Coldplay

I went to see Coldplay last night in Oklahoma City. This was my second Coldplay show, and it did not dissapoint. Viva La Vida has a very different sound than than the previous three, and especially different than X and Y. The X and Y tour was the most engaging two hours of my life. The sound and the media were brilliant. I stood there and watched a beautiful production. Viva La Vida was different, but still amazing.

The album has a more natural sound than X and Y, and consequently used a whole lot less media. Thats not to say the show was boring to look at. Their set started with a black veil that covered the stage as they played "Life in Technicolor." Then the veil fell and the lights came on and the background, which was previously black was the cover art for the album. The first song that really used any media was "Clocks," which still wasn't a whole lot- just some intelligent lights shining lazers back into the crowd and up the back wall of the Ford Center. The strangest media were some giant globes that fell out of the ceiling and then lit up with swirls of different colors and even projections of the band that was being shown on some projectors above.

The highlight was by far "Viva la Vida." The entire band went to a "satellite" stage more in the crowd and slowly that stage went dark and Chris stayed behind to play some piece that sounded almost classical. He brought the energy way down and then you heard Will start on the timpani. The crowd went crazy and the lights came on and everyone was sining, "I hear Jerusalem bells a rining/ Roman calvary choirs a singing." Amazing. Will even rang a big bell during the song as well. This show was definitively more about the music than the X and Y tour, but with this album they should focus on the music because there are some powerful songs on this one.

Now I would be remiss if I didn't mention the opener. Jon Hopkins who was mixing music and creating his sounds while matching it to a cartoon. I couldn't even begin to describe the images of the cartoon we were watching, so here is a post from YouTube.