5 March 2009: Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, Australia
From WikiColdplay
Contents |
Setlist
- Life In Technicolor
- Violet Hill
- Clocks
- In My Place
- Yellow
- Cemeteries Of London
- Glass Of Water
- 42
- Fix You
- Strawberry Swing
- God Put A Smile Upon Your Face (partial techno remix)
- Talk (partial techno remix)
- The Hardest Part (Chris solo piano)
- Postcards From Far Away (Chris solo piano)
- Viva La Vida
- Lost!
- Speed Of Sound (acoustic)
- I'm A Believer (acoustic)
- Death Will Never Conquer (acoustic, sung by Will)
- Viva La Vida (remix interlude)
- Politik
- Lovers In Japan
- Death And All His Friends
Encore - The Scientist
- Life In Technicolor ii
- The Escapist (outro)
Photos
Photos from this show can be found at Coldplaying.com in the Gallery thread for Melbourne. http://www.coldplaying.com/forum/gallery/showgallery.php/cat/1658
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=52409
Discussion
All post-show discussion for this show at the forum thread: http://www.coldplaying.com/forum/showthread.php?t=52409
Fan Reviews
All fan reviews have been submitted to us by the members of Coldplaying.com[1], unless stated otherwise.
I waited after the show to see if I could meet them but they actually held Chris' party at Rod Laver Arena. Saw Shane Warne again as well as Molly Meldrum. Waited for quite a while and one of the tour guys took my setlist in to get signed by the guys because he said they wouldn't be out for hours. It got signed by Chris and Guy - my 2 favourites yay! I did see them walking past the windows a few times - guy talking with shane warne and chris running like crazy like a kid haha. Just before I left, Jonnie left in the tarago and then when I left guy was talking to shane warne again next to the car
[sputnam]
Ok, so. ilovealias4ever already hath given you the setlist, so I don't need to do that. People in GA spotted Shane Warne being escorted to his seat. Also, I think I was right next to alias - or her lively copper-haired friend, at least. If she was wearing a light blue X&Y shirt and chatting to said friend about the roadies and setlist before the gig then yes for a large portion of the show I was next to her friend. Alias if that was you, I was the girl with straight brown hair and a black and gray striped V-neck shirt (don't think you would have seen the navy blue jeans but eh).
Show was great, I was about fourth row from the stage I think? On Guy's side. Probably. Support acts - I think Decoder Ring was okay, my sister thought they were a bit strange. Most of the crowd didn't really get what they were about, they were completely instrumental. Mecury Rev, well. If you're going to a show and thinking of skipping some supports, Mercury Rev are a DO NOT WANT. Their set went on for 45 minutes, tooooo long. Audience didn't like them either .
Soon enough JayZ and the Blue Danube started, everyone sort of sang and danced along to the Blue Danube, very funny? It was! Then the lights darkened and LiT began. I think a few people where I was freaked out realising how close they were . Nice big singalong for Violet Hill, same with Clocks and In My Place. And yes girls, the Ramp of Love was loving that night with Chris and Jonny playing around at the end on it.
Out came the balloons for Yellow, everyone had fun with those, great way to keep the crowd entertained because everyone loved them. Some guy near me had cheekily pulled out a pen and was popping them all though . Cemeteries next, pretty good damn performance of it, and Glass of Water. Only two others including myself knew the words (and I'm pretty sure that was ilovealias4ever and co). Everyone was dancing along to 42 by the middle section of the song. Fix You was a massive singalong like Yellow. Strawberry Swing everyone clapped the beat to at the start. Chris mentioned that it was written in Melbourne too
Then everyone noticed the boys were moving down Guy's runway. There they played GPASUYF and Talk. After those two Jonny, Guy and Will moved back up the runway while Chris stayed and started blabbering on about his birthday in Melbourne, everyone started singing Happy Birthday to him and he was so embarrassed It was very sweet. Then he went on about a musical they were going to make about some cricketer or something, can't remember the name, but "the fucking bastards stole our idea!" Thus he introduced The Hardest Part as one of the songs left over from the musical. Very lovely performance of it Chrislovers, be jealous as I had a prime view of his back and all while he was performing it. Hah. After that was Postcards From Far Away, turned around, Jonny was playing a little piece to it but everyone was facing Chris. I think Jonny spotted me and I gave him a smile, heeee.
