4 August 2008: Banknorth Garden, Boston, MA, USA (Videos & Fan Reviews)

From WikiColdplay

Revision as of 09:49, November 7, 2008; Busybeeburns (Talk | contribs)
(diff) ←Older revision | Current revision | Newer revision→ (diff)

Jump to: navigation, search

1 Fan Reviews
2 Videos
3 Setlist
4 Photos
5 Media Reviews

Fan Reviews

All fan reviews have been submitted to us by the members of Coldplaying.com[1], unless stated otherwise.

we got to our seats right around the end of santogold's act (great timing!) and then we were just sitting around waiting as you do at any concert. so then the girls next to us start taking pictures of a lady behind us so i asked who it was and they said kate bosworth. so i'm like... that's cool because she's famous but i don't really know her. so then these people come out from behind the stage and again the girls next to me are pointing and one of them yells GWYNETH! and then the whole crowd in our section and everyone in that corner of the floor stood up and gave her an ovation and she just kept coming closer and closer to me until shes sitting directly behind me just two rows back. i was shaking that i was in awe so much and right when i thought about shaking her hand and talking to her... the lights went down and my focus was completely diverted to coldplay.

life in technicolor had so much energy tonight and i could tell right off the bat the show was going to be incredible. the crowd went nuts during violet hill and at the end chris said 'now this is gunna be a REALLY GOOD ONE!' i got the biggest chills when he said that because i know he only says that if he means it. clocks seemed a lot better tonight because he did more with the vocals... went higher at some parts... it was great. the sold out crowd was IMMENSE during the chorus of in my place. viva la vida was better and i don't even know why. but i just enjoyed it a lot more. yes was the same. a little bit of low energy but the jam sesh at the end is just SO INCREDIBLE. i could watch that over and over there is just so much energy in it. 42 was great. i looked at gwyneth during it and she was singing all the words! fix you was like... hartford times 20 (2732 aka nick... you would have died). the crowd LOVED it and chris did his hopping on stage and sang the end of it SO BEAUTIFULLY!! chinese sleep chant was dull again. i know some people out there like this song but i just don't get it! really i dont get how they play this live and not cemeteries!! but GPASUYF was cool again and he added in some lyric about 'playing down in massachusetts' (anyone remember it exactly??).

the one area of the show that was worse than hartford was that they replaced square one/hardest part with speed of sound. it was nice to have at least one change but i was really looking forward to hearing square one again!! Lost! was great... crowd knew it really well. chris put a great ending on it. i think it was before this song that he talked about all the monday night TV we were missing and he mentioned home improvement and SEINFELD and everyone in my section looked back at him and laughed and i swear we made eye contact!!

scientist was beautiful... bigger crowd = more amazing NOBODY SAID IT WAS EASYYYYY. before death will never convquer chris wouldn't stop talking about how amazing will was and then he said 'ok now i'll shut the fuck up' it was hilarious. back on stage politik was INCREDIBLEEEEEE. like FUCKING INSANE!!!!! i like came close to getting emotional during OPEN UP YOUR EYYYYYES. the piano solo as usual was stunning. lovers in japan was just as good but a tad less for me than hartford because i was on the floor at hartford so i got the confetti. but at one point he came down the ramp in front of us and pointed to gwyneth!!

after LiJ gwyneth and her crew left. then chris dedicated death and all his friends to tom brady!!! haha at the beginning he messed up the lyrics and said ah fuck. crowd went nuts and he started again. it was BEAUTIFUL. he added so much to the vocals and the instrumental build up was crazy yet again. i couldn't even breath during the NO I DONT WANNA BATTLE... becaue i was jumping up and down so much. chris said a long goodbye and then they left. the lights stayed down for awhile and i was really hopeful for another encore but it never came! i'm really not that disappointed and i thought i would be but that shows how amazing the show was!

other thing i can remember: chris said the boston fans were better than all the other shows combined!! after the scientist he talked about how his harmonica playing was pointless and didn't sound good.

chris said before the scientist that he wrote the song after spending a steamy night with condeliza rice!! it was hilarious! when the crowd was singing during either in my place or fix you chris said "you can HEAR all the Irish blood out there!!"

