Coldplay lights up O-Town at Amway

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”.