21 September 2005: Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, Kansas City, MO, USA
From WikiColdplay
Setlist
- Square One
- Politik
- Yellow
- God Put A Smile Upon Your Face
- Speed Of Sound
- Low
- Don’t Panic
- Everything’s Not Lost
- White Shadows
- The Scientist
- ’Til Kingdom Come
- Ring Of Fire (Johnny Cash Cover)
- Green Eyes
- Clocks
- Talk
Encore - Swallowed In The Sea
- In My Place
- Fix You
Reviews
When it comes to Coldplay, the question isn’t merely whether the glass is half-empty or half-full, it’s also what you think is in the glass: Champagne or ginger ale? Whether by intent, luck or accident, the four humble boys from England have become one of the most popular bands in the world, evidenced by the huge crowd that nearly filled the biggest music venue in Wyandotte County Wednesday night. A band that draws that many people — in excess of 16,000 — has some large standards and lofty expectations to live up to.
Did Coldplay succeed? That depends on your perceptions of the glass.
Coldplay had many things in its favor before the show began, starting with a small catalog of material that is ripe with a few solid-gold hits and several songs that should have been hits. The band played nearly all of its best stuff, some of it early: “Yellow,” its first hit, arrived just three songs into the show, and it included one of the few “surprises,” if you want to call it that. About a minute into the song, about a dozen very large yellow balloons were launched into the air and onto the crowd. Fans dutifully bounced them around until some of them popped and unleashed clouds of glittery gold confetti. It was all good, clean, low-grade fun.
The other “moment” came toward the end of “Low,” when the enormous video screen behind the band cued all the fans with cameras to get ready to take a picture. Then the video-screen camera turned its lens on the seats and broadcast the crowd unleashing a fusillade of flashes from cameras and camera phones — about as much fun as you can have in public with cameras and light.
That video screen, which spanned the width of the stage, was an attraction itself all night. Some of its images were canned, but most were live shots: split, inverted images of Chris Martin playing the piano, close-ups of Will Champion’s foot pounding the kick drum or Jon Buckland’s bandaged hand strumming his guitar, face shots of all four graphically manipulated into images that looked like Andy Warhol portraits.
So there was plenty to look at and a few harmless diversions to break the rhythm, which brings us to the more important matters of the songs and the singing.
Coldplay is popular for a few reasons but primarily because it writes handsome, accessible and low-risk adult-alternative rock songs that crackle and shine on record. Live, those songs take on a different form: They’re more leadened, heavy and unpolished, and Martin’s voice feels smaller and more tenuous and uncertain, especially during some of the louder, heavier rock moments. A few times he seemed unsure whether to stick to his normal register or slide into falsetto; and several times the music around him nearly smothered his modest but appealing voice. On top of that, the show suffered from some sloppiness, including a couple of dead-air moments between songs when the stage went dark and silent for 10 to 15 seconds.
When it counted most, though, the band delivered. “Clocks” was especially satisfying. Martin seemed to save his voice for the dynamic, high-flying ending of that one, which ultimately erupted into a smoldering, high-speed coda. The band raised the tempo of the song’s well-known piano/guitar riff to about 200 beats per minute before Martin cut things off suddenly and thoroughly, sending the piano into a wobble as he stormed away from it.
The acoustic set in the middle of the show suffered a little bit from the lack of any percussion, but the Johnny Cash tribute was nice, and the return of “Green Eyes” to the setlist was a pleasant surprise. The other highlights: “Don’t Panic,” the Coldplay song that could most easily be confused for a U2 song; “White Shadows,” one of the best songs off the new album; “The Scientist,” the prettiest thing the band has ever written; and “In My Place,” one of the encores.
During that one, Martin left the stage and headed into the back section of reserved seats to serenade the throng on the lawn. He is goofy in a polite and charming way, but he is also so spontaneous that he’s prone to getting himself into vocal or physical situations that turn into predicaments he’s not sure how to get out of. The silly vocal/noise thing he did at the end of “In My Place” was one of those.
The evening ended with the hymnal “Fix You,” five minutes of balm for broken spirits and cracked hearts. Martin turned the end of that song into a farewell to his audience. Then the PA system played the Beatles’ “Good Night,” the band took its bows and the show was over — the end of an evening that was entertaining but not so intoxicating. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SETLIST: Square One, Politik, Yellow, God Put a Smile Upon Your Face, Speed of Sound, Low, Don’t Panic, Everything’s Not Lost, White Shadows, The Scientist, Til Kingdom Come/Ring of Fire, Green Eyes, Clocks, Talk. Encores: Swallowed in the Sea, In My Place, Fix You.
Source: kansascity.com