[BostonSportsTD]

I had the worst seats for Coldplay in Boston (nose bleed section). I was with my 13 year old son and his friend and my sister. This guy came up to my son and asked "Is this your first concert? Do you want way better seats?" Of course he said yes. Long story short we went from Balcony row 12 to Floor row 4!! It was incredible! We were so close we could reach out and touch them! I have to say that was the best concert I have ever been to. I want to thank whoever was responsible for our upgrade. I heard that Coldplay saved the first ten rows and gave them out to people(like us). If they are responsible I just want to say that that was such a nice treat and you are very generous to have done that!! I hope my son doesn't think that he's going to have such great seats all the time! They put on the best show! Chris is a spaz and pretty funny. That was a once and a life time experience that we will never forget!!!! Thanks again!

[Anitacibellicomcast-34520]

Okay so last night WAS AMAZING!!!!!! I cant belive all the celeberties that showed up! I cant wait to see Coldplay again! My sign didnt end up glowing in the bark because it was too dim bebore the show. I held it up during Fix You but didnt hold it up too long because i didnt want to block the peoples view who where behind me. They where very nice about it and good neighbors Someone next to me reconized my sign from here (i wish i got her name). As far as merch goes i got the VIVA LA VIDA artwork tee and the tour program both well worth it! (im ordering the mug) The show opened with two acts The Luxery and Santogold (in that order) They where both good, but i wasnt sure what to think of Santogold at first. THEN COLDPLAY they where truely amazing. I was a little far away but i had a blast non the less. The people aroud me where GREAT. My favroite part was when they went into the loge section. I loved the Scientist! And it was funny how Chris listed all the things that Will could do "....He can seduce..." And it came to an end with Death And All His Friends! It was just AMAZING! He even dedicated it to Tom Brady. The crowed cheered untill the lights came on, Coldplay at the TD Banknorth Garden was a truely amazing night!

[JDFSX1]

good show, definitely, but a couple of things bothered me - that boston crowd was tearing it's throat out for coldplay, absolutely going bizonkers, and they still didn't give it anything extra. I'm of the opinion that when a band's got 30.000 people giving them a standing ovation and shaking a concrete building with their yelling, they really should come back out and do one more.

also, i just moved to boston, and i found it incredibly disconcerting the extreme vitrol and anger people had towards Santogold. People around me were shouting at her to "shut the f&^* up" and talking about how she sucked on every song. I understand people having different tastes and such, but Santagold's just pop hooks over interesting beats, and I cannot see a reason to scream obscenities at her for putting on a decent opening in an arena.

it worries me sometimes that my fellow coldplay fans are closeminded, one-sided, very judgmental people. I really hope that's not the case.

The show was good, though. To be honest, I think I might like the Twisted Logic tour better - it seemed paced better, and on this tour I just got the distinct impression that the band was trying to hustle through the set list. That said, Lost! was outstanding, the clocks lightshow from where I was sitting was incredible (for the rest of the night, my apartment mate kept saying "lasers.... lasers..." over and over again while he fell asleep on the T.

Good show, just weird that a top selling band with 50 or so official tracks and god knows how many b-sides can't play for longer than ninety minutes. I remember on the offical msgboard someone was ranting about how they only played 90 minute shows, etc, and debs said it was because they only had two or three albums. No longer a good excuse, I think.

[countingdemons114]

A REVIEW FROM THE BACK!

First off, I'm going to vow that I'll never see another show in the balcony. My seats were straight back, third row up in 309. I stood the whole time, but most people around the balcony stood only for the big songs: I'll get to that.

I volunteered for Oxfam! Got a shirt and recruited about 4 sheets of people! I highly suggest doing it, it's very fun! I didn't do it for tickets, instead I sent them an e-mail explaining how I have a ticket and would love to help! Being part of Oxfam also gives you a noticeable boost of authority; the ushers who check tickets (once inside the venue) never asked me for mine yet stopped people behind me! This came in handy when I walked right in after people had cleared out to get myself some confetti off the floor area!