Next up, Viva La Vida. Crowd went nuts. Great great great performance of it. Then Lost! got a play. Afterwards, the boys disappeared off the stage and then reappeared in the crowd . Acoustics were Speed of Sound, I'm A Believer (which everyone clapped and sang along to, although it had a false start with Chris' shoddy keyboard not working when they started the song ) and Death Will Never Conquer. Chris asked everyone to get their mobiles out at the end of DWNC and the Viva remix played. Be sure to look around when everyone's doing this, it's amaz-ing.
Politik came on, everyone bounced along to it. Lovers in Japan, everyone went nuts with the confetti . I got some along with Yellow confetti by the waye (even got a neon green one but lost a neon orange one, booo). Next was DAAHF... last song, I thought! Noo! But ALAS! The people wanted an encore. And an encore they got.
Chris bounded back on stage and The Scientist was played, full band, non-acoustic. Then Life in Technicolor. Unfortunately I realised I couldn't sing the start of it, and then midway through the song desperately needed a) water, b) air. This was a problem because I was in standing and security had actually confiscated one of our bottles of water, so we were forced to conserve the other one. Anyway had a sip of water, but then felt a bit sick as the boys were taking their final bow. Over to the ramp I go and was sick. Three times. Thank god the boys weren't on stage or Chris would have needed personal assurance I was going to be fine . Not nice. Few people asked if I was going to be okay, said I was, just stayed there for a bit drinking the water and getting fresh air. The fustrating thing I think about now is, if my bottle of water hadn't been obscured in my bag I could have been sick a lot earlier or a lot worse. Thanks a lot, security, your money-grabbing ways of getting us to buy your ridiculously over-priced drinks forced me to be sick. Congrats, morons. Have fun when the parents of several overly-dehydrated teeny-boppers get on your ass.
That's about all... was great though. Two meters from stage, perhaps less. Jonny was cute and shy with his hat on as usual, Will was banging away on the drums although I didn't really see him what with Chris' piano in the way. Berrygirls, I will admit Guy was quite attractive although my eyes were not averted from Chris. Bright blue eyes, pretty curls and a v. nice smile . He looked straight at me at one point, to which I responded with a smile, although I admit I was wearing a lowish-cut V-neck shirt so uh lol! But he was joking about during the night, you could tell he was very excited and happy to be on stage
Warning for merch fans, posters are $10, keychains $20 (you heard me right), shirts are $50 as well as the green hat and a hoodie is $120. Didn't find out how much programmes were, perhaps I should have got one but oh well.
All in all fun night for all (except Mercury Rev. My sister wanted to rather comically commit suicide from "torture by music". DO NOT WANT!)
[cobalt]
This is my first ever Coldplay concert and easily the biggest i've seen. I'm nothing short of being blown away. There were so many highlights, I can't name them all because i'll basically be writing a transcript of the concert. But I was taken by surprise by their encore acoustic performance on the stairs close to where I was sitting. I also loved the trancy rendition of Talk and Viva La Vida was perfect!
Another thing I have to say about this band is that i'm convinced they're not motivated by the money, it really is about the music. I say this because out of all the concerts I have been to, I really feel as though I got my money's worth. Given the size of the production, sound and the fact that it's Coldplay, I can't believe I only paid $280.00 for 2 tickets - honestly. Consider this: I went to see Crowded House last year at the Forum, an intimate Gothic Theatre in the city. Each ticket was around $90.00 and the show was very straight forward: band, music and basic light show. I loved it!
