19 August 2005: Shoreline Amphitheater, San Francisco, CA, 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
- Everything’s Not Lost
- White Shadows
- The Scientist
- ’Til Kingdom Come
- Ring Of Fire (Johnny Cash Cover)
- Don’t Panic
- Clocks
- Talk
Encore - Swallowed In The Sea
- In My Place
- Fix You
Reviews
About a quarter of the way through the British band Coldplay’s somewhat adventurous and perfectly pleasing 90 minute set Friday night at Shoreline Amphitheatre, a message flashed on the giant video screen behind the quartet.
“GET YOUR CAMERAS READY.’’
Then,
“3....
2.....
1...’’
And as the countdown ended, with a video camera of its own pointed outwards, the screen flashed an image of the season’s first sold out audience exploding in a sea of flashes, taking a picture of itself.
This was the kind of moment that Coldplay’s outdoor theater debut lacked two years ago, when it rendered versions of its songs almost identical to the ones on the discs, under a simple light show, and seemed to be dwarfed by the big stage.
This time frontman Chris Martin showed that he knows that a great stadium performance has to be performance art. And the band delivered on every song, with a light and video show that was colorful, but not overdone, and helped keep the audience on its feet through the entire set.
There were images of space to accompany the first two songs, “Square one’’ and “Politik,’’ with their looks at the planet from above (nature may abhor a vacuum, but Martin certainly doesn’t); there were fiery red volcanos; animations of the band members; red lights placed along the side of the orchestra seats; a bear that walked off the center screen and became a shadow along the sides of the theater.
It not only helped those with short attention spans, but made a big theater in the heart of silicon valley more user friendly.
And then there was Martin himself, a shy performer who worked hard to draw the crowd in. He walked out and sang from the sides of the front sections a couple of times and toward the end sang from the middle of the theater, facing the cheap seats on the lawn.
He threw in lyrics about San Francisco, as he has in every city previously (in Seattle he referenced rain and Kurt Cobain; in Indianapolis, it was about the Colts). He did some almost painfully awkward gyroscopic dance moves, but no one is going to confuse him with Mick Jagger - or, as he joked, “Bon Jovi.”
“I could never ever, even at 28, have a haircut like that,’’ he said. “In two years we’ll be the baldest band in the world but the fastest swimmers.”
It was an odd dichotomy -- the rock star, so revered, but so painfully humble -- and that attitude pervades all of his music, with its alienated, mournful lyrics, surrounded by big anthemic, hopeful crescendos.
He even apologized for the traffic, which had many fans sitting an hour between Highway 101 and the parking lot. (That was more the fault of a crowd that all descended at once after a work day.)
The band, including lead guitarist Jon Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, and drummer Will Champion, played a setlist that doesn’t change from night to night. It was musically competent, despite a few clunkers and managed with only four members, to reproduce the lush layered textures of its three albums.
Martin took one surprising foray during a three-song acoustic set, explaining that he wrote “’Till Kingdom Come,” the last song on the latest album, “X&Y,” for Johnny Cash, who died before recording it. Then he covered Cash’s “Ring of Fire” with the audience joining in.
But the best thing about this show was that its best songs were from the most recent album, something that has become rare in big shed shows, where audiences drop large dollars to hear ancient greatest hits.
The latest album is more challenging than the band’s earlier efforts, but more rewarding.
Like U2 and with less success, Midnight Oil, Coldplay creates whirling, soaring anthem-like choruses, with occasional political references.
But it surrounds them with mournful, alienated verses.
The show’s mournful closer “Fix You,’’ was a perfect example with its lyrics of sad frustration, propped up by a soaring guitar choruses.
“When you try your best, but you don’t suceed/ When you get what you want but not what you need,’’ Martin sang, describing a tearful life stuck in reverse.
But the subtly powerful chorus promised “lights to guide you home..and I will try to fix you.”
It was a long step from the fist-raising bluster of most stadium rock, but the rapture it drew from this audience, holds the promise that Coldplay will be around for a long time.
Setlist: Square one Politik Yellow God Put A Smile Upon Your Face Speed Of Sound Low A Rush Of Blood To The Head Everything's Not Lost White Shadows The Scientist 'Til Kingdom Come (acoustic) Ring Of Fire (acoustic) Don't Panic (acoustic) Clocks Talk
Swallowed In The Sea In My Place Fix You
Source: http://blogs.mercurynews.com
Coldplay has made gorgeous ballads fit for arenas like Shoreline, and inevitably, the SUV set has come
A few bars into "God Put a Smile Upon Your Face," Chris Martin stopped the music and invited the sold-out crowd at Shoreline Amphitheatre to approach the stage. "It feels more like a proper concert, less like a convention," he explained, adding, "Please don't kill yourselves, or we'll be in terrible trouble."
There was little danger of that; Coldplay's audience is a well-behaved lot, as befits a band that's made classy, ballad-based rock a new radio staple. Many in the Shoreline crowd, in fact, were old enough to be the band's parents. The Brit-pop fans who formed Coldplay's base five years ago were scarce, and the parking lots overflowed with family-size sedans and SUVs.
No surprise. Coldplay, onetime darlings of the pop elite, is officially mainstream. Is that a bad thing? The band's latest album, "X & Y," has filled airwaves with some of the most gorgeous and seductive rock we've heard in decades. The sound is commercial without being crass; it aches with good intentions. But it's also miles from rock's earthy roots, sharing more common ground with a composer like John Williams than Muddy Waters. And, as the Shoreline show demonstrated, regardless of how sincerely delivered, it can border on sterility.