Five minutes before the lights went out, a mass cheer erupted when Gwyneth entered the arena. At the time I didn't know who it was, and neither did anyone around me, we were simply too far away to see! From reading some reviews and talking to some people, it was quite the star-filled night!

A compiled list so far: Gwyneth Paltrow Blythe Danner Kate Bosworth Tom Brady Gisele Bündchen Jerry Seinfeld Jessica Sklar Steven Spielberg

The concert was fantastic, though no surprises from the slightly varying set list. Square One would have been nice, or Cemeteries of London, which I guess they just don't want to play at the moment! But I digress from the unique purpose of my review.

It may had been the fact that I was a VIP for the Today Show (Thanks again Ian!) having them between 4 and 20 ft away from me at all times, but balcony seats, and those who inhabited them, were less into the concert overall. However, EVERYONE, even the handicapped, stood strong for Viva la Vida. From what I could see, all of the Floor and Loge sections were standing all night, but only about half on the balcony inhabitants stood and sang! The view was nice, but you couldn't see the band well and there was an audio/visual lag which made it somewhat difficult to watch; Will would hit a drum and you would hear it half a second later. The lights were spot on, it was just the lag from band members to speakers. The balcony view was more of an overview, which was nice because you could see everything that was going on, but almost in a distant, removed way, when compared to Floor or Loge seats. Also the balcony sides might be nicer because you're closer to the stage and the side Loge next to the stage (where BostonSportsTD was) is CERTAINLY where it's at!

Some notable moments: In My Place was amazing, I kept wanting them to play it again.

Right before Viva la Vida, Chris said "lets turn this one up a bit" The boys walked up to the Loge area for their acoustic bit and Chris introduced himself to a man on the balcony behind him, who shook his hand and cheer him with joyous disbelief. Chris talking about their drummer Will for a long while before cutting himself off by saying "Will's gonna sign this one and I'm gonna shut the fuck up" The Talk remix video which showed a bunch of politicians dancing which went directly into Politik was breathtaking. Singing "OPEN UP YOUR EYES" never felt so powerful! The ending piano riff was the best Politik ending I have ever heard.

Benefit to being in the balcony!* The lazers from Clocks, Chinese Sleep Chant and the God Put A Smile Upon My Face Remix, seemed to be right above our heads!

Chris was so genuinely taken aback during Fix You; the crowd sang so strong and as one. Chris messed up the lyrics at the beginning of Death And All His Friends, explaining "Gah, Fuck." After a huge applause and he stopped giggling and adjusting his mic, he picked up with "All summer..." Death And All His Friends was by far the most amazing song of the night, (people really freaked out when the big VIVA banner fell down to be displayed behind the band) followed by The Escapist, played as they waved their goodbyes and left the stage.

For seeing Coldplay once at Manchester, NH (Twisted Logic Tour) from a medium distance, at the Today Show at a very close distance, and this time in Boston sitting just about as far away as I can, I can safely say this: Coldplay knows how to entertain a crowd, wherever they sit!

[masterkraig]

This gig was awesome. I've seen them just twice before, in 2005 and 2006, and this time the boys seems to be enjoying themselves immensely! The crowd singing and cheering was deafening. I don't know how the boys could hear themselves or each other. I know Master Craig said the balcony crowd wasn't as into it but they sure were in my section. Everyone stood from the first song on and every one was singing along and cheering LOUD.

We got there early and I was really hoping that we'd see Roadie 42 or some other staffer because I'd read about the ticket upgrades. So I was watching and damn if I didn't see someone with tags on come up TWICE to our section (Balcony 301) and upgrade two groups of fans. One was a group of 4 twenty somthing girls, I watched the floor and saw them come out and get an escort right down to the floor, SECOND ROW FROM THE FRONT, right nect to Jonny's catwalk. The second time a different staffer came up and picked a pair of fans from behind us and got them floor seats too, center stage, row 2. Imagine being that lucky eh?? I thought it was the coolest thing, the band upgrading early arriving fans up in the cheap seats.

