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.

Live: A Travis surprise and a Danish surprise

I have one of the worste call phone cameras in the world, but it's better than nothing ;)

Sometimes I think I have friends in high places.. I really don't, but sometimes I am lucky :) Last night I got a message from a friend of mine on Facebook. He knew that Travis was going to come to Norway tomorrow to do some promo and was doing a surprise gig at Mono! I have been a huge Travis fan since 2001, so I was of course thrilled and "sneaked" the message to my Travis-friends. i didn't want to many to know about it, in fear that it would ruin the whole gig. After a lot of smsing and planing I was sendt of to Mono. There was no way of getting hold of the tickets so the plan was to stick me in there early. (Once your are in they can't kick you out, and I could buy tickets for the others. I arrived at Mono at 18 (they were supposed to start to sell tickets at 20). For the first hour or so I was alone with two other people. I was bunked up in a great sofa right in front of stage with a book about Italian. (Me and my mum are going in about a week. MUCH more about that later). After about one hour my first friend arrived and then a little while after, my friend the SuperTravisFAn. This girl takes the term fan to whole new limits ;)

About half an hour before the show Andy and Fran comes walking casually in and talks a bit to the sound guys and then went away again. It was very very weird. A bit like we were in someones livingroom. I still can't belive how short they are though. I always think that. But it also might be the fact that I am very tall myself ;)

After about one other hour they came back. Both in black. Fran with a very nice hat and Andy with a nice little scarf. It was so cozy, there were only about 100 people tops in the room and it was just very very nice. They were on a tiny stage in the corner only about 5 meters away in a little club. Started of by playing Sing, great as always, and we were singing along. Then it was time for Side. Wonderful. I love that song. I think it's might be my favorite Travis song. Suddenly the guy next to me starts talking about how Side is a coversong, and I said: "No, it's not." "Yes, it is!!" "No, listen. I have been a fan since 2001. I KNOW these things". But he wouldn't give up. It all ended with him getting my phone number after the gig so that he could go home, look it up and tell me that I was wrong. hehe. Very drunk, so I doubt that he'll remember it, but I will tell you if he does. I do not remember the precise order of the rest of the set list, but they did Driftwood and two songs from the new album and a cover. The cover was something about lesbians or maybe a confused gay guy. Didn't really get that, but great song ;) The two new songs also sounded really great, can't wait to hear the whole record. Fran joked about the fact that there is really no use for making more than 4 albums and now they are on their 6th. SO they decided to do a consept album. All the songs are supposedly about J.Smith and his life. (J. Smith is the most common name in the UK). So some kind of everyday man. Will be very exciting to hear the tracks with the whole band and finished.

Andy had an amazing guitar too, twelve string and six string combination. Fran was joking about the fact that he was going to set it on fire, not by matches but by his guitarplaying ;)

During the cover song Franny taped a sheet of paper two a second mic on the stage and read it from there. Really funny. Really greatly played though. Though they must have struggled a bit, because they kept smiling and almost laughing to each other. (See photos under)

Fran also told the story about this surprise concert. It turns out he was sitting at home in Berlin (yes, he lives there now!) and thinking.. I am going to Norway tomorrow. We should play a bit while we are there. So he had phoned Mono and asked if they could do a little live set. And of course they said yes. Very good. I like stars that do it like that.

After Travis Lofiman came on. They were supposed to do the warm-ups and had to follow Travis. Poor guys ;) They were quite good though, I love their guitars and riffs, and rhythms. The melody lines of the vocals wasn't that good though and the vocals in general. Too bad. I think they could have been amazing.

Then it was time for the second surprise of the evening: Barra Head. The next band was supposed to be the main act and we stayed just to see what it was. And it was fu*** amazing!! Frist of all they were so incredibly tight. The music was really surprising and floating and had great rhythms and it was just amazing. Can't belive three persons can make such a great music. Lovely post-rock/metal feel. Just as I later found out they describe themselves. I HAVE to buy the record. An oh, that bassplayer is the best I have seen in my life. Maybe I haven't seen enough but I like to think I have seen a lot. We all were just mesmerized by his playing. And that is not often when it comes to bass players. They are Danish, so after a few songs, the singer started talking. And of course supposed that we would understand. And we kind of did... but not totally. And of course the guy beside me started screaming... "We don't understand shit" So the rest of the show the lead singer/guitarist kept talking danish and the bass player translated it to English. Even words like Thanks and it was very very funny. Great band. Hope to see them again soon. This is their page on MySpace. Magic intensity.



(Oh, and while writing this, I got a message from the superfan. She did it agin. She actually ended up at Fran's table talking to him.. hehe. Well, she deserves it, after 10 gigs. If I had been a little more observant I probably would have been able to too, but by then I was far to occupied by the Danish wonder boys and probably a smoking break).