Coldplay Charlotte Review :: 9/9/05

"You're in control, is there anywhere you want to go?"

Amazing concert. On stage at 9:20, out at 11:10. Anticipation built all night- the most buzz i've seen at verizon.

9:20- the lights go out, pitch dark. And suddenly you see the stage wide 30 foot tall screen light up with a digital countdown clock- coldplay is on the stage opening with square one.

Set List

Square One
Politik
Yellow
God Put A Smile Upon Your Face
Speed of Sound
Low
Rush of Blood to the Head
Amsterdam
The Scientist
Til' Kingdom Come (Tribute to Katrina Victims)
Ring of Fire (Tribute to Johnny Cash)
Green Eyes
White Shadows
Clocks
Talk
---
Encore
---
Swallowed in the Sea
In MY Place
Fix You

Great energy- Chris Martin scaled walls, ran in the audience for the last half of In My Place- although he had fucking horrible dance moves (but entertaining). The band was very loose- I loved it.

Best concert I"ve been to- I wish they come back in the next round of tours.

Anyone else go?

 

they suck major ass,pussy band

 

why did you post in this thread if you're not a fan? fuck off.

 

he's got nothing else better to do...



anyway...was it jammed packed? I would have liked to go but had other plans...

 

yeah- it was packed and loud.

 

I went and I wasn't a HUGE Coldplay fan, but I am now. They were amazing.

 

Fucking a, man. Place was jammed with fans of all ages, mostly the preppy set, tho. We sat 5 rows behind soundboard, and just within reach of Chris Martin when he pranced into the crowd. My wife's got a couple of pics of him on her cell, but not too clear. If I had known cams would be let in, I woulda brought mine. Lady 2 rows in front pretty much recorded the whole show on her digital cam.

The 2 tributes brought a tear to my eyes, and damn if I got the chills up and down my spine a few times. Wife, who's not really a big fan, certainly is now.

Worth the money. Now I gots to find me some U2 tix.

 

I think every hot white chick between 18 and 35 was in that arena.

I was bored most of the show. As I expected, the synthed out numbers like Speed of Sound were really, really bad. They played too many slow ballads to start the show too.

And why did Chris have such a hard time with Amsterdam? Such a great song, but it's just awful live.

On the plus side, Chris' antics were great. Charging into the audience was cool, and I like how he cracked up when he was perched on the railing out in the stands and the fans were grabbing at him. I wonder what someone said, because he almost lost it in the middle of his vocal.

Coldplay has an amazing, U2-esque stage light show that IMHO, drowns out there music. It's so ridiculously sick that you pay more attention to it than the songs. During one song (I forget which one - see what I mean?) the screen told everyone to get out their cameras and take a picture in 5... 4... 3... 2.. 1... Then suddenly the screen and camera were on the audience, right when everyones' flashes went off. It looked like a thousand explosions. Really really cool looking, but like I said, what song were they even singing?

The acoustice Johnny Cash interlude was a novelty, so it was fun for about 3 minutes, then I started wishing Jeff Tweedy was singing, as he could really do justice to the songs.

But back to their music - the set list eventually got good, but I was personally really pissed that they played so little from Parachutes, which IMHO is some of their best material. At their last show, they made me a huge fan of "everything's not lost", a song that used to bore me. It rocked in concert. They didnt play it this time. Nor did they play Trouble, or Shiver (one of my favorite Coldplay songs).

From the playlist, they made God Put a Smile Upon Your Face, a song I hate, somehow good. I really enjoyed it. A Rush of Blood to The Head was great too. The big radio hits mostly sucked, except for Talk & The Scientist. Talk was washed out but ok, the Scientist is hard to screw up.

Overall, I'd give the concert a 6.5/10. The stage presentation was the best money can buy, almost to the point of overshadowing the band. The crowd was great, and absolutely packed the ampitheater. About 1/3 of the songs were genuinely good, and Chris Martin's energy was good. May seem harsh, but I go for the music and Coldplay's songs are too studio any more to sound good on stage.

One thing about the show that really bugged me were the scenesters... the chick beside me spent two entire songs screaming at someone on her cell phone. (screeching hag voice: "WHAAAT?!! WHAAT??!!" for about 10 minutes). She was more interested in calling all of her friends to tell them how cool she was for being at the Coldplay show than she was in the music. Fucking Charlotte. Damn I hate it. My wife finally stuck her head in the chick's face and rudely said "COULD YOU PLEASE BE QUIET ALREADY". That was awesome. Best moment of the show. Chick got all pissy and spent the rest of the show with a call connected and "dancing" her cell phone high above her head so her friends could hear. What a freaking marroon.

PS - Rilo Kiley was damn good. Jenny is one twisted chick. Syrupy sweet delivery of some dark and heavy lyrics, and they rock, straight ahead. The Execution of All Things is one badass song. Very glad I got to hear it.

 

slow ballads to start the show?

square one?
politik?
yellow?
god put a smile?
low?

come on man- they were high energy from the start. and about the visuals- i think it really fitted their music and made the concert atmosphere much more complete. i think speed of sound sounded very solid- better than i anticipated. and white shadows was amazing. amsterdam sounded right on too me- and i like how he switched to the synth at the end. And for you to not mention LOW- dude, we were bouncing all over the place on that. Really- i could care less about the visual effects, their music (to me and the people around me at least) was amazingly intimate and passionate at the same time. great concert.

 

Yep.

Im tired of Yellow too. This time had less energy than their previous show, so it really put me to sleep.

Politik is perhaps their most overrated song. The last bridge is decent, but Chris can't carry the tune there.