18 August 2002: Bimbo's, San Francisco, USA
From WikiColdplay
Setlist
- Politik
- Spies
- Shiver
- Daylight
- Trouble
- One I Love
- Don’t Panic
- Everything’s Not Lost
- See You Soon
- God Put A Smile Upon Your Face
- Yellow
- The Scientist
Encore - Clocks
- In My Place
- Life Is For Living
Encore - Lips Like Sugar
- 1.36
Encore
Reviews
Yellow cones of light cut swaths through the billowing purple. Chris Martin's silhouette, outlined by a flash of blinding white, casts the contents of a water bottle over the dazzled crowd. The floor becomes a sea of hands. The concussive force of the bass and drums resounds in the hollow of your chest, the soaring tremolo guitar picking and flight of falsetto vocals obscure the confines of reality and Coldplay waltzes through another fantastic display of inconspicuously blinding power.
Life for this British quartet has been rife with preparations for unleashing their new album Rush Of Blood To The Head on the awaiting public, and last Sunday's San Francisco performance showed the band chomping at the bit. Coldplay's set was first-class. Issuing a mixture of songs primarily from their heralded 2000 debut release Parachutes (Parlophone) and their forthcoming follow-up album, set for U.S. release on August 27th, the group flowed from number to number with unpronounced ease and expertise. This concert, a warm-up for their upcoming Berkley gig on September 6th, was well-received by the audience (a great number of whom were jaded industry types), and demonstrated Coldplay's fantastic songsmanship and showmanship.
As Martin climbed over stage monitors and sprawled his arm on the velvet drapes, the toiled frontman embraced the crowd with his fantastic vocal range and rock star gesticulations.
Their hour-and-a-half set saw the dips and valleys that mark Coldplay as a standout in their field, their musical dynamics being starkly pronounced in a live setting. The harder songs had a much edgier vibe, especially their explosive rendition of "Shiver."
The band was personable, interacting with the crowd and joking around between songs as darkly-clad roadies brought the group freshly-tuned guitars. Even the crowd sing-along section on their runaway hit "Yellow" defied sounding contrived.
"The official concert is over, you're free to go whenever you want," chuckled the frontman as they broke into a second encore with a cover of Echo & the Bunnymen's "Lips Like Sugar." The only aspect that stuck out as being a tad trite were their multiple encores. The suspense is killed when a band says goodnight and then immediately, roadies are on stage tuning guitars for the next song. Upon spying a set list later in the evening and seeing their planned encores, I couldn't help wonder the importance of doing encores in the first place (except, perhaps snorting a line off the backstage monitor board).
As Martin sat before the stand-up piano for the final finalé (in this case, the hidden track off of Parachutes), I couldn't imagine being more satisfied with a performance.
Bimbo's 365 Club may be the best concert venue on the West Coast. With its superior design, thick velvet curtains, top-notch sound and lighting equipment and pristine floor layout that allows one to watch the show unhindered from any place in the hall, this venue has a way of spoiling a concert-goer. Coldplay's set proved to be the best-sounding show I've seen in years, hands down. Credit needs be given to the sound engineers and staff of Bimbo's for a job well done. Cheers!
~Maurice S. Teilmann Source: synthesis.net
Coldplay opens up vast yet intimate world - Second-wave Brit-pop group boldly shows its new direction at Bimbo's.
At Bimbo's Sunday, eight songs into Coldplay's sweaty wonder of a set, singer-songwriter Chris Martin paused for a moment of audience appreciation. "There's this guy who wrote to us today," he began, going on to explain that the writer had requested that the band phone a sick fan from the stage.
"This is f------ cheesy," Martin chortled, brandishing a cell phone. "This is the type of thing Bono does in stadiums, calling on a cell for a sick girl. But f--- it."
He made the call, placed the phone on the stage, then led Coldplay into "God Put a Smile Upon Your Face" from the band's new album. Starting as a hushed acoustic ballad, the song built into a roar of acid-rock distortion and soaring, bittersweet vocals.
It was quite the serenade, and it captured both the mood in Bimbo's and the new direction Coldplay takes on its forthcoming album, "A Rush of Blood to the Head," in stores now.
At once intimate and vast, it marks a turning point for the British quartet, whose Grammy Award-winning debut album, 2000's "Parachutes," and its hit single, "Yellow," established it as second-wave Brit- pop's first breakthrough group.
To launch the new CD, Coldplay has embarked on a small-club tour (the band returns to the Bay Area for a larger show at the Greek Theatre on September 6th), with tickets available online for its most hard-core fans.
With Martin seated an upright piano, the members of Coldplay emerged from a wave of fog to open their 90-minute set with "Politik," the first track from "A Rush of Blood to the Head." As the song moved from rhythmic pounding toward a sweeping coda, it set a tone for the night's music, which alternated between soft, confessional verses and lavish choruses.