Like I said, my seats were way up in the nose bleeds. We were probablly 10 rows shy of the roof. but we were about 1/3 way back from the stage on Guy's side so the line of sight was great. The lighting and video was technically brilliant. The biggest video globe in the center of the arena was about eye level for me so we got the full benifit of that.

If you've read any of this thread or the articles Ian reprinted you'll know there were a lot of celbs there, including Gwyn and her mom. That had the crowd cheering like crazy when they seated them in the loge , near the right side catwalk, just minutes before the boys came on. Jerry Seinfeld and his wife were there and when Chris talked to the crowd after the first song he said to us"What else would you be doing on Boston on a Monday night, watching Seinfeld reruns?" That got a big laugh.

The banter between songs was a combination of your typical Chris randomness, some fun comments about all the irish in Boston, and the use of the "Oh F*ck!" a lot. At one point after he'd said f*ck about 3 times in a row he pleaded, "Please, please don't put that on the internet!"

I was expecting a more stripped down version of Yellow but the whole band came at it full force and I was surprised how much fun it was to hear that old nugget yet again. I also had no idea the butterfly confetti would be all glowing under black light. It was cool to watch everyone frolic in down on the floor.

Was hoping for a second encore but wasn't surprised when they didn't come back out. The whole band looked physically wiped. They have been pushing hard since Toronto and I imagine they were really glad to have their last US gig prior to leaveing Japan neatly wrapped up.

[Collee]

Yesterday came about prettyspontaneously and I guess some kind of karma was paying me back because my friend gave me a free ticket to last night's show (I had to offer at least some money a few times). Believe me I was shocked and a half. Coldplay's always been a band I've loved but I didn't want to spend $100 on a ticket, so when my friend offered me the ticket I was stoked beyond belief. I got off work and we headed into Boston.

The whole show was fantastic overall but some of the standouts to me included the video spheres and general lighting effects. Nothing quite like a stunning audio + visual combination. My favorites were probably Politik, Yellow, In My Place, Life in Technicolor, Yes, hell the whole show, just an awesome selection of songs. I would have liked to see Square One but oh well. Politik was the song that got me into this band, I remember watching them play an absurdly passionate performance of it in the 2003 Grammy's, so I was definitely glad to see it played in front of me.

Around the end of Lost!, I say to my friend "hey look what is that guy standing on?" It looked to be like a mini-stage of sorts. Then I saw a guitar, and a few more and I knew it. We immediately started walking down and could hear the crowd gettign louder as the band ran up. The next few minutes were unreal. They played the Scientist and the whole time I just couldn't believe how close they were.

[mvulch]

I will confess to being a Coldplay fan since I first heard “Yellow,” and their sold-out concert at the Garden in Boston did not disappoint. They played a 90-min set that included their newest hit “Viva La Vida” and favorites such as “Speed of Sound.”

There were two opening bands: the first was The Luxury, a local band who had been picked by Coldplay during a contest earlier this year, and they were followed by Santogold, who was entertaining – her backup dancers were straight out of a Devo video, but she didn’t seem to fit the audience.

I have to start with the fact that my seats were behind the VIP row which included Gwyneth Paltrow, who received a standing ovation, Kate Bosworth and Jerry Seinfeld. Despite being star struck, I made my way down to the floor to join the throng of photographers allowed stage side. When the band took to the stage behind a curtain to play “Life in Technicolor” the crowd was electric. I’ll give Chris Martin credit for continuously encouraging the crowd, who was already singing along, to “finish it for me” for such songs as “Fix You” and “Clocks” during which Martin played the piano.

Halfway through, the band did a two song set on a small lighted stage set down into the arena, that included “Chinese Sleep Chant” and “God Put A Smile Upon Your Face.” Although a little underwhelming, they made up for it later when they exited the stage to play half-way up the arena in the rear corner. Here they did an acoustic version of “The Scientist,” followed by one of my favorite moments of the night. Drummer, Will Champion, took over the vocals for “Death Will Never Conquer” while Chris Martin played the harmonica. This was all shown on large, spinning orbs, suspended from the ceiling, which were either surreal or annoying, depending on where you were sitting.

