What a Week Part II: Living in Technicolor

So, Coldplay decided to go to Australia promoting their latest album, Viva la Vida or Death and all his friends. Wasn’t that excited at first. I thought their album was kinda okay, nothing special or anything. However, people are praising it everywhere. They got nominated, and subsequently won many Grammys, their album also made numerous critics’ top ten album of 2008. Many of them also dubbed it as their finest record to date. I tried to listen to the album again several times. My opinion improved, slightly at least. I thought it was a great record. Lots of great songs, but I felt the entire record was boring if you listen to it at once. Anyhow, they’re planning not to do one, but three shows here at Melbourne. When the ticket opened, the general admission tickets sold out in less than 3 hours. I was left unconvinced whether to give it all up or try to search for it on Ebay. I waited until a week before the concert on the 5th of March before I began searching for tickets via ebay. Luckily I found someone who sell it only $4 more than the actual ticket price, and at last I found myself going to my second concert of the week.

Let me explain my expectation towards the concert; it was low. I wasn’t all pumped up like when I was going to see Sigur Ros, or Death Cab for Cutie. The idea of a big band, with many followers kinda turned it off for me. They’re a great band, sure. But I think they sometime tried too hard to follow Radiohead’s footsteps.

Come the 5th of March, my friends were all excited towards it. We were planning to go early as possible to get a good view of the show. However, since we were going together in great numbers it was hard to be on time. We ended up going in when the opening band, Decoder Ring, already opened their show. We still managed to get a decent view though. The stage was obviously bigger than other concerts that I’ve been to. It was U-shaped, the back drop is covered in black layer, which kept us figuring out what it was. Three big screens on both sides of the stage and there’s this big balloon like decoration above our heads.

The first opening band, Decoder Ring, was actually good. I was pretty impressed, to say the least. They sounded like Explosions in the Sky, and Mogwai. They even got this video on the screen that they played during their performance. It was beautiful. The video fits well with their music and it kinda feel like we’re watching a beautiful silent film. Half an hour in, they played their last song before bidding good bye to the audience. That’s a great way to opened up the concert, I guess.

The lights were turned on again as the second opening band prepared to perform. I began to feel curious what the second band will sound like, given the first opening was a great one. Little did I know that the second band were awful, at least for my taste. I didn’t remember and didn’t bother to look for the name of the band, but neither their song nor their performance was worth mentioning. Their vocalist was like this middle aged guy who acted so peculiar on stage. I’m not talking about Thom Yorke peculiar here, I was gunning for shitty peculiar. He acted like a body builder, showing his muscles while singing his song. Wow, that was just…… wrong. His lead guitarist was more or less the same. He wore this red outfit, spikey hair, a scarf, and sunglasses (in a stadium? Come on!). My friends look disgusted, and so did other people on the venue. Their performance felt very, very, very long. I even shouted “You Suck” at some point during their performance. It was a joy watching them stepping off the stage. Seriously, they were that bad.

So we proceed to the main concert. The stage was cleared, the soundcheck was finished, and we’re in for the main show. The stage was now layered with a curtain, indicating that Coldplay was gonna play behind those. Not long after that, the sound of Life in Technicolor echoed through the stadium. Everybody roared, as one by one the members of Coldplay entered the stage. The curtain is then lifted and they played Violet Hill as the second track. During this performance, I was suddenly pumped up. I don’t know if it’s the crowd or it’s the energy of the song but I got really excited. The backdrop was revealed to be the gigantic picture of the cover album. Chris Martin, despite his third time playing at Melbourne, still showed his best. The crowd also helped him with screaming the lyrics out loud.



From there, I felt ashamed that I only had low expectations towards the concert. It was superb. The sound was perfect, the stage was great, the lighting was marvelous, and their performance was a joy. The lights and effects really played a big part in the concert. It always sets up the song perfectly. Whether the yellowish flashing light with balloons when they performed Yellow, or the dim blueish ambient when they played Fix You, it was all perfect. The orbs above the stage also provided a unique tone to the show. It was used to project the video and images of the band. Also, when they performed Lovers in Japan, they showered the concert hall with paper butterflies of various colors. Very cool indeed




As for the performance, the evidence of fatigue is there. Chris Martin sometimes slipped when he began to sing, especially in Viva La Vida. However, this was not a big deal because the crowd helped him singing. The crowd was wild. They were enjoying it so much. Now the band also has a great control of the stage. Chris Martin ran around the stage. The band even played two songs on the left side of the U shaped stage. That’s not all, on the middle of the concert they went through the exit door and proceed to the upper stage opposite the stage and performed all the way up there. The people who sat back there was so excited. They performed Speed of sound and Beatles’ I’m a believer acoustically. Wow, this is the first time I saw a concert in which the band give a damn about the audience sitting far up from the stage.

I was happy with the setlist. It seems that they balanced the old and new songs really well. Most of the songs in Viva la Vida album were sung. The others are equally proportioned from their earlier album. After performing Death and All his Friends, they said their thank yous and goodbyes and left the stage. It was at this moment, my roommate initiated the howling of Viva la vida. Me and the others helped him did that and clapped our hands in the air. It was short after that the audience started to follow us and sang. We kept doing that for a couple of minutes, and then the awaited encore arrived. Chris Martin walked back on stage and reached for his piano. He sang The Scientist, one of my favorite songs. They proceed to played their last song of the night which was Life in Techicolor II. After that, they wrapped the concert for good. I didn’t know what else to think. Coldplay is a great band. They played one hell of a show and that night was the proof of it.




Concert highlights: there are two songs that I viewed outstanding that night. It was Fix You and Politik. Fix You was a showcase of the greatness of the band. Chris Martin played his piano and sang flawlessly the entire song. His bandmates also provide great backup to him. Politik, on the other hand show cased the awesomeness of the whole concert. In this song the sound, the stage, and the lights blends together. When the lyric goes “open up your eyes” we were jumping up and down with our hands thrown in the air. The other interesting fact is the 5th of March is actually Chris Martin’s birthday. So during the break from one song the crowd sang happy birthday to Chris. He was so touch and thanks us all.

Final Judgement:
Performance: 4/5
Stage/Décor/lights: 4/5
Crowd: 4/5
Overall: 4/5