21 November 2008: Pepsi Center Arena, Denver, CO, USA
From WikiColdplay
Contents |
Setlist
- Life In Technicolor
- Violet Hill
- Clocks
- In My Place
- Speed Of Sound
- Cemeteries Of London
- Chinese Sleep Chant
- 42
- Fix You
- Strawberry Swing
- God Put A Smile Upon Your Face (techno version)
- Talk (techno remix)
- The Hardest Part
- Postcards From Far Away (piano instrumental)
- Viva La Vida
- Lost!
- The Scientist (acoustic)
- Death Will Never Conquer (acoustic - Will singing)
- Viva La Vida (remix interlude)
First Encore - Politik
- Lovers In Japan
- Death And All His Friends
Second Encore - Yellow
- The Escapist (outro)
Photos
Photos from this show can be found at Coldplaying.com in the Gallery thread for Denver. http://www.coldplaying.com/forum/gallery/showgallery.php/cat/1554
Videos
Videos from this show can be found in the first post of the Coldplaying forum live thread for this show at http://www.coldplaying.com/forum/showthread.php?t=44966
Discussion
All post-show discussion for this show at the forum thread: http://www.coldplaying.com/forum/showthread.php?t=44966
Fan Reviews
All fan reviews have been submitted to us by the members of Coldplaying.com[1], unless stated otherwise.
This was an amazing Coldplay concert. I enjoyed every minute of it. The first warm up band, Sleepercars, was pretty good, but I didn't like the second one at all. But then Coldplay rocked the house!!! It was a truly outstanding concert.
[Boots]
Good show. Chris was in high spirits, all over the place, and full of energy. When they came through the Pepsi center during the X+Y tour it felt like we were just another stop but last night they gave a bit more effort. Chris talked a bit during slow bits and he did indeed rip his pants (never noticed during the show), the video screen cameras focused in on the black duct tape wrapped around it during Yellow encore and his quick talk about it (upper leg i think).
Funny how some songs worked better then others now. The Hardest Part of course really works better acoustically and songs like Speed Of Sound, Cemeteries Of London, Chinese Sleep Chant, and Lovers In Japan were highlights.
Still not happy about all backing tapes and having the tinges of doubt on certain songs that its Jonny doing all the guitar sounds but it was a better show than I was fearing. It's still a much different experience then being in front rows during the AROBTTH so its hard to compare the two. But it was a good show and all the fans appeared quite satisfied.
[Chris's Nuts]
Coldplay @ Pepsi Center
Justin and I went to the Coldplay show last night and really enjoyed their set. On paper, Coldplay’s sound shouldn’t translate to an arena stage but their catalog really comes to life in a live setting. Their secret weapon is drummer Will Champion. Chris Martin recently called Will the greatest drummer in rock music and now I know why. They opened with four huge hits including Violet Hill, Clocks, In My Place and Speed of Sound before settling in to a groove with a slew of album tracks. I was heartbroken they didn’t play my absolute favorite song Trouble, but they are still one hell of a band. Check out Mark Brown’s review from the Rocky if you want to read more about the show. He’s a better writer than I am.
I spotted the JACK-FM vehicle in the parking lot before the show and surprised my former street teamers Jared and Lauren. We gossiped about radio for a while and it was good to see them. If you are in the mood for a little Coldplay, check out In My Place and Lovers In Japan.
http://defkennyt.blogspot.com/2008/1...si-center.html
Media Reviews
At Coldplay’s not-quite-sold-out concert at the Pepsi Center on Friday night, Chris Martin was manic and playful and athletic and weird and animated and, yes, a little bit over-the-top.
It was refreshing to see that the once-stiff Martin has evolved as a performer – a performer who plays and dances and jumps on stage when he’s not sitting at his piano stool, rocking back and forth like a possessed idiot savant. Yes, this is the same Martin that has been pegged as a pretentious, sometimes-ridiculous artist who is trying a little too hard to be important. The funny thing: This silliness is exactly what Martin needed to balance things out. He made his name on a sappy song called “Yellow,” and while his piano-fronted music was tailor-made for middle-of-the-road FM radio, he always spoke in terms that were much bigger than any of his work.
