok b/c this is the viva tour The crowd was awesome. One of the best crowds i have ever seen at a CP show and all the shows I have been to ( that is alot). I love the energy, the wave while waiting for the late arriving show start. I heard a roadie mention they were still in traffiic or the touring staff, was not sure. No need to go song by song. I took the songs that get me in my heart (most of them) and left the show with a smile. It almost seems they have taken the role of U2 with all of the stage effects! Peace out everyone. Drink ur Granda today!

[starbucked]

What a great show. They get better and better each time I see them. I have too many favorite moments to recap them all. The crowd was amazing... we were totally Venti. I knew it would be a good crowd since it was the 1st and original LA date to go on sale. The neon confetti was wonderful. I took home pocketfuls of it. I loved all the little mistakes... it honestly makes me love them more. I loved when Chris did somersaults and rolled around on the ramps. I loved it all. I could hardly take any video because I was dancing and singing too much to hold the camera steady. I wanted to buy a tote bag but they were sold out by the time I got to the front of the line.

[katieplay]

Honestly that might have been the best time ive EVER had in my life as that was my first but not last Coldplay concert. I was sitting in Loge 7 row C and those seats were pretty damn good. Didnt sit down for a minute when they came out and lost my damn voice halfway through their set. Only little gripe i had is that they did not play Trouble. That song is my FAVORITE and I was just waiting for it to come on but it didnt....other that everything was perfect!!! Chris was absolutely crazy and I loved how he messed up and we all just ended up laughing. Loved the Starbucks reference and the magic balls kicked ass. It was so worth the money for the ticket even though they werent out there for 2 hours. I would do it again in a heartbeat!! I hope that everyone who is going to their future dates enjoy themselves as much as i did bc it was a wonderful and breath taking experience that I will NEVER forget.

[jcmojica23]

I'm really glad pictures were posted so I could actually see the show! We were at the Tuesday, July 15th show at the Forum, yet I feel like I missed it. The musical performance was amazing, without doubt. But, due to our unfortunate seats in the rear of the venue, we couldn't see a thing. The orbs were really cool, but they aren't a replacement for the big screens. There was a tremendous screen behind the band that they turned on for the finale, and I just don't understand why it wasn't on for the whole show. It was fantastic to view the whole audience, but the lights on stage were pretty dark for most of evening, and it would have been so much better to view the band themselves.

I saw X&Y at Irvine and was just so impressed with the wall of light and the performance value. We had much better tickets to that show, but with all the screens, you would have been able to see the performance from anywhere in the venue. With the Vida la Viva tour, you really have to have good seats.

[Violeta]

Was a fun show. My opinion was pretty much like like some others. The show overall was really tasty, & Really got rockin somewhere 'bout midway on. Fix you, square one, yellow, probably my favs. Not to be a hater, but I think they sounded a tad better a few years ago, but couldve been the arena . . I absolutely hated those damn orbs . . ya, they're cool for a track or two, but without a big screen, which they had back there, big venues suck when ya dont use them. what were they thinking!?! At least the sound was fairly good, but couldve been a lil' louder. Staples acoustics suck, so I'm willing to deal with the moldy old sweltering hot forum in that respect & the horribly cramped seating. what really made the show great was having my lady with me as their goods can get somewhat romantic & leads to a lot of kissing. People were making out everywhere!!! Leave it to Coldplay. This is one show you dont want to go stag. I know it doesnt sound it, cuz I'm just a bit critical, but Overall had a blast, so thanks COLDPLAY for the kick ass performance.

[gto-dave]

Front Row view!

OMG!!! We sat FRONT ROW!!!! My cousin and I got there early and decided to go find our seats, which were in the colonade section right beside the stage. So we get there and are sitting down for a bit and suddenly this girl comes up to us and asks us if we are together and we say yes. Then she asks to see our tickets. She looks at them and says, "would you guys like to sit front row?". "I work for Coldplay so you can trade these seats for ones up front." Im like WHHAT?!!!! OMG! I went crazy!!! We ran down to the floor section screaming cause we couldnt believe it. It was amazing and such a beautiful, life changing experience. I've never been so close to Chris!!! He was just gorgeous, better than what i expected.

