A change in professions.....

Image from www.coldplay.com

....at least for the morning haha. So I went to the Coldplay concert last night at the TD Banknorth Garden, WOW. My wonderful boyfriend was so nice enough to get us floor seats to the concert and I have to say, I was thoroughly impressed. In fact, I was so impressed I thought I would take this chance to blog in the role of a music critic. For those of you who are going to see their concert somewhere else and don't want to spoil it, do not read on. And for those of you who are critics as a living, well, just close this blog out now because I'm sure it will be painful to read, but here it goes!

After walking into the garden, Matt and I found our seats on the floor. We were very impressed to see the view we had , except the issue for me, I'm 5'2". So anyone taller than me (95% of the population there) was a definite view obstruction. I was worried I wouldn't get to see enough, but then I realized there were two large screens hanging in front/above us. Duffy was performing on stage to open up for the guys and I have to say, her voice is impressive. She has a voice familiar to that of Amy Winehouse, but a bit less sultry and more upbeat. I had only known one song of hers called Mercy. As she sang that, the crowd was very into it and impressed and needless to say familiar with that song as well, as they all sang along. The rest of her songs were uncharted territory for me, but I enjoyed hearing her sing. She left the stage and of course there was a short intermission of sorts where the house lights went back on and they played filler music in the background as everyone had their last chances to run and take bathroom breaks and stock up on food and drinks. After a suspenseful 20 minutes or so, the music started to play, the lights went out and all you could see was the faint glow of the stage casting shadows of what could only be Coldplay themselves. The crowd was crazy and of course as the stage came up, it was the beginning of what I like to call, a show as aesthetically intriguing as it was acoustically pleasing. (<~ you like that right there? ;) haha ) The stage was set up with a large backdrop that had a projection of what seemed to be a war painting of soldiers in the battlefield. Chris Martin and crew (Jonny Buckland, Will Champion, and Guy Berryman) were all sporting a similar themed wardrobe that had hints of the old war uniforms in them. Chris Martin spent a lot of time at the piano while also sporting a guitar at times here and there while he sang. I took this picture with my camera phone, it's not great quality bit it gives you a hint at what I saw with the orbs/laswer show.

During parts of the show, these very large, round orb-like balls came down from the ceiling, about 5 of them, and would project on the outside of them different colors and changing patterns. Even at one point, they began to project the video shots of the stage on them and it was very fun to watch. In addition to that, the two large video screens were constantly playing changing footage of the guys on stage. The video effects, colors and live editing of them almost felt like you watching a music video of them performing. Complimenting the mood of different songs, there were a few laser shows as well that sported mood-matching colors and motions. Often the stage lit up these vibrant blues and purples. These later on would confirm my suspicions that the blue looked like a black light almost, as during one of their last few songs, raining from the ceiling of the Garden were millions of tissue paper and shiny plastic butterflies. They were blown into the air and as they floated their way down to the ground, were lit up fluorescent colors as the blue and purple lights lit them up. It was truly amazing to see it. Before I went to this concert, many friends and co-workers told me they heard Coldplay was known for putting on an amazing show. I didn't want to get my expectations up, because you never know what you are going to get; however, before I even walked out of this concert, I knew I was more than convinced that they indeed put on an amazing show, in fact, it was down right awesome.

As for the musical performance itself, I was blown away at these guys. Not just Chris Martin's vocals but even the musical performance from the rest of the guys was impressive. The sound is so crisp and full that you cannot help but be so blown away. Not to say that their music from other media such as CD's or the Internet isn't up to par; because it definitely is, otherwise why would I be at the show? Their live performance is probably the best I've ever heard them sound. By far. From my eyes , the show went perfectly, but Chris Martin was so entertaining as to tell us a secret after an "acoustic performance" on the far left part of the stage that reached out into the audience. Truth was, they had "technical issues" right before that song and we probably thought that they were intentionally doing an acoustic version of their song Talk, which sorry Matt, they didn't finish :( But the truth was it was a last second decision they must have some how telepathically decided together to pull off. He said if you are a devout musician or a critic, to dismiss that part of the performance, but if you wanted to remain blissfully ignorant about the whole thing, then to keep enjoying. Haha. Chris Martin was quite the entertainer as between a few songs he spoke, including a shout out to the "governor of Alaska" and with an almost immediate audience response of "boo's", he responded back with the claim that despite politics, she is "one hot babe". This was immediately followed with "all things aside, seriously, vote Obama". As the audience cheered to his Democratic declaration, he revealed Boston was one of the only places that he felt comfortable saying that without getting assassinated!? hahah. A little extreme but still funny to hear it. A few acoustical songs that he did perform sounded awesome as they were right on key, and to top it off, two of the songs they did, they ran off the stage, through the crowd, and up to the back far right of the arena where stage men had slyly already set up their plug-in's with instruments so they could sing standing there in the middle of the walkway. They were standing there with the rest of their fans who at the beginning thought they had crappy seats and in the end, probably walked away being able to tell you what kind of cologne/deodorant they each wear as they were that close to them.

All in all, the performance was amazing, if there is any way to go see a show, I highly suggest it. With the show lasting about a little over 2 hours, I left satisfied with each minute of it. Attached you fill find a few pictures of the adventure.

These pictures are from the coldplay website at www.coldplay.com. They are a view of what went on at the concert, enjoy!