31 January 2006: Oakland Arena, Oakland, CA
From WikiColdplay
Setlist
- Square One
- Politik
- Yellow
- Speed Of Sound
- God Put A Smile Upon Your Face
- X&Y
- How You See The World
- Don't Panic
- White Shadows
- The Scientist
- Til Kingdom Come
- Ring Of Fire
- Trouble
- Clocks
- Talk
Encore:
Reviews
2005's biggest-selling band delivers a "f***ing amazing concert"--as promised--to a packed house at Oakland Arena. From the moment that "Yellow" dominated rock radio charts in 2001, the quartet, whether by instinct or intent, have taken a laserlike approach to becoming the world's biggest rock band. And with deference to U2, which has a robust, 25-year catalog of hits to fall back on, Coldplay has done just that, selling 4.5 million copies of their latest album, X&Y (which sold the most albums worldwide in 2005).
That grandeur--and Coldplay's delight in it--was on full display for all of their 90-minute show at the Oakland Arena Tuesday night.
For its opener, "Square One," front man Chris Martin stood as a silhouette in front of a giant LED-like display of rapidly blinking digits. As he emerged to the front of the stage to croon the opening lyrics, "You're in control/Is there anywhere you wanna go?" his body language exuded self-importance.
Within minutes, the band built into "Yellow," flaunting its signature sound of sweet melodies and Martin's beautiful, seemingly vulnerable falsetto. The arrival from above of huge yellow, glitter-filled balloons sent the crowd into a frenzy.
In addition to writing exceedingly catchy songs that effortlessly build, surge, crest, and slip back into a tidy conclusion, Martin also seems susceptible to a touch of hyperbole.
At the end of "God Put a Smile on Your Face," Martin pronounced: "This is going to be a f***ing amazing concert!"
Perhaps an overstatement, but the packed house of 18,000 seemed to love every minute of the neatly wrapped, laser-laden show. On Martin's prompt, the crowd easily took over the lyrics for songs like "The Scientist" and "Clocks," and went bonkers when he ran out into the crowd for a stretch.
And above all else, Martin and his mates seemed to be basking in their hasty maturation into a colossal rock band. He joyously pranced, twirled, and rolled all over the stage, and when he sat down at his keyboards, his unbridled enthusiasm turned into pelvic thrusts timed to the beat of the the song.
Martin also acknowledged the band's meteoric rise, shouting out those that jumped aboard in the band's early days.
"Thanks for sticking with us as we became an enormous rock band," he said.
But on a stage kept spare enough to emphasize the music, Coldplay's sound and personality was big enough to fill the big arena, even when it pared down its sound for a front-of-stage set that included a cover of Johnny Cash's famed "Ring of Fire."
The same couldn't be said for opener Fiona Apple, whose sound and presence is more suited to midsized venues. Despite that, Apple put on a rollicking performance, showcasing her downtrodden introspection and crafty lyrical turns.
Apple's tiny body belies a wonderfully powerful, dense voice, and although her melodrama wears a bit thin, it's clear that she feels her music in a deep way.
Martin's sometimes-vapid lyrics make some wonder if the same is true for him. "Fix You," the most recent single off X&Y, brought the house down in the show's waning moments. It also provided a window into that criticism: "When the tears come streaming down your face/When you lose something you can't replace/When you love someone but it goes to waste/Could it be worse?"
But "Fix You" also highlights what makes Coldplay compelling to millions of people: sweet, simple, artistically sincere, and almost universally appealing songs that are destined for the charts.
http://www.mp3.com/stories/3100.html
Coldplay has worn me down. The band wins. Although I once tried to write the quartet off in 2001 as a one-hit wonder, based on the single ``Yellow, I now find myself in the position where I have to admit I like the band. I mean - imagine Sally Fields' voice here - I really like the band.
I've been wrong before - for instance, I thought that Jamie Foxx's album would (should) bomb - but rarely have I revised my opinion to the extent that I have done with this band.
I'd like to claim that it's the multi-Grammy-nominated band that has changed, that 2005's ``X&Y is just so vastly superior to the group's first two releases, but that excuse doesn't really work. The fact is that I didn't follow George Michael's advice and ``Listen Without Prejudice. Coldplay had the look of a one-hit wonder in the beginning and, thus, that's all I saw. As the evidence to the contrary piled in, I figured it was yet another case of crafty marketing trumping solid critical analysis.
Yet I now find it hard to question the value of Coldplay's entire catalog - especially after attending the band's performance Tuesday night at the Oakland Arena.
