The chart-topping
Brits pay a visit to
the City Beautiful
By Caleb Fooks
Valenica Voice
Coldplay has been a figure of mixed
opinion in the music industry, rising suspi-
ciously from the ashes of the early 90s U.K
musical phenomena including Radiohead
and U2.
The general response ranges from
screaming fans to nose lifting skeptics of
the band but on Friday night there was no
question of Orlando’s stance on the mat-
ter.
The band broke the ice with songs from
their latest album chart-topping “Viva La
Vida” with songs ‘Life in Technicolor’ and
‘Violet Hill’.
A giant image of Delacroix’s painting
‘Liberty Leading the People’ was projected
on a backdrop behind the stage making the
concert experience comparable to a giant
mural, but with moving paint.
The lights, sounds and infinite expanse
of space in the arena all blended into one
main focus on the band when singer Chris
Martin keyed the first notes of ‘Clocks’.
The piano plunged the entire stadium
into a landscape of time, as Chris Martin’s
voice seemed to move the universal hands.
The crowd went wild with excitement;
to the audience this screamed a true begin-
ning, like the plunge into a deep conversa-
tion after finally putting the pleasantries of
greetings and small talk aside.
The show was rich in aesthetics not only
in music but also in décor.
Lasers beamed through the smoke of
fog machines from the stage to the upper
bowl dancing to the music in a multitude
of color.
Giant spheres lowered halfway in the set
displaying live video of the band on stage
in distorted curves.
The band members were a ragged bunch,
dressed in a distressed French military ori-
ented uniform.
A French revolution theme was obvious,
coinciding with the new album artwork.
With this huge concert taking place only
3 days removed from the announcement of
a new president of the United States, ideas
of freedom and democracy were at the
front of everyone’s mind.
Martin cracked a joke later on before
playing ‘The Scientist’, stating that the post-
er child of the recent Republican campaign,
“Joe the Plumber” had written the song.
“We asked him if he would share the
wealth with us,” Martin said to the audience,
“but he refused, so we had to fire him.”
In such a large and impersonal setting
as the Amway Arena, it can be difficult to
connect with such a massive audience but
Coldplay was ultimately successful in their
endeavor.
Almost as a direct attack on the sterile
arena environment, the band left the stage
unannounced.
Several minutes later they appeared un-
expectedly on a makeshift stage in the low-
er bowl, bringing the performance down to
earth with acoustic versions of ‘The Scien-
tist’ and ‘Death Will Never Conquer’ but
only for a short time before bringing con-
cert goers back up to “look at earth from
outer space” with a back-to-main-stage en-
core of ‘Politik’.
As the band came back for a second en-
core, almost a cliché for large arena shows,
they refreshed the set with a blizzard of
shiny butterfly shaped confetti bursting
into the air from above the main court,
decorating the audience below to the song
‘Yellow’.
The performance was brought to an end
after Martin and the band walked off for a
final time, leaving concertgoers in a state of
stupor and awe after playing an appropriate
song, “The Escapist”.