I'm a huge Neil Finn fan so I was naturally euphoric by the end of it, but with Coldplay, for only $50.00 more, the size and premise of the show was expanded 10 fold. What i loved about the concert is that there was always something to look at. At any concert, no matter how good the music is, it can get boring just looking in the one direction at the musicians doing their thing, as time goes by, your eyes wander around the venue while taking in the music. At Coldplay, my eyes were the busiest they've been. If I wasn't awestruck by the eccentric Chris Martin, I was looking at the screen or the spheres hanging from the ceiling or the confetti showering over the venue.
Then there's the merchandise, it's the cheapest its been. The program, being only $25.00 is the largest and most colourful i've purchased from a show. Chris Martin said during the show that he had 12,000 special guests, I walked away that night feeling like one of them. I'm convinced that for Coldplay it's more than money and marketing, they have passion and there's no letting up. It wil be a while before i'm this swept off my feet.
THANKS COLDPLAY!
Can we do this again same time next year?
[TryWhistlingThis]
Media Reviews
The last time I saw Coldplay was on the band's 'X&Y' tour a couple of years ago, when the 4 British men turned Rod Laver Arena into a spectacle of lights, video and effects that left me dazzled. The one disadvantage of putting on such an amazing light show, however, is that often the actual band playing the music can take somewhat of a back seat.
This time Coldplay went the other way. This time the music was the main attraction. The venue was the same, but the show was very different - an intimate gig in an arena... Seem unlikely? Chris Martin and co. pulled it off.
The band walked on stage to the most modest of entrances; the houselights were barely off when they opened with their first song 'Violet Hill'. There was no giant clock, no massive video screen, no pyro - just a simple curtain backdrop with Guy, Will, Johnny and Chris standing in silhouette. They were dressed in their home-made costumes (tying in with the 19th century 'military' theme of the latest album 'Viva La Vida) and they looked stunning.
They weren't afraid to play the biggest songs early in the set. 'Clocks' (complete with it's now famous, green laser lights) was beautiful, while 'Yellow' was lit up by large yellow balloons falling from the sky. "We're Coldplay and we're one of the world's premier soft rock bands" Martin joked, in reference to their constant pigeonholing. They were far from soft tonight, though. The new songs sounded brilliant tonight, with my personal favourite song from the latest album; 'Viva La Vida' drawing the crowd into a huge mass-sing-along.
Everyone was taken by surprise when all four members left the stage and walked through the crowd, right to the back of the arena. They then had a tiny improvised stage set up amongst actual seats in the crowd, and went on to play a mini-acoustic set...in the crowd! The usually epic sounding 'Speed Of Sound' was stripped right back to its core, and put a completely different spin on the song.
The lights went out once again as the group returned to stage, with Martin playing an enthralling version of 'The Scientist', before being joined by his bandmates for an exciting climax. Ending the set with the latest single 'Life In Technicolor II', I left with a feeling of great fulfillment. I've now seen the world's biggest rock band twice, both times different, but both times memorable.
Twitter Updates
These Twitter updates have been taken from the search feature on Twitter:
- spectrelives: @coldplay Saw the boys play tonight in Melbourne, best fucking show of my life. What a party... well worth the cash. We all loved it so much
- misswretched: Coldplay: bloody brilliant, out of this world show. The tech effects alone were enough to put most other performers to shame. WOW.
- twit_tiwt: Coldplay concert in Melbz was fantastico! Supreme Artists! Visually stunning show!
- nosajmun: Coldplay was awesome! Crowd singing happy birthday to Chris, sightings of Shane Warne, stadium full of crazy fans...
- The_Shifty_One: Home again now ... time to apologise for being nasty - coldplay are great at what they do, I'm just not that into them. Fun night though.
- sophielewis: Sneaking into Coldplay was awesome. Biggest win yet! Crowded tram is not so awesome! Arg so amazing! Paper butterflies.
- The_Shifty_One: I think coldplay are almost done ... ooh, confetti, fancy! They definitely have spiffo special effects!
- doddsi: Just behind #coldplay in the crowd at #Melbourne http://twitpic.com/1uxf3
