Back again after a hiatus from writing (incredibly frequent, but you Americans get to all the new CDs before I can). A couple of worthy mentions for Cds recently: Foo Fighter’s new album ‘One by One’ is a great listen, although not quite as enjoyable as ‘Colour and the Shape’, but forgivable for a band that was rumoured to split. Also to Trust Company’s ‘The Lonely Position of Neutral’ (who thinks they stole the ‘Hover’ riff from Chris Jericho’s WCW theme?), which has some really surprising tracks that are now memorable from the live performance, especially ‘Hover’, ‘Take it All’ and ‘Falling Apart’ as well as ‘Downfall’, but everyone knows about THAT song.
However this is a concert review so lets get onto the business of reviewing the action from last Sunday night where Coldplay carried on promoting their new album ‘A Rush of Blood to The Head’ by headlining at Wembley Arena supported by up and coming rock act Idlewild.
A couple of notes: I’ve seen Idlewild live before, at Brixton Academy on an Iggy Pop organised weekend where the line-up was Hoobastank, The Vandals, Idlewild and The Hives. Also I do not own a copy of Coldplay’s new album…I admit it, I didn’t want to venture into the new album before I heard the tracks from it live.
Now Wembley is an interesting commodity for music. First of all the place usually sucks for queuing, in fact I’ve known people to miss opening acts whilst queuing outside. Secondly I’ve been there but twice, this time and for Limp Bizkit’s penultimate England gig back in June 2001, and God I wish I could’ve reviewed that…but that’s another story.
So after being pleasantly surprised of the lack of queue and being overly frisked by the security guard after shouting ‘hey that guy got frisked twice…no fair’, I walked into the gloomy pit that inhabits Wembley. An hour before the start and the place was empty…I swear there were about twenty other people in standing, and a few patches of families up in the seats, obviously still having their Sunday Roast I guess.
So the first band- Idlewild, a pretty well known band due to the success of ‘The Remote Part’ and it’s most famous track ‘American English’, but maybe Wembley was one size too big for Idlewild. I’m not denying that they were an enjoyable live band, but their forty-five minute set, combined with a pretty dire performance of ‘American English’ to culminate it didn’t exactly enthral the audience. Now I hate to criticise a band…really, but for all the effort Idlewild put in they failed to really show just how good they are. ‘You Held the World in Your Arms’ was admittedly brilliant, and ‘I Am What I Am Not’ and ‘Living In A Hiding Place’ both impressed, but for non-devout followers of the band there was little to say “go out and buy our album, we rule”, more just “Hey we’re supporting, and pick up the cool flyer outside to buy our album”. So sorry Roddy and co., but that night was not the night for Idlewild to really show them to be great.
Forty minutes later and the lights once again went black. Coldplay walked on to strobe lighting and went straight into an inspired performance on ‘Politik’. With lights flashing on and off Chris Martin for the whole song, the crowd was finally energised, although being one of the youngest there I have to admit that energised meant arms in the air and the odd jump, because at the end of the concert I’d moved literally half a metre and that was because one of my friends wanted to switