Dariane’s comments:
So my only prior experience to a Coldplay performance was this disaster on SNL back in October 2008 when Jon Hamm hosted. The NBC and SNL Producers showed that Coldplay was, in fact, too cool for school by giving them THREE songs to perform instead of the usual two. Their performance horrified me so much that I vowed that Coldplay would be the one band I would not want to see live.
Having said that, after hearing about an opportunity to attend their Chula Vista concert for free after volunteering with Oxfam, I joined biskeeee and whosdamike to attend. Free Coldplay concert? Sure, why not, I guess.
After volunteering for Oxfam, we were lucky enough to get great, comfy seats at the Cricket Amphitheater with probably the most perfect unobstructed view of the stage.
And in short, this Coldplay concert was by far the best concert experience I’ve ever had. Ever.
Highlights:
- Met AWESOME people who volunteered for Oxfam.
- Got parking really close by for FREE
- Got to watch the concert for FREE
- Amazing fold-out cushion seats just above the pit.
- OMFGWTF Coldplay performed just a few feet away from us! (And if you don’t believe it, we’ve got pictures to prove it.)
- Carne Asada Fries right after. <3 SD
WHOSDAMIKE:
The setting: July 16, 2009.
The place: Chula Vista, CA.
The band: Coldplay.
The result: Two solid hours of precision dosed adrenaline, pumped through incandescent butterfly cannons and full-spun moon televisions.
Afterward, gathered around a rickety old table with a full order of carne asada fries and a mixed Coke and Cherry slurpee, we tried to capture the experience. Words came up, misses and near-successes: Amazing. Awesome. Epic.
The band swept across the Amphitheater, loaded up on the latest in audiovisual holo-laser-balloons. Chris Martin was frenetic, demonic, at times doubling backward like a Matrix gunshot victim, and others leaping up as though he meant to dive into the surge and surf of a thriving, enthusiastic crowd.
At times, the band would disappear from the stage, slip off like shadows into the dark. Then a roar passing through the crowd in a great wave, a spotlight tracking the haphazard run of four figures, and suddenly they were there. In a heartbeat, we went from halfway between stage and nosebleeds to the best seats in the whole damn house.
Two mini-stages, set up at the nosebleeds and midway point. The band knows how to please the fans. Everyone got to have a little piece.
Technically, the show was amazing. I saw every piece of fancy stage technology I knew employed simultaneously. And then three extra ones, possibly ganked from Xenu’s magitech foo fighters of Area 51.
Fog machines. Multi-spectrum lasers. Rotating tele-spheres. Paper insect cannons, less like guns and more like geysers.
And the music? The personality? The presence?
Not amazing. Not awesome. Not epic.
Full-on, unadulterated, NPH LEGENDARY.
photos taken (poorly) by whosdamike
biskeeee’s comments:
I’ve been going to shows habitually for about 10 years, but darn it if Coldplay at Cricket Wireless Amphitheater wasn’t the best rock concert I’ve ever experienced. Seeing them for free was great - volunteering with Oxfam was fun and easy (unless you don’t like people), and we were rewarded with seats valued at ~$100. $100 is a lot for a concert - I usually hate spending more than $25 - but with Coldplay, you get what you pay for. Grandeur, spectacle, pyrotechnics, costumes, a million tissue-paper butterflies… but also tender moments where they made me feel a connection not only with the band, but with the brotherhood of man in the crowd… moments that left me believing in truth and beauty and all that stuff I’m supposed to be too cynical to go for. Coldplay’s music is beautiful, but listening to the recordings never made me feel what I felt at the concert. I believe the point of a live show is to convey experiences beyond the capabilities of a recording… and by that measure, the show was excellent. Even if I’d had to pay for the ticket, I wouldn’t hesitate to see them again.