All in all, the band played both loud and bright and small and quiet, keeping the audience on their toes. They could have made even a non-Coldplay fan appreciative of their unique feel. From Chris Martin almost falling of the piano stool during “Clocks” to the shower of fluorescent butterflies during the encore performance of “Politik,” the experience was fantastic.

Review and photos by WBRU contest winner Amanda.

http://www.wbru.com/index.php/2008/0...winner-amanda/

Get those colorful revolutionary style costumes ready yet again folks! The word from Coldplaying.com is that less than one week after Mr. Martin and friends rolled in and out of the bay state to captivate an audience of New England fans (not to mention a Hollywood guest list that rivaled an awards ceremony), rumors of a show at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro around Halloween have already started buzzing. Season ticket holders have apparently been informed of the possible show but no other details from the venue or the band themselves have surfaced. I'll probably dress up like Brian Eno.

So, back to this past Monday when it was more than just a rumor that Coldplay was in town. The quartet, backed by an elaborate landscape of lights, sights and sounds ripped through a 90 minute set to a sold out Garden crowd.

On the heals of releasing one of the summers biggest albums, the band took it's bag of tricks to a whole new level. Raising curtains, lavish backgrounds mimicking the Viva album cover, side stage performances and two catwalks reaching out beyond the stage all had me wondering if it was just a way to distract me from what could be trainwreck (Chris Martin constantly teetered between falling over and flying away). I would no doubt say the band nailed down a more than solid set musically. My biggest issue is the way everything seemed rather claustrophobic. The 90 minute time frame was spent rushed around from main stage to side stage to backstage. I wondered if Martin even had time to breath considering the only moments he stopped moving was at the piano and even then I swear they nailed his shoes down. The songs and performances themselves shined but I would have much preferred one stage, more songs, brilliant lights and a nice backdrop and not waste time watching them wander into the crowd to spend 15 minutes playing two short songs and then listen to a prerecorded remix of "Talk" while watching a video as a pseudo encore break. I understand the intimacy of some of their choices but when dropping $100 a ticket, I'd rather a blistering set of songs one after the other from one place. Now, I'll be the first to tell you that a concert is more about the music, so away we go.

From the epic tandem of "Life In Technicolor" and "Violet Hill" to open the show, the mood was set quickly. Epic, and crowd pleasing. The brilliant soccer stadium inspired chanting during "Viva la Vida" might have been worth the price of admission alone had it been better placed in the set. Within the first half of the show the majority of the singles from all 4 albums were already out of the way and although that was good news for the fans waiting on those deeper cuts (although, as my friend reminded me, pretty much any Coldplay song could be a single), the set occasionally lacked in flow and spark after the larger than life opening. Songs like "God Put A Smile Upon Your Face", a stripped down side stage techno experience and "The Scientist", an acoustic number from somewhere in the crowd, were fun in theory and a brave change of pace for the band. The only problem is those songs usually help lift lesser known material up around them in a set and with the experiment they seemed more of a novelty act. With all that being said, when the band was on, they were on. The thumping brilliance of "Politik", the middle eastern turned rock jam session of "Yes", and again the feel good revolution of "Viva la Vida" all erupted with reckless force proving just how talented the band is at polishing a perfect performance when needed. With all the bells and whistles that fact tends to get overshadowed. Good news for Coldplay, though. When that shine wears off, the songs won't be lost.

http://turnyourearsoff.blogspot.com/2008/08/coldplay-brings-its-short-sweet-show-to.html

I cannot believe it's already been 22 days since the concert!!!! I wanna go back soooo bad! Back to the start

Anyway, just thought I'd finally get to writing about some of the highlights/quotes! Reminiscing material Chris was sooooo quirky that night It was AWESOME! ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

During "Clocks" Chris still did the hand over head motion during the "shoot an apple off my head" part.

"In My Place" Chris says: "Oh it doesn't feel like a Monday to us. Thanks for coming out to see us everybody. Just for tonight we'll pretend we're from Boston and it's Saturday. U2 are playing." Then during Jonny's solo, he says: "Go J, go J, go! Ladies and gentlemen, our best friend Jonny Buckland!"

