Live: Coldplay

confetti!!!

green laser!

One of two screens and one of 5 balls. The videoscreens where perfect for us at the sides.
The balls was beautifully lit with patters, lights, videos etc.

I am sitting here wondering to myself: "What is it with Coldplay live?"....

In 2003 I saw Coldplay live at the Quart festival in Kristiansand. I had never seen them live, and quite liked their music, so I was a bit excited. I was no huge fan, but a fan. Oh MAN! They blew me away! I was totally Coldplay-hyped for a great time after.

Now 5 years have passed and still remember that the concert was great and still have their albums and like their songs but it was back to ok. They are good, but what's all the fuzz about.. That kind of feeling. By a very lucky furn of events I got to go and see them in Oslo Spectrum tonight. I wasn't even keen enough to sit in line and wait for the tickets when they were first sold, so I wasn't that crazy about it. Since then though I have listened to the new album a lot (as you can tell from this blogg) and I really liked a lot of it. So when my friend called today and asked if I wanted to come, I said: "Yes!! Please!!".

I was feeling like a cold was coming on so I put on practical clothes and thought that I might have to sit down from time to time, so I was actually quite happy when I found out that the tickets where to seats not to stand in front of the stage. I like the new record, but not THAT much, it would be ok to sit.

So we found our seats quite high up and at the side of the stage but the good thing was that the stage was open so we could see all from the side. Excitedly we waited and tried not to fall of the seats and into the great beyond. That is steap.

Anyways, finally they came on. And my oh my.... They started the whole show playing "And den schönen blauen Donau". Just that is quite amazing. And then it all started. Dear lord.. that Chris Martin, he knows how to hold an audience going... Even though I was that far away I could almost feel his presece. He sprints around stage, talks and screams and waves and might be the only man I have ever seen (except Bono maybe) who can make 8000 clapp just by looking at them and stop... "It's nice clapping but stricktly not necissery" I don't know. It's hard to describe. There is some kind of magic. You get sucked into it. I kind of get how people can become cult members. When Chris Marting tells you to sing, you sing! I think this clip from Oslo in 2005 says a lot:



During the whole Quart show, Chris actually spoke only Norwegian. It was amazing. Tonight he just kept talking about how sorry he was for not talking Norwegian, very sweet. His love of Norway at least seams genuine, though you have a sneaking suspision that he might have "other lovers" or rather "a different lover" each night. It just seams like he love the audiences and love being on stage. Even though if he said: "Ah you are the Norweigans, the great singers!".

As the concert progressed on they moved out to an "island" in the middle of the audience and did a techno version kind of thing of "God put a smile upon your face" and "Talk". Then they moved up into the seated audience and played a few songs from there. Chris saying how sorry he is for not being able to play harmonica the way he should. Sounded quite good though. He also actually showed that he is a quite good piano player. He did some wonderful classical stuff between songs.

At the end they showered the audience with confetti and by then we just keeps standing and clapping ans screaming oohohooooooooooo... ohohoooooh (As in Viva La Vida) after doing that for a few minutes Chris returned with Magne Furuholmen of A-ha explaing what a huge A-ha fan they are and Mags played piano while Chris sang. Amazing. The whole concert ended with an amazing version of Yellow. I am really glad they didn't do a lot of the old songs though and did all the more rocked one and a lot of the new ones :) I almost wanted to sing "hoooow long must she wait for iiit" when we reached the refrain of Yellow though. Those two songs must be very similar somehow.

All in all... It was amazing. The lights and show as a whole was also very very great. And the rest of the band was of course amazing to, but they are kind of just being shadowed by mister Martin. Oh, he got a big hole in his pants by the way. "You Norwegians have such nice legs, this could be fatal, you don't want to see our legs, trust me".

Sigh.