Some of his aspirations are commendable, including the work he and his band have done for Oxfam. But some of his other aspirations – say, to be the next U2 – have been absurd. Coldplay is Coldplay. They can fill arenas, and they’ll continue to do so as long as they stay prominently on the radio. But it seems like the band got lost in its middle years, obsessed with trying to be something it wasn’t. (You’ve heard bands trying to sound important. Listen to the last Killers record and most parts of Coldplay’s “X&Y.”)
And yet now the band is finally approaching its initial aspirations. Coldplay is a tremendous live band, and while their catalog of music isn’t as strong as their emotional connection in a live arena, it’s steadily getting better. An example of Coldplay transcending its recordings in concert: In a late-set “Politik” on Friday, Martin and his bandmates masterminded a maniacal build that started around 150 degrees, jumped to 350 degrees with the quick flip of the dial, dove back to the 150 degree range and then leaped instantly into hazardous self-cleaning territory.
It was a powerful and loud moment, and it was also risky. That song wasn’t the same track that kicks off the 2002 disc “A Rush of Blood to the Head.” It was a brawnier hulk that demanded an arena singalong, dramatic backlighting and earplugs (depending on where you were sitting). The song was a jagged rush, and it invigorated the adoring audience to sing right along with their heroes.
The show didn’t lack big moments. A straightforward “Clocks” came early in the night and jump-started the audience into singalong mode. Martin loves working that piano stool, and while his gyrations aren’t as sensual as, say, Tori Amos, he looks like an excited little boy as he quickly rocks back and forth on the stool.
“Speed of Sound” is one of the band’s biggest hits, but it’s also one of the most uninventive songs in their catalog. It’s big enough to fill an arena, sure, but it lacks the vitality of “Talk,” which was later performed (as an upbeat remix of the original) on one of the stage’s two jutting runways.
“Viva La Vida” was a big moment, but of the new songs played on Friday, the instrumental “Life in Technicolor” and the moody “Lost!” left the most lasting impressions. “Life in Technicolor” was pure whimsy, and the band was obviously having fun with that one. And “Lost!” is a big song that bursts with life, and it hints at potential greatness from this band.
The supposed greatness of “Fix You” is still lost on me. But I will note that I was in the minority who weren’t feverishly singing along with Martin on that track, which came about halfway through the set. The band’s single-song encore of “Yellow” was welcomed by the crowd.
The band’s production this time out was smart and chic. Two runways stretched from each of the stage’s sides into the audience, and the band wasn’t afraid to use them. The lights were decent, but the video screens – and the six, giant video bulbs that went up and down at various points of the night – enhanced the show massively. A glorious late-show shower of butterfly-shaped confetti didn’t hurt.
“The Scientist” got special play as the band walked off the stage and through the crowd and up some stairs, where a second stage was set up in front of one of the VIP boxes. Chris Martin – dressed in a purple shirt, his signature jacket with multicolored armbands, patchwork pants and some ratty black tennis shoes – joked a lot throughout the night. From this sidestage perch, he made a joke about the people in the front row feeling ripped off (given the band’s temporary relocation) and then settled, talking quickly about having to get into the right mood to play the sad song. The performance of “The Scientist” was simple, unremarkable, but the band was rewarded for always sharing the love and occasionally hamming it up for cell phone pictures.
http://blogs.denverpost.com/reverb/2008/11/22/coldplay-the-pepsi-center/
Coldplay blends classic, edgy
At the risk of echoing past reviews of Coldplay, it's really easy to forget what a good band it is. The songs all over the radio and on the group's four albums are so neatly tailored that it's always a refreshing surprise to see Coldplay live and be rocked, be it the early years at the Fillmore Auditorium or Friday night's show at the Pepsi Center.
