shakespeare’s sister : music/arts reviews & features

Photo: David Bennett

Coldplay really have become the biggest band in the world. The colossal commercial success of their latest release, 2008’s Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends, means they can charge $140 a ticket and still be able to sell out stadium shows with their legion of fiercely loyal followers – and that’s exactly what they’re doing this week. Returning for their first Australian visit since 2006’s Twisted Logic tour, the British supergroup are playing five packed-out shows at Sydney’s Acer Arena, beginning last night and ending on Sunday, to a 20 000 strong crowd each night.

But with growing popularity comes a wider fan base and, as last night’s show proved, Coldplay’s followers now include glitter-clad 12-year-olds pushing in front of annoyed punters in a vain attempt to find their mothers, and teenage girls chattering incessantly about all the unholy things they would do to singer Chris Martin. Irritating but not obnoxious – until the heckling began.

The support slots, filled by local post-punk group Decoder Ring and Buffalo dream-pop veterans Mercury Rev, were met with sarcastic cheers from the impatient crowd, with one particular teenage girl blocking her ears while her friend wailed “this is gross, I’m writing a letter of complaint!” Whilst Rev frontman Jonathan Donahue was admittedly quite ostentatious, it seemed that a vast majority of the audience were never willing to give him a chance anyway – and it’s a sad thing to witness when a city turns against the opportunity of discovering new music because of self-imposed walls. It’s also funny to note that Rev, formed in 1984, have been making music much longer than a lot of the haters have been alive.

Any hatred, however, instantly evaporated as soon as four shadows took to the stage, poised behind a thin veil. The crowd exploded as the band splashed into ‘Life in Technicolor’, kicking off a set that lasted close to two hours and included a steady mix of fan favourites. The stage setup was elaborately theatrical, as you’d expect a Coldplay concert to be – against a backdrop of the Viva cover, three large video balls hung (with similar balls and screens hanging from various parts of the arena roof) and a small antique television perched at the front of the stage also showed footage as it happened. The backdrop changed throughout the evening, with projection artwork, enormous video footage, dazzling block colours and a huge ‘VIVA LA VIDA’ making up just a few of its variations.

Martin, decked out in a beige shirt with a red V splattered on its front, was every bit the charismatic frontman, charmingly bantering between songs and leading the enchanted crowd in stadium sing-alongs of John Farnham’s ‘You’re The Voice’ and the Monkees’ ‘I’m A Believer’. Yellow confetti-filled balloons bounced above the audience as thousands of voices became one in singing ‘Yellow’,and the biggest cheers were saved for Viva La Vida’s chart-topping title track, with lights illuminating the packed arena. The band also regularly departed the main stage for the two side platforms, and at one point went up into the stands, amidst speechless fans, for a three-song acoustic interlude (including drummer Will Champion taking the microphone for a dulcet rendition of Coldplay b-side ‘Death Will Never Conquer’).

But whilst this variation in performance did keep things interesting, the fact that they squeezed over 20 songs into less than two hours meant that there had to be some chopping and changing. ‘God Put A Smile Upon Your Face’ and ‘Talk’ were reinvented as techno remixes, whilst ‘The Hardest Part’ and ‘Speed of Sound’ were played acoustically (on piano and guitar, respectively) – but only in part. What this meant was that those in the audience who had not been to prior Coldplay concerts were left with an incomplete rendering of some favourite tracks – the boys deserve to be commended for their initiative in crafting a show distinctly separate from the recorded experience, but it sometimes felt a little too separate.

The set’s true highlight came near the end – after the acoustic interlude, the band returned to the main stage for an absolutely gorgeous ‘Lovers in Japan’, with cherry blossom projections flashing brightly on stage whilst rainbow butterfly-shaped confetti rained down onto the eager crowd. Whilst these kinds of props can be a little naff, Coldplay pull it off – what was, for the most part, a delightful evening was topped off by an adorably sweet shower of music and colour.

When at last they reached ‘Life in Technicolor ii’ after an encore performance of ‘The Scientist’, it felt as though the band had taken all present on a musical journey as the same riff that opened the show closed it. Obnoxious 12-year-olds and weird techno remixes aside, the rabid crowd enthusiasm and almost-note-perfect set last night proved that Coldplay have cemented their place as The New U2 – arguably the world’s most recognisable and accessible band.

Except that Chris Martin isn’t as much of a douche as Bono. Yet.

Set:

Life in Technicolor
Violet Hill
Clocks
In My Place
Yellow/You’re The Voice
Glass of Water
Cemeteries of London
42
Fix You
Strawberry Swing
God Put A Smile Upon Your Face
Talk
The Hardest Part
Postcards from Far Away
Viva La Vida
Lost!
Speed of Sound
I’m A Believer
Death Will Never Conquer
Viva La Vida (interlude)
—
Politik
Lovers in Japan
Death and All His Friends
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The Scientist
Life in Technicolor II
The Escapist (outro)