The group embellished and reworked material from its first album and 1999's "The Blue Room" EP to fit its more complex new sound. "Shiver" and "Spies" became heavier without losing their melodic roots, and "Trouble" remained catchy enough to inspire the crowd to sing along. Not surprisingly, the surging dream pop of "Yellow" ignited the night's most enthusiastic response. By song's end, Martin simply turned the microphone over to the crowd for a note-perfect sing-along.
Whether hunkering at the piano, whirling in circles with a guitar or crawling over the monitors to reach the audience, Martin was the music's soulful nexus. His keening falsetto invested the brightest lines with emotional depth, turning a lighter song like "In My Room" from an infectious pop tune into a cathartic love anthem. "See You Soon" and "Everything's Not Lost" were delivered as gorgeous plaints, and the night's best number, "The Scientist," juxtaposed lilting musical simplicity with thoughtful, melancholy lyrics.
Coldplay ventured into fresh psychedelic turf on "Daylight," with guitarist Jon Buckland sliding through chord changes to create an Eastern-tinged backdrop. "Clocks" featured ornate exchanges between guitar, piano and drums that perpetually shifted the number's mood and texture.
Before launching into an encore rendition of Echo and the Bunnymen's "Lips Like Sugar," Martin sang the sweetly haunting "Life Is for Living." It takes a rare grace to pull off a line like "Life is for living . . . and I don't want to live it alone" without sounding hackneyed; Martin made it heartrending.
"For $15, we could come on naked and play Bon Jovi songs," he joshed at one point, referring to the show's low ticket price. Judging by Sunday's performance, it's possible that they could -- and make it sound transcendent.
Source: Neva Chonin, San Francisco Chronicle Pop Music Critic.
I had the pleasure of meeting the band before the show, as Bimbo's was a fairly small venue. First there was Will who sat on the loading steps of the tour equipment truck, seemed a bit tired and not as enthiusiastic, but he gladly signed autographs. I was quite surprised that he didn't have any reaction or comment when he signed my Safety EP...
Next was Jonny who was very generous with his time with the fans, talkative and extremely heartwarming & friendly. He signed my In My Place UK 12" and when he saw my Safety EP his eyes lit up and was very surprised. He told me he personally has two copies himself, and when I asked him if he keeps copies of singles or the album, he replied "my dad keeps them", and smiled.
Chris then later came out with Jonny and a few other people and played some cricket ball behind the venue (accessible to the public). When he stopped to take a break some of the fans rushed over to talk to him and of course ask for autographs. Chris was also very friendly and chatty with fans, and signed everyone's CDs and what not. When he saw my Safety EP he looked shocked. First words if I remember correctly was "shit!" and I had a brief chat with him on how I got this, plus how much it cost. It surprised him even more and he graciously signed his name, then asked for mine.
Afterwards he took the sharpie and wrote something extra on the Safety EP and signed "Love, Coldplay". Needless to say he was extremely pleased that I asked him to sign it, and he told me that outside of the UK this was the FIRST copy of the Safety EP they have ever signed. I assume they have signed no more than 2 to 3 copies total...
I was very excited when the show started. We were "treated" to a 30 minute plus documentary called "One Giant Leap" which I'm sure the other reviews covered in gory detail. When the lights when dark the crowd grew restless with anticipation. We were going to be in for a real treat!
Bimbo's is a very small club, and probably famous for lounge/jazz music. The band came on promptly at 9 pm with the keyboard intro, then launched into Politik with flashing lights. It was LOUD and extremely enjoyable. Next were brilliant renditions of Shiver and Spies with a new intro. The new songs were executed flawlessly. Although many people were unfamiliar with the new songs, I had already known pretty much all of them thanks to sneaky UK ebay sellers of the advanced listening promo CD album of "Rush of Blood To the Head".
Chris was very entertaining and cracked a few jokes with the audience. He commented on how Bimbo's was a very jazzy club and said that he should behave like a jazz musician, and proceeded to slouch against the piano. Then he messed up the intro to "trouble" and commented on how he should get it right, as it is an easy song, and for $15 they should also be able to come on stage naked and play Bon Jovi songs...
Another spontaneous thing Chris did was to talk about his experiences with some of the fans he met before the show. Someone gave him a note explaining how their friend was sick and couldn't make it there. Chris proceeded to call that sick person who could not attend the concert to say hi.
We were treated to 2 excellent encores that night. The final song was a spectacular rendition of Echo and the Bunnymen's "Lips Like Sugar". The SF setlist is virtually identical to the Boston/DC/NYC shows, except the song before "Lips Like Sugar" that I've never heard before. Someone from the Coldplay forum mentioned it was a brand new song tenatively titled "1:26", but I have no way of confirming this. It was an extremely guitar distortion heavy song, true hard rock.
I look forward to the Berkeley Greek 9/6 show! Hopefully Coldplay will surprise us more.
-Ken
