Coldplay is Awesome

So Aramaic and I went to the Coldplay concert tonight at Verizon Center and it was- freaking awesome. One of the gosh-darn happiest concerts I've ever been to.

Here are some initial thoughts- I'll probably write more later.

First opening band- Juniper Lane- was really good. I love a good rock band with a lady lead singer with an amazing voice. Second opening band- forgot the name- but it was horrible. Like if you combined some 80s style with a bit of reggae and rap and some really weird shit, you'd get it. They actually weren't too awful, but like, everyone was expecting and wanting Coldplay, and this chick with this big band came out and we had no fucking clue who she was. And the music was absolutely nothing like anything Coldplay. It just went on entirely too long- two songs in, I was praying for the band to leave.

Anyways, Coldplay was amazing- terribly good in concert. They really know how to put on a show. There were awesome special effects- floating balls around the stadium that had videos playing across them- laser lights, cool videos in the background, and towards the end, they dumped probably a ton of confetti on the crowd during Lovers in Japan. The concert was humongous- I mean, really the place was sold out- but they managed to make it feel almost intimate at places. Chris Martin and co. did the big pieces in huge special effects craziness on the gargantuan main stage, but also did a number of songs out on the side stages they had running out into the audience. At one point they even ran out into the crowd and performed from a tiny stage they had set up within it. Some songs got expanded and added onto (there was a cool version of god put a smile upon your place with some awesome guitar effects in the back), while others were pared down completely. The acoustic version of the Scientist was really beautiful.

The band's personality really made the concert what it was though. They rocked out in their rockingest way, but also laughed at themselves easily. Martin commented on stage during a final rendition of 'Yellow' which was just him and the guitar, "man, i really fucked that up," in his cute british accent, and when he redid it, he kept making comments to himself (in the mic) like, "yeah, that's how it's supposed to be, much better."

The best, most amazing part though, was after the acoustic take on the Scientist- Martin had played a bit of harmonica during it and commented, "why does every singer in the world think they can play harmonica? it's like, they get famous and then they're like, hm, i think i should take up the harmonica now. i can't play it for shit." and then proceeded to announce that to balance out his own ego, he was giving the show over to the drummer for a bit to do whatever he wanted. and then the drummer took a guitar and sang a cute little ditty (i could barely hear him unfortunately), with martin playing harmonica ironically.

It was just incredibly happy and awesome. : )

I'M GOING TO TEXAS TOMORROW. YAY HOME.

woot. out.

<3-rach