Coldplay at Philips Arena

The wife and I took in the Coldplay concert at Philips Arena last night. And while I haven't exactly been tearing up the concert scene lately I have to say it was one of the best concerts I'd been to in some time. There was definitely a lot of energy from both sides: the crowd and the band. Chris Martin really engages the crowd in a concert. He doesn't seem to sing songs to the crowd so much as he sings them for the crowd. They opened with a song off the new album (I bet Cece a dollar they would open with Speed of Sound and I was wrong), but I can't remember the name. Immediately after the last note in the opener they busted out Politik from their first album. It opens with gut busting drums and piano and the lights were all skewed across the stage and it just felt like a rock concert. I was a bit apprehensive going into the show that it might be a low key kind of a night. I'm sure they've been touring a while and you just never know when one of these huge bands that is so incredibly popular all over the world and is constantly performing, either on their own tour or Saturday Night Live or Letterman or wherever, is just going to have either an off night or a night with no energy. Well they were definitely on last night. The afforementioned Politik along with Clocks and Yellow absolutely whipped the crowd into a frenzy. They really put a lot of spark into the "famous" songs. I've been to shows where the band seems to be tired of playing their hits and just goes through the motions on those songs. Coldplay did a good job of keeping the intensity level high throughout the show. Of course the downside of that is they didn't play for very long. They played about an hour main set and left for less than five minutes and came back for a four or five song encore. They closed with Fix You and included the obligatory lyric changes to give props to the host city. They also changed some of the words in Politik (home of Outkast and REM...Georgia on my mind) to reflect a little local color. Although after the song Chris Martin did say that they don't do that everywhere (wait a minute before you call BS) and that Atlanta is special to them (I said wait a minute). He told a story that I'd actually heard him tell before, not in Atlanta, but in an interview. Back in 2000 before they had any "hit" songs in the US they were on a tour which featured Korn and some other heavy metal bands and they just felt like crap. They said they were getting booed on stage at most shows because of the type of music they were playing and they were at a really low point in the confidence level as a band. Well, as the tour made a swing through the south they booked a couple of shows at the Tabernacle in Atlanta. It's an old church in downtown that has been turned into a phenomenal and intimate music venue (Kevin and I saw Cake there last October...f'n awesome show) holding about 2,000 folks. They rocked the house and got such an energetic and positive response from the crowd they started to feel good about themselves again. The second night they invited Elton John onstage (he lives here part time) and he played piano on a couple of their songs and they pretty much took off after that. I believe it was after that tour that they wrote most of the songs that would become Rush of Blood to the Head. Anyway, the point is that I know most bands change some lyrics to pump up the crowd but they at least seemed sincere about their motivations last night. The best "moment" of the show was after the break. Martin came back on the stage alone to start the encore and said they really wanted to do something special because they were back in Atlanta (this is when he told the story about the Tabernacle) and said they had invited a special guest. I immediately though it would be Elton John. But he said they thought there was no better way to honor Atlanta than to bring up someone who was born there (no Elton John then) and who he had posters of on his wall when he was a teenager. Then he introduced Michael Stipe and the place went nuts. Stipe came out and they did a stripped down version of Night Swimming - Martin on piano and Stipe singing. I know this sounds pretty gay but I got goose bumps. That is one of my favorite REM songs and it was just a really cool moment. The funniest moment of the show came when Martin just stopped playing about 30 seconds into The Professor. His voice cracked or he missed a note and he just stopped and said, "F that, I screwed up and I'm starting over. You guys don't deserve that." Everyone laughed and he just cranked right back up. My only complaint was that they didn't play as long a show as I thought they would. They didn't hit the stage until around 9:20 and we were back in Centennial Park walking toward MARTA by 11:00. I'd say they probably played for an hour and a half. I've seen shorter shows, but I've also seen longer ones. But it was still worth the money and it made me want to go to more concerts. Nine Inch Nails is coming to town in November and I'd really like to see them again. Cece wants to go see Neil Diamond. I said yes, but only if Will Ferrell is playing Neil Diamond. We're also going to see U2 on November 19. I'll be watching the Auburn/uat game at the Jocks 'n Jills at CNN Center and then hustling over to Philips to catch the concert. Hopefully it'll be a happy time at the concert (four in a row!). Anyway, just wanted to share that from last night. We leave this afternoon for London and Paris. I'll be sure and take plenty of pictures of British people with bad teeth and rude Parisians to share with everyone. I'm also bringing a bottle of spray deodorant so I can hose down any smelly Frenchies I get stuck next to. Au revoir gentlemen.