30 April 2005: Coachella Music Festival 2005, Empire Polo Field, Indio
From WikiColdplay
Setlist
- Square One
- Politik
- God Put A Smile Upon Your Face
- Speed Of Sound
- Warning Sign
- Yellow
- Low
- The Scientist
- ’Til Kingdom Come
- Clocks
- What If
Encore - A Message
- In My Place
- Fix You
Reviews
It became clear Coldplay was Day 1's major draw when band leader Chris Martin instigated a mass exodus for the parking lots by announcing he'd do one more song. The English band mixed classics such as "Yellow" and "Clocks" with several songs from their much-anticipated new CD, "X&Y," set to drop in June. Martin said before the CD was recorded it would be the "best album of all time," and Saturday he hyped several singles from it as his "best ever" of one sort of another.
A song he wrote for Johnny Cash, "Till Kingdom Come," was perhaps most poignant. Martin said the country singer, who was one of his heroes, died before he could record it so the band recorded it instead.
Martin has transferred his simple melodic music into a stadium rock sound, and his success at that, paving the way for other melodic piano bands such as Keane, may be his greatest contribution. The key to his success is his arrangements, featuring the pounding drums of Will Champion, but Martin also danced energetically to the melodic music, although he'll never make fans forget Prince or Mick Jagger
In a word, amazing. In two, f*cking amazing. Coldplay headlined the event, and they didn't disappoint. I stood for 9 hours in the same area being squished by crazy fans waiting for coldplay. I saw some pretty cool acts pre-coldplay (Snow Patrol, Keane, Weezer, although I had to skip out on Bloc Party unfortunately). Then when Coldplay came on, things just went ridiculous. Opened with Square One, played some classics such as Yellow (I *think* that was the only Parachutes song, correct me if I'm wrong), as well as several AROBTTH songs and X&Y songs. NEW SONGS: not sure if they've actually played these before, but they played Low, Til Kingdom Come, Fix You, and other songs from the new album which they have already played live before. All amazing songs, but Fix You is a stand out track.
I made some REAL crappy recordings, and I mean using the recording function on my cell phone resulting in some seriously distorted sound. But I got a bunch of pictures of Chris and the boys dancing, prancing, jumping around doing their thing. Will Champion even played the piano for Til Kingdom Come, showing off the bands amazing versatility.
The most amazing event was Chris Martin performing an spontaneous leap from the stage into the crowd, however . It was absolutely scary and terrific to watch at the same time. The screams of surprise were deafining. You could tell they didn't plan it because security quickly surrounded him looking quite surprised and shocked. I was all the way up front so I got a good view of it, I seriously thought Chris hurt himself because it was a good 6-7 foot leap to hard packed desert ground. But he got up and continued singing, actually even walking into the crowd. I think this was during Clocks, correct me if I'm wrong any other Coachellites (or whatever you call us), or another ROBTTH song. It just really shows how amazing a character and performer Chris is, he truly is incredible to watch.
And now, it's 4:45am, I've been standing watching my favorite bands for 13 hours straight, I must go to sleep. Hope you enjoyed my little insight into a truly amazing Coldplay performance. [thanks koolsmoky]
yes yes it was an amazing festival. coldplay was the best in show, while weezer was awesome, and rilo kiley was one of my favorites for the day. but back to coldplay, they opened with square one, alot of fans were jumping in anticipation but it really took off when they went straight into politik after. i believe it was at the end of politik when chris gave a little nod to weezer by singing the first line of buddy holly, "what's with his homies dissing my girl," hehe.
gpasuyf was fantastic, warning sign was fantastic, and yellow absolutely brought down the house. at the end of the scientist, chris started going into "hurt" by NIN, the headliners for sunday night. it was odd how he kept the same chord progression from the scientist while singing hurt, but it mixed perfect, after one or two lines of the song however he quickly stopped himself saying, "wait that's for tomorrow," getting a few laughs out of the audience. at the end of clocks, when the audience's clapping went out of sync with will's drums, chris had a spontaneous idea and asked the audience to race, their clapping against his playing, he went faster and faster playing the piano riff to clocks, it was funny watching the rest of the band try and keep up too. the new songs sounded amazing, well rehearsed, no mistakes. low was great, he asked the audience to all take pictures of him at a certain point, giving that flash effect.
my favorite of the new songs was "what if," and chris seems to agree, he introduced it as "the best song we've ever f*cking written." they played "til kingdom come," saying it was for jonny cash, with "the most talented drummer in the world" will on piano, jonny and chris on guitars, and guy on the harmonica. speed of sound was great, and fix you was excellent too, chris said it was going to be everyone's favorite when the album comes out. their encore consisted of a message, in my place, and then fix you, in my place was probably my favorite for the night, mostly for the sing-along opportunities.
on a side note my friend almost patted chris's shoulder when he walked through that pit aisle, he was inches away. all in all it was a spectacular performance, i cannot wait til they come back on their tour. you could tell that they were very happy to be playing in front of a huge (40,000) audience that consisted of their fans, the energy they were giving and recieving, it was amazing.