Granted, Coldplay salted the set early with hits, including the classic Clocks, which has become more muscular with age - largely because of drummer Will Champion, who happily doubled on guitar and vocals during acoustic songs.
But the crowd was down with everything from the first note, be it album cuts or the single When I Ruled the World. In a moment of time when the news seems to be unrelentingly bleak, there's a lot to be said for a packed auditorium of music fans singing lustily and joyously along with a strong set.
It's also refreshing to see a band using common sense in the staging of a concert. Every high-tech bell and whistle was there - the gigantic big screen, floating picture orbs and enough lasers to make The Who very happy. But it was just used in a smarter way, with ramps extending into the audience near the front, and additional big-screens hung halfway back so the rear of the house felt intimate as well. They headed to the rear of the arena for another mini-set, starting with The Scientist.
"This gives everybody at the front the chance to Blackberry their friends and say 'Gee, man, we overpaid,' " singer Chris Martin joked.
Martin has steadily grown as a frontman, intense but jerky in his early days, relaxed and fun these days. He effortlessly commands the stage, where nothing feels forced or planned. He manages to convey a combination of goofiness and warmth, a far cry from the aloof image that the media has painted of him for his ambitious writing or the person he chose to marry.
The band took the stage a bit later than planned, and at press time, encores still were ahead. If recent shows are any indication, the band's first hit, Yellow, was likely to have made up a big part of that.
Jon Hopkins opened with a hypnotic electronic set, accompanied by animation on a big screen that was at the same time up-to-the-minute but also echoed the days of the old San Francisco psychedelic ballroom scene. He could have used a bigger screen, but fans were still surprisingly receptive to the edgy set.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/nov/21/coldplay-blends-classic-edgy/
Denver and back to Dallas.
No. Not physically. That would be very silly. That’s a long old drive. Plus, let’s face it. There is not much to look at on the way. I spent much of the trip in the darkened cocoon of my bunk. The rest, faced with the slow realisation, as I peered out of the bus window, that this country is just vast. As soon as we headed out into that nothingness the day after the Dallas show.. the temperature dropped. We eventually hit the Colorado mountains on the way into Denver, and it fell again. Tumbled even. -6 last night (20 Farenheit I think.. crikey). Nothing like the heat of Dallas.
Back in Dallas, Texas, it was more like a summer’s night than a winter freeze. No scarfs required. No jackets even. I was sweltering when I donned the Oxfam jacket to go and meet the patiently waiting volunteers. It was another night of activity for them. Getting the word out there, meeting fans, explaining Oxfam’s work and getting excited about the show ahead. One of them came back afterwards, and described the concert simply as “life-changing”. There are a lot of happy fans leaving these venues once the confetti has fallen.
The same volunteer was telling me about how 1 in 3 children in her town in Texas, goes to bed hungry. It’s just two hours drive from the polished arena where the show was held. That is astonishing. I have learnt so much about this country on my trip with the tour. I am pleased to say that Oxfam also works to overcome poverty here in America too. It’s amazing how poverty can often go so unseen. This is not a poor country. But poverty exists here. It must not be ignored. Hopefully Oxfam’s presence on this tour, can help to improve awareness of poverty, and make it less invisible.
Denver is not a place I know much about. Not that I knew much about Dallas either.. I heard it’s a mile above sea level, which might explain part of that temperature tumble. I know it’s home of the Broncos too.. Today we sit in the warmth of another huge modern arena. It’s just a fairground away from that Broncos stadium, which sits under the watchful eye of those mountains. Today, this will be the home of Coldplay, and 20 Oxfam volunteers, of course.
Oh.. I just wanted to share this with you. I couldn’t help laughing earlier, when I saw the catering area being hoovered before lunch. The hoover (vacuum) was strapped to the back of a busy person, looking more like a proton pack out of Ghostbusters, than a cleaning device. I half expected Peter Venkman and Egon Spengler to appear and fight the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man..
http://www.oxfamblogs.org/coldplay/?p=109
