20 August 2002: El Rey Theater, Los Angeles, USA
From WikiColdplay
Setlist
- Politik
- Shiver
- Spies
- 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 - Amsterdam
- Lips Like Sugar
Review
Fortunately, Los Angeles's El Rey Theater is a small club with the capacity of only about 700, which meant that I only had to arrive at about 4pm in order to be near the front of the line.
Being there fairly early and near the front of line also meant that I got to see the band right when they walked in, as there is no way in or out of the El Rey besides the front door, which was a nice touch to the experience.
While waiting in line, I met and came to know several other Coldplay fans waiting with me, and I must say, Coldplay fans are a much nicer bunch than any fans I've ever come into contact with going to shows. Instead of "Bitch, get out of my way," everyone was fair and organized when it came to who was in line first and who was in front in the theater.
The same cannot be said for the staff of the El Rey, but that is another story entirely. Finally, After some confusion as to whether those that already had tickets or the will call line would be let in first, and what bags would be allowed in, the doors we finally opened at about 8:15pm and we all filed as close as politely possible to the small stage at the back of the club.
The show's opener was not a band, but a short film about music around the world, including 3rd world nations that much of the industry unfortunately doesn't give much regard to. It was several music videos spliced with images of many different performers and social and political events that have and are taking place around the world.
I found this presentation to actually be very informative and even moving. However, it was somewhat hard to hear and get into the mood of this piece, due to a talkative crowd and the El Rey's acoustic.
I would probably pay more attention to it if it were released on DVD or available on the net, and I could watch it without anxious fans or my own anticipation about seeing Coldplay for the first time.
At long last after four hours of waiting in line and about an hour and a half of waiting inside, the lights went down, and Coldplay took the stage.
They opened with "Politik", the opening track off of AROBTTH. It was extremely passionate and jolting; bright white lights flashed across the stage and across the crowd to the beat of ()'s drums... I was immediately struck by how impressive the band sounds live - Chris's voice is almost, if not just as good live as it is on the record.
The second song performed was Shiver, off of parachutes, which the crowd, including myself, delighted in. They played several songs off their debut Parachutes, such as "Don't Panic", and of course "Yellow". They also played "Trouble" and "Everything's Not Lost" which the crowd sang along for.
Chris even offered his microphone to a fan in the front who then seemed to become a bit shy at this prospect. The band of course played several songs off their new album, A Rush of Blood to the Head, including "God Put a Smile on My Face", "Daylight" (my personal favorite), and a soft and emotional rendition of "Amsterdam."
The band also played a very energetic cover of "Lips like Sugar". I was however, slightly disappointed by the lack of B-sides performed, except for See You Soon. I found this strange for a show supposedly given specifically for fans.
The band closed with an encore, and played "Life is for Living," and "In My Place", upon which the lights came up and the crowd was immediately ushered outside.
All of these songs were performed with passion and brilliance, on the parts of all the band members. I found Chris Martin to be absolutely charismatic. As I was discussing with someone on the Coldplay message boards, Chris Martin is incredibly human. In addition to a fantastic vocal performance, Chris is incredible gracious.
He continually bowed to the crowd, mouthing the words "thank you" to the crowd during applause. He danced and jumped around the stage energetically and almost carelessly, nearly tipping over his microphone stand. He ever told the audience how amazing it was to come "50,000 miles from home" and still have people come to their shows, even though they might have been "lost" and gone to the wrong show or were "looking to see Spiderman." Chris is very humble, and despite a quickly growing fan base, sold out arena shows, and a best selling new record, Chris and the rest of the band seem to maintain the honesty and emotion that got them here in the first place.
As I watched their performance at the El Rey show, I could see that they are extremely successful at this; in the world of mainstream music that is filled with teenage pop stars that where napkins for skirts who sing meaningless songs they didn't write and disgruntled screaming too-tough "rock" bands that are all basically variations of Korn, Coldplay offers true, expressive, and heartfelt ART.
Overall this show was nothing short of amazing. A band that performs with so much honest emotion displaying so much real talent playing in such a small venue couldn't be anything besides this.
If anything was lacking in the show it had nothing to do with Coldplay. It's my understanding that the acoustics of the el Rey weren't designed with a show like this in mind, but rather a dance nightclub. And its also my understanding that the staff of the El Rey treated some fans less than ideally, and that a certain number of tickets were set aside for industry officials, while Coldplay fans hoping to score last minute tickets we left out in the cold (in not entirely sure about this, this is just what I heard).
I have heard that the Bimbo's 365 show in San Francisco was better than the El Rey show - supposedly more personal, and tickets were released at the last minute and everyone that wanted to get in got in, leaving scalpers out in the cold that time. Supposedly the El Rey show was very "industry" while the San Francisco show was much more intimate and fan oriented.
I must admit that the very nature of the city did contribute to the overall experience of the show. Like it or not Los Angeles is very industry oriented. There are some definite Pros as well as some definite Cons to this.
The biggest con, perhaps, is that shows do tend to be very industry oriented. Shows of this nature are not generally aimed at fans but for the elites of the music industry, no matter what the band intended. Music industry officials and movie stars are often given preference over true fans who may be lovers of whatever band they came do see, but don't happen to own a million dollar recording studio or have starred in a couple of B movies.
In accordance with this, owners, security, and workers tend to have an inflated sense of self-importance and often condescend to fans. This can lead to rather negative experiences, a friend had a hard time trying to think of a what to do with his bag that held his asthma medication, while girls with purses the same size as his bag were allowed to walk right, while security gave him a very hard time.
However, the pro of this situation is that no matter what genre of music you like, since the city is a Mecca of the music industry, it is next to impossible for one's favorite band not to stop here on a tour. Whether the band is the incredibly famous, or very underground/independent, THEY WILL MAKE A STOP IN LOS ANGELES.
In the past 5 years I've been to more that 15 shows and after the conclusion of this Coldplay concert, I can now say that there isn't a band I've loved that I haven't been able to see live due to my close proximity to the Los Angeles area.
So when it comes down to it, would I rather be living in a city several miles away from the shallow world of the music industry or would I rather be right in the middle of the mess?
This music fan is willing to settle for the infatuated with industry City of Angeles and day.
-Sarah Hill