With its rich ballads and arena-sized anthems, this is a group made to reverberate in large spaces like Shoreline. This needn't exclude spontaneity, though, which Coldplay sometimes seems to forget. The North American tour's fixed set list should have allowed Martin and his band to at least improvise their stage patter, rather than repeating the same quips in every city. While performing "A Rush of Blood to the Head," for instance, Martin has made a ritual of following the lyric "I'm gonna buy this place and start a fire" with the assurance, "Not this place, obviously." It was probably amusing the first time.
Conversational impediments aside, Martin's music is beautiful, and on Friday Coldplay delivered it well. The 110-minute set began with the new CD's opening track, "Square one," then moved into "Politik," the first track from 2002's "A Rush of Blood to the Head" (during which Martin gave requisite shout- outs to Berkeley and San Francisco, where he said the band had spent the past week.)
Piano ballads ("Everything's Not Lost," "Swallowed in the Sea") alternated with epic rock numbers ("Speed of Sound," a rowdy version of "Clocks"), as Martin alternated between playing keyboards and guitar and dancing across the stage. The majestic crescendos of "Fix You" and "Talk" were the highlights of the evening, while a trio of acoustic numbers swung between sublime and labored. "Kingdom Come," written for the late Johnny Cash, was classic romanticism to which Cash would have added noble, battered grit; but Martin's cover of Cash's "Ring of Fire" was the sonic equivalent of Wonder Bread. Martin is a talented songwriter and can invade my radio space anytime -- but he, sir, is no Johnny Cash.
Still, Martin is a sensitive guy, and sensitive guys are as rare as ragged geniuses in the rock world. He lavished shout-outs on fans stuck in the nosebleed lawn seating (even though he might have better served their needs if overhead video screens had concentrated less on special effects and more on the performers). Kind gestures abounded: Balloons were released onto the lawn for the old hit "Yellow"; during "In My House," Martin left the stage to serenade those on the upper level. Most impressively, where most bands of Coldplay's stature institute Draconian searches to prevent illegal photography (although this is increasingly futile in an age of phone cameras), Coldplay encouraged concertgoers to take pictures. During "Low," band members photographed the crowd themselves.
It was sweet, if rehearsed. Before the Cash tribute, Martin asked that the venue lights be turned up again so he could get a good look at 20,000 of his closest fans. "Holy s -- , we've turned into Bon Jovi," he marveled. The line is still a joke. What a pity if it turns into a premonition.
Source: http://sfgate.com
So tonight I almost met ChrisMartin and Gwyneth Paltrow. Oh, and almost Arthur Levinson, CEO of Genentech. Huh? What? Keep reading! There’s even a video at the end. Tonight I went to Coldplay concert in Mountain View. I went to one at the same venue in 2003 - so I have a basis for comparison. This time I had a pretty good seat because of the perk of being a Mountain View resident: Section 202, Row C. Even better, being a dorky tech guy, I got the seat right next to the camera, light board, and sound board: I know a lot about television cameras having worked in a professional grade TV studio back in Middle School (but that’s another story). Here’s a shot of the DJ who played music before the show, and his DJing equipment. There’s even a PowerBook 12″. At one point, he was using Microsoft Entourage 2004, the product I used to work on. Neato! I’m such a dork - here’s a picture of the supercool light board: I also got to see some notes from their concert on Wednesday at the Amphitheater at Clark County, Washington: You can tell from this photo that Black Mountain was touring with Coldplay. They were actually pretty good, unlike the opening band for the 2003 concert. Anyway, so right before the concert starts, Chris Martin’s (the lead singer) wife shows up with her Entourage. Here’s a picture of just Gwen: Apple, their daughter wasn’t in the Entourage that came with Gwen. I would’ve taken more photos, but the bodyguard didn’t quite appreciate it. Gwen was there for almost the entire concert. It was pretty surreal being about 7 feet away from the lead singer’s spouse. She truly enjoyed the concert and had a rocking time, dancing through most of the songs. It was pretty special to see that! It’s not often you see the spouse of the artist next to you, who is also a star. Very very cool. I wish I had more photos of Gwen without her hood on - but, well, it was pretty darn cold so I don’t blame her for keeping it on. Back to the show, Coldplay had this massive digital screen that was used very effectively: Though my seats were pretty darn good, it was often hard to see Chris because the stage lights were so bright. Fortunately, I could closely watch the show from the camera next to me: I had read that Coldplay really tried to improve their stage presence from the 2003 tour. And it really showed. The lighting was really awesome (must’ve cost a pretty penny), and Chris did a great job of using more and more of the stage. I hear that Bono and U2 are the gold standard for stage usage - I’ll find out in October when I see them in Oakland. That said, while Coldplay had a much better show than 2003, and got in some great San Francisco references, as well as some not-on-the-album improvisation, Chris Martin still looked a bit awkward on stage. Practice makes perfect I suppose, and time will tell. That said, Chris did a great job of trying to include the audience more. Such as when he ran off the stage and up to where I was sitting. Yep, just like my Andy Lau experience in Hong Kong - except far better. I was about 7 feet away from him: That mop of hair on the right of Chris might be Gwen actually! Here’s a brief video of him jumping and running back to the stage: ChrisMartin.AVI Overall, this was a great show. Thanks for coming by Coldplay!
Source: http://www.decheung.com