"Viva La Vida" Chris comments: "I think you people are gonna be louder than all of the other places we've played combined. Wow you're an incredible forum."

"42" Chris played the tune from JAWS since Steven Spielberg was supposed to be in the audience. During Jonny's 2nd riff, he kind of messed up the ending. He forgot the cool part at the end

During "Yes" something happened with Chris' acoustic guitar and so Hoppy ran out to switch it.

"Fix You" Chris let us sing the chorus and then remarked: "Oh man, I can hear the Irish blood in the water!"

"God Put A Smile Upon Your Face" Chris sings: "God gave me style and wits, god bring me down to Massachuuuuuuusetts."

Before beginning "Yellow" Chris says: “It’s about time we said hello to everybody. We want to say hello to everybody, you know? There’s a lot of people for a Monday and we’re incredibly grateful for that. How you doing so far? [cheers] I dunno, I dunno what you’re missing on TV, maybe Home Improvement or a re-run of Seinfeld. Whatever you’re missing on TIVO or whatever, we really do appreciate it. Especially as we’re not even Irish or American and you’re still being nice to us. We appreciate it. Although we do have all the members of U2 on speed-dial, that I can assure you. It’s a close-knit community in the soft rock world. This is ah, this is a great big Monday sing-a-long. I don’t care what you’re missing on TV, you can sing to this.”

"The Scientist" Guy took pics of the crowd. Chris says: "So this is what it’s like in the back! See uh, we not so pretty up close, we’re not so good when you’re close to us. What can you do? We’re the ultimate radio band, we’re not going on TV. Haha. But anyway, seeing as we’ve come close we might as well sing something in the back. So uh, this is a song uh, this is a song I wrote after a steamy night with Condeleza Rice. Not really, but it sounds good! [laughs in audience, Chris laughs] We had great physical chemistry but the political just wasn’t there. So you have to make these things up. Anyways, this is called 'The Scientist'"

"Death Will Never Conquer" Chris says: "Now you may ask the question 'why does every singer from England think they can play the harmonica?' Well the answer is, we can't! And really, it's an affetation. It's an attempt to be like Mick Jagger, an attempt to be like Bob Dylan, and it really doesn't work. So I apologize for that. The one benefit it does have is uh, well it doesn't really have a benefit, shit, fuck that! I didn't really think that through. There's no benefit, it doesn't look good, doesn't sound good, doesn't feel good, it's just a waste of everyone's time and money. However, we do have more cards up our sleeve than just a singer who plays harmonica. We have one of the most talented drummers in the history of the world. [crowd cheers] His name is Will. He's like a Swiss army knife. He can do anything, anything you ask. He can fix cars, he can drink, he can taste wine, he can seduce [laughs]. Forget that. Don't put that on the Internet for goodness sake! And the main thing he can do is sing beautiful songs before we go off and do the whole Encore shebang. You know how the encore thing works, we're gonna leave, we're gonna go come back, we're gonna come back, it's gonna be great, it's gonna be magical. This is Will, he's gonna sing to you. I'll shut the fuck up! We'll see you in a minute!"

Beginning of "Death and All His Friends" Chris says: "I didn't want to do this because it's cheesy, but we're great fans of his so he's probably left the building by now anyway to get into his helicopter. We'd like to dedicate this to Tom Brady your quarterback and we're big fans of his and we're very honoured he came to the show. As it is, all of you came to the show and I hope to goodness it was worth it and uh, what more could you have done on a Monday? Anyway, we appreciate it. We're going to Japan tomorrow morning and we're going to miss you. And thank you so much for coming in. OK, that's it. This is the last song, what can we do man? [laughs]

All winter, we got married, OH fuck it! [laughs]"

"Thank you so much everybody, thanks to our crew, thanks to...(couldn't hear what he said there), and the people of Boston for coming out to see us. Thanks a lot and have a good night!"

When the boys were bowing, Jonny kept staring at my sign! Guy stayed while the others left and took a pic of the crowd.

[ColdplayBirdsFly]