Chris himself mentioned how great it was to be playing in front of all of us, comparing it to their gig at the hard rock hotel in vegas the night before, he said, loosely quoting, "it was an odd expereince, the room was full of more silicone than silicone valley. there were lots of nice breasts, but the audience was sh*t." so yeah, sorry for the looooooong review, its just that i'm still excited from the performance today. [thanks okpathos]
Media Reviews
It would have taken a set of Fugazi covers to turn away the faithful entrenched at the main stage for Coldplay's headlining appearance on Saturday. Maybe it's just us, but the U.K. band came off flat. Perhaps it was abundance of ballads and love songs ("The Scientist," "Yellow"); frontman Chris Martin even acknowledged the theme after "Warning Sign" when he said, "It's sappy, but we love it anyway."
Maybe it has to do with Coldplay's rapid ascent from Britpop up-and-comers to one of the most popular bands in the world, but there's something pushy about numbers like closer "Fix You," where the song's subject is simply told, "lights will guide you" as a solution to his or her problems. That said, the megahit "Clocks" sounded great in such large surroundings, and "Square One," the opening track of the new album "X&Y," proved the band can still evince a U2-worthy rock edge when it really wants to.
http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/reviews/live_review_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000905006
Coldplay, NIN Top Coachella With Emotional Performances
Chris Martin and Trent Reznor take to the piano, provide intimate-sounding sets.
By Corey Moss, with additional reporting by Shari Scorca
INDIO, California — One played tender melodic rock, the other fierce industrial metal, but at the heart of Coachella's headliners was the same thing: a man with a piano and something to say.
On paper, Coldplay and Nine Inch Nails, who topped Saturday and Sunday's lineups respectively, represent the wide diversity that is the Coachella Valley Music Festival. However, when it came to their performances, both bands drew from deep emotions for sets that, despite the massive setting, felt intensely intimate. Whether it's "Yellow" or "Hurt," there's just something profoundly personal about a piano solo under the stars.
While new parent Chris Martin clearly had love and happiness on his mind (one of their new songs is even titled "Love"), Trent Reznor's song selections stuck to his signature declarations of hatred (at himself and others) and isolation. "Don't you f---ing know what you are?" he screamed over and over during one new track.
Now in its sixth year, Coachella has mastered the recipe for the perfect weekend festival: enough buzz bands to fill a season of "The O.C.," a couple of chart-toppers and a pinch of under-the-radar show-stealers to perform for 22 hours over two days on five stages. All this and not one stage named after a corporate sponsor.
With attendance back to about 50,000 per day (last year topped 60,000) and temperatures 20 degrees below 2004's scorching 100-degree days, navigating the five stages was much more bearable, although there was still the juggling act of trying to catch all the anticipated shows. It's not easy when the Bravery, the Futureheads and Tegan and Sara are playing simultaneously, but here at MTV News, we did our best. Here are some highlights:
"I know, it's cheesy," Coldplay's Chris Martin told the largest assembled audience of the weekend at Saturday's end after changing "And it was called yellow" to "And it was Coachella" during the band's breakthrough hit. Martin also called himself ugly, apologized for rambling and asked, "I know we're foreigners, but will you give us a chance?" Maybe the sleepers in the back made him insecure (hey, it was almost midnight), but the thunderous roars for both their old and new songs and the constant flicking of camera flashes had to have been ego-boosting. Coldplay previewed several new tunes, including the heart-tugging " 'Til Kingdom Come," which Martin said was written for Johnny Cash.
Wait, is that Trent Reznor in white? Perhaps symbolic of the new, sober man behind Nine Inch Nails? Regardless, he shed the shirt for a black tank top after a few tunes, around the same time the band really got going with Pretty Hate Machine anthem "Terrible Lies." Reznor, whose new band tore into its instruments like untamed beasts, mixed favorites such as "Piggy" and "Closer" with the heavier tracks from the upcoming With Teeth, including the title track and "You Know What You Are?" For the finale, the sweat-covered singer marched through "Hurt," "The Hand That Feeds" and "Head Like a Hole," the best of Nails' three eras.