[vivat la vie]

Media Reviews

Loud bass piercing the soul. The fellowship of the fans in a crowd. Feeling the raw passion of the performer. Thousands of voices singing in unison. Putting your hands up in the air ridiculously and jumping up and down to your favorite song. Screaming on the top of your lungs.

To me, that is what watching a live band is like in person. Most of the time, you would think that the music on a cd and what is played live would somewhat be the same. But for a good band, this is so far from the case. Some things can never be replicated in a cd.

I am fortunate enough to have watched all three of my favorite bands in person: Coldplay, Maroon 5, and John Mayer. This is my second time seeing Coldplay while the others I have only seen once. For this concert, I got floor tickets, 19 rows away from the front stage.

I have to say that this experience compared my first Coldplay concert was very different. Last time, we were way up the nose bleeders, and the entertainment quality seemed to be a lot better. The first concert seemed a lot more splashy with some really well choreographed events (balloons coming down from the ceiling and popping with gold graffiti). At the time X&Y was my favorite album

This time around, I would have to say that the splashy quality of the concert went way down. I’m not sure if it was intentional or maybe because the Forum doesn’t support an environment like the first concert.

Regardless, I think this concert was all about one thing.. the music.

Coldplay started off pretty much playing their entire new Viva La Vida cd. The first thing that struck me while singing along with the crowd was that most of their songs lacked a ‘karaoke feel’.

When seeing Maroon 5, I remember singing almost the entire time. Pretty much all of their songs are karaoke friendly.

In this concert, I didn’t know a lot of the lyrics. But it really didn’t matter. When you feel the music pulsating through your body, you know you are feeling it.

Something I’ve always wondered is ‘how do concerts affect me?’ Some things in life are pretty clear, like if you reading certain books you can achieve a degree of self-realization.

But a concert I think allows unbridled expression. For about 2 hours you don’t care what other people are thinking of you and how dorky you look jumping up and down. At the end of the day, it’s all about the love and the music.

And maybe to make this world a better place, that’s something we need more of.

http://blog.shinzu.com

As mentioned in my recent post about losing my knee somewhere between a seat and a step, on Monday of this week my friend Danny bestowed upon me one ticket to see Coldplay at The Forum in Los Angeles. And I was really quite excited about it since I’ve never seen Coldplay (and really wanted to, since Viva La Vida is such an awesome album) and I’ve never been to The Forum (despite it being host to some legendary artists and bands).

Sparing the details of my knee dislocation, the show was absolutely fantastic. Chris Martin is a showman; he knows how to engage the crowd and has a strong stage presence. As musicians, Coldplay are up there with some of the most talented rock musicians around.

The show opened with their 4 or 5 biggest hits to date, but every song they did was full of energy and sounded great. My only disappointment was the heavy use of samples and loops. I’m not a big fan of the “taking Pro Tools on tour” method; I’d much rather hear four musicians get creative with filling their sound out than relying on pre-recorded orchestral movements being played along with them. But then there was also plenty of new sounds and approaches to older hits to go along with that.

Towards the end of the show, Chris Martin announced that he was “bored of playing at this end of the room”. The band then hopped off the stage, in to the crowd, ran to our end of the arena, and played a two-song acoustic set in the middle of the crowd, 30 feet or so from where I was sitting. Will Champion even sang a number. And I can also confirm that Chris Martin’s hair really is that bad.

All in all, an excellent show by an excellent band. Thanks for ticket Danny, and for running for ice when I fell like a fool and yelled like a little girl.

http://www.immersionworship.com

Coldplay knows how to heat things up

"I can tell this is gonna be a good one," Chris Martin declared just two songs into Coldplay's rousing North America 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."

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," which hadn't been completely worked out.

That Coldplay wasn'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 wallpaper here and as the "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).

Plus, 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.

http://www.presstelegram.com/lifestyle/ci_9901120