Coldplay Conquers Shoreline

Coldplay rocked the Shoreline Amphitheater on Monday, July 13th.

Since Parachutes was released in 2000, Coldplay has occupied a space in the “good music” part of my brain; unfortunately, they have also occupied the part of my brain that said “too expensive” up until this past Monday.

Now a college student, I was able to finally pony up and buy myself some lawn seats at the Shoreline Amphitheatre for what would be an incredible show.

As it was Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida Tour” the set list featured songs from their new album Viva la Vida such as “Violet Hill” and “Lovers in Japan/Reign of Love,” as well as Coldplay classics like “Yellow” and “Politik” for those long-time fans.

I was immediately suprised with the theatrics as they were truly something else. From light shows, giant yellow balloons filled with confetti, paper cut outs of butterflies, “Mexican cell phone waves” and our very own performance on the lawn, the Brit rockers definitely knew how to please the fans, those from row one, up to, as Martin put it, “row 700 on the lawn.”

Not suprisingly, the sound was also impressive that chimed out of Coldplay on Monday night. Far from dabbling in dampened sounds and drab grays, the quartet seemed to click and a  certain sharpness aired, one that was both loud when it needed to be but gentle when necessary. The end result was that of a studio session, crystal clear sound, enjoyable and fresh.

Coldplay put on quite the show, both theatrically and musically. Martin came out swinging and gave the packed house what they wanted, Coldplay in its rawest, best-sounding form: Martin's voice was crisp and clean, Buckland's guitar sang, Berryman's bass hit the lows and Champion's drums hit hard resulting in a myriad of sounds and tones that added up to one brilliant performance.

One nice addition to the concert was Coldplay’s tribute to Michael Jackson. Rendering “Billie Jean,” “a song a hell of a lot better than we could of written,” Martin and the rest of the group paid tribute to the recently deceased King of Pop with a song from the King himself.

Another cool thing the band did was to give away a free c.d. at the end of the concert called left right left right left, a live recorded album that is also available for download on the band's webiste, coldplay.com.

For a band, that rumors have it, is on the tail end of their touring days, Coldplay seems to still be enjoying themselves and shows no signs of slowing down.

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