The Arcade Fire, one of the biggest buzz bands of the weekend, appeared to live up to the hype as the Outdoor Theatre crowd pogoed for most of the group's high-energy set. Singer Win Butler has a rock-star persona similar to Conor Oberst (whose Bright Eyes played later), but the fun was in watching the rest of the band, whose various members not only switched instruments constantly but also screamed every lyric, climbed the rafters, banged on everything in sight and wrestled each other to the ground.
Snow Patrol, Keane and Wilco drew surprising numbers to the Coachella stage Saturday, but it was Weezer who brought the hits. The band played radio single after radio single, and the audience sang along "just like Buddy Holly."
Not only did several bands inspired by New Order and Joy Division perform — among them the Secret Machines, the Bravery and Bloc Party — but so did New Order themselves. They dusted off "Blue Monday" and "Bizarre Love Triangle," as well as JD's "Love Will Tear Us Apart."
Filling in for the Cocteau Twins (who backed out of their reunion) were reunited legends of a different genre. Performing as Black Star for the first time in years, Mos Def and Talib Kweli rose to the difficulty of following Nine Inch Nails by bringing out the festival's only surprise guest, Common, for his "Get By" and the Black Star collabo "Respiration."
With the wall of sound from the Raveonettes on the Coachella Stage echoing beside him, British jazz crooner Jamie Cullum literally stomped on his piano keys to lure in curious early arrivers Saturday afternoon. Although he wondered aloud what he was doing there ("I'm playing Cole Porter at a rock festival!"), Cullum answered his own question with a set every bit as rock and roll — in spirit at least — as the other piano men on the bill. For his closer, Cullum delivered his cover of Radiohead's "High and Dry," ambitiously adding audience participation, some piano freestyling and a drum solo he played standing while his drummer kept the beat on the same kit.
Later Saturday on the Outdoor Theatre, after shirtless Razorlight singer Johnny Borrell channeled Iggy Pop in a blistering set that blended infectious rock with politically charged punk, Rilo Kiley stole alt-country fans on their way to see Wilco by beginning with their single "It's a Hit." Singer Jenny Lewis, one of only a few females performing at Coachella, and her angelic, pitch-perfect voice proved a soothing soundtrack to the desert sunset, especially on the sexy "love song" (her words) "I Never."
Sunday had its own angelic voice on the Outdoor Theatre in Jem. The British singer played "They," "Wish I" and other sunny tracks from Finally Woken for her early afternoon show, as well as covers of Stevie Wonder's "Master Blaster" and Paul McCartney's "Maybe I'm Amazed." "I don't know if this is PC to say here, but I did this song when I was the wedding band on 'The O.C.,' " Jem said with a smile. "Oh, come on, it's a guilty pleasure."
In the Sahara tent, which was definitely the spot for the techno heads fiendin' for a rave, UNKLE stole the show Saturday with a set that ended with a remix of the Killers' "Mr. Brightside" followed by U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name."
While Kasabian whipped the Mojave tent into a frenzy for a solid hour Sunday afternoon, a crowd spilling out of the nearby Gobi tent caught Sri Lankan rapper M.I.A. After she ended her set with the single "Galang," the crowd's screaming brought her for a rare Coachella encore, a freestyle to the beat of Jay-Z's "Big Pimpin'." Earlier that afternoon, M.I.A.'s DJ and boyfriend, Diplo, dropped tongues in the Sahara tent by working in mash-ups of Outkast with the Cure and Ying Yang Twins with the Bangles into his set of Brazilian hip-hop.
It was all worth it for the goth kids (and there were many) who sweated out hours of desert heat in their black PVC pants, mesh shirts and black lipstick when Bauhaus took the main stage Saturday (oddly, in between Weezer and Coldplay). Singer Peter Murphy, in shocking bleach-blond hair, took the stage by being lowered upside-down on a wire, while the band took care of its biggest hit, "Bela Lugosi's Dead."
Although not spotted together, 'NSYNC's Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez both took in Coachella. JT and girlfriend Cameron Diaz mingled in the VIP area before joining Gwyneth Paltrow on the side of Coldplay's stage. Meanwhile, Chasez was seen checking out a DJ set from Perry Farrell, the only artist to perform at all six Coachellas. Chloë Sevigny, Danny Masterson and Danny DeVito were also seen around the festival.
A star is traditionally born at each Coachella, and while Rilo Kiley's Lewis and the Arcade Fire's Butler are this year's frontrunners, 2005 saw the festival's first actual birth: Although it took place at a nearby hospital, a woman went into labor at the festival on Saturday afternoon.
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1501113/20050502/coldplay.jhtml