The British quartet drew from all three of its releases during this middle date on a three-stop swing through the greater Bay Area - it also performed Monday at Arco Arena in Sacramento and Wednesday at HP Pavilion in San Jose - and most everything sounded superb.
Even the opening set, delivered by a rejuvenated Fiona Apple, was solid. The 28-year-old New Yorker channeled Diana Krall cool as she melded smoky blues and hipster jazz into her regular raw and emotive mix. In particular, her versions of ``Shadowboxer, ``Criminal, ``Fast as You Can and the title track to last year's successful comeback effort, ``Extraordinary Machine, were quite memorable.
Coldplay fans, however, were having little of it. As the fiery Apple continued to stomp her feet, flail her arms and cry out against, well, something, the capacity crowd seemed increasingly bewildered as to why anyone would be this angry and upset when Coldplay was soon due to take the stage. I'm with them.
Following a short break in the action, Coldplay started its set, appropriately, at ``Square One and proceeded to fill roughly 90 minutes with some of the best pop-rock material of the 21st century.
Although 2005's ``X&Y is widely hailed as the band's finest effort by critics, many of whom were as slow as yours truly to board the Coldplay bandwagon, it was the offerings from 2002's ``A Rush of Blood to the Head that came across most strongly in Oakland.
It certainly was true with the evening's second selection, ``Politik, a stadium-rocking anthem equal to anything even U2 has to offer; that's not light praise, given my high opinion of U2, especially as a live act. The inescapable U2 comparisons proved to have much merit Tuesday. Vocalist Chris Martin, sporting a new tightly curled 'do, delivered ``Rush tracks ``God Put a Smile Upon Your Face and ``Politik with the same sense of urgency and passion, if not the same sense of panache and drama, as Bono.
Guitarist Jon Buckland certainly filled the ``X&Y-tracks ``White Shadows and ``Speed of Sound with shimmery, snaking, Edge-style leads. But what really unites the two bands is that they both make pop music feel elegant and, above all else, important.
Coldplay generated and sustained an amazing amount of intensity, performing each song like it was the most important one on the set list. It was true even on ``Yellow, the overplayed radio smash from 2000's ``Parachutes that, one would think, the band would dread playing for the zillionth time.
Continuing through ``Don't Panic (from ``Parachutes) and ``The Scientist (off ``Rush), the quartet picked up momentum as it neared the finish line. It then made a seemingly odd move by pulling the plug on the power, almost literally, and performing an acoustic-oriented stripped-down set. The short segment sputtered, except during the likeable version of the Johnny Cash-staple ``Ring of Fire, and it appeared that the band had made a wrong move by going semi-unplugged.
Yet the change in dynamics paid off when this lull in intensity was immediately followed by the band's best song, ``Clocks, which nearly knocked the roof off the arena.
The encore consisted of three solid offerings: the ``Rush-tune ``In My Place and the new songs ``Swallowed in the Sea and ``Fix You, the last of which connected as solidly as an Eric Chavez homerun.
Coldplay didn't really need to fix anything to earn this glowing review - it's been a great band from the start. It was this critic who had to fix his thinking.
Source: http://www.insidebayarea.com/entertainment/ci_3465469
I was happy to finally catch Coldplay live. They're such a favorite of mine that it's been upsetting that I haven't been able to watch them.
It was worth the wait.
Chris Martin’s voice may have broken a bit during "Clocks" and he may dance crazy -- crawling and skulking about - but I'm not complaining. His voice is still amazing and cathartic at times. Besides, he sang a bit of Johnny Cash including "Ring of Fire."
Coldplay was able to make the Oakland arena feel intimate. Their effects were bare - lights and a screen that magnified their faces - so the emphasis was on the band, not the stage. Plus, Martin ran into the audience.
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2006/02/coldplay_at_the.html
I just got back from the concert.
It was good but i think the shoreline show i went to last august was better but i enjoyed myself a lot.The crowd was very much into the whole concert.Chris was very interactive with the crowd.I wish though that they would change the setlist though.I really didnt like x&y and How You See The World too much they could play other tracks that are way better.But i enjoyed myself very much.
Im going to the San Jose show tomorrow night should be fun too!
My highlights were,Politik,Yellow,The Scientist,Swallowed in the Sea,In My Place,and Fix You.
Square One Politik Yellow Speed Of Sound God Put A Smile Upon Your Face X&Y How You See The World Dont Panic White Shadows The Scientist Til Kingdom Come Ring Of Fire Trouble Clocks Talk
Encore: Swallowed in the Sea In My Place Fix You
[Thanks IneedYou23]
