Last night jenn and i went the the Coldplay show at the air canada centre. i was fortunate enough to get selected as part of the coldplay presale lottery and got us tickets on the main floor, second row, and dead center. we were less than 10 feet from the stage. this is the second time we’ve seen coldplay, and also the second time the show was recorded. we saw their May 11, 2005 show at Kool Haus, which was recorded by Much Music (the canadian version of MTV). The two toronto shows (last night and tonight) are being recorded for an upcoming dvd release, so maybe we’ll even see ourselves in there somewhere.
what a great show! big arena shows usually suck because you’re stuck far away in nosebleed land, which is why i generally don’t get tickets for these shows, but when i saw how great my tickets were i couldn’t say no. it was a little crazy getting in and out of our seats (the rows aren’t really deep enough for one person to stand and another to get past them), but once we were in it was great. the band didn’t disappoint either, putting together an excellent show (with all of my favourites represented).
the only unfortunate and annoying part of the night were the line jumpers or whatever you call the morons who don’t have tickets yet somehow think it’s ok for them to force their way into your row. our row wasn’t really bothered by this since it was so small, but the row ahead of us had a little extra room between the chair and the guard rail, and as a result there were a whole bunch of people who thought that made it OK to slip in behind (and in many cases in FRONT of) the people who held tickets for the seats. i saw several people getting very unhappy when someone pushed their way in front of their seats. there were confrontations, but once the show started it seemed impossible to get rid of them. front and center, directly in front of us, was an ASSHOLE FROM BBC RADIO 1 who stood in our way the entire time, behind a pair of girls who we later found out also didn’t have tickets! when the “proper” people for those seats showed up they refused to leave! the one girl was at least pushed back off the rail for most of the time, but the other wouldn’t leave and let them have their place. by the end of the show most of the people with tickets had been forced to stand behind each other while these other idiots forced their way between them to the rail. we were left wondering what security was doing. we got stopped about 6 times on the way to our seats (and at the end we were escorted directly to our row), so how do these people get through in the first place? clearly AFBBCR1 had some sort of pass that allowed him free range over the place (and apparently also gave him permission to record the show too, since he did). fortunately, once the show got going i sort of forgot about them (other than AFBBCR1 who was tall and always in the way, constantly holding up his camera and/or mics).
the band was great, and seemed to be joking, laughing, and just having a good time. the ladies seemed to enjoy Chris Martin changing his shirt on stage. i enjoyed their small set up at the front of the stage, with “’til kingdom come” (the song they say they wrote for Johnny Cash), a cover of “ring of fire” (the song “written by someone else for johnny cash”), and a mellow version of “trouble”. some of my other favourites (“the scientist” and “swallowed in the sea”) were also covered, which was great.
the final consensus between jenn and i was that we liked their show at Kool Haus better, since it was such a small and intimate venue, but if you’re going to do an arena show, 2nd row is still pretty damn good.
here’s the setlist:
square one
politik
yellow
speed of sound
god put a smile upon your face
what if
how you see the world no. 2
dont panic
white shadows
the scientist
til kingdom come
ring of fire
trouble
clocks
talk
swallowed in the sea
in my place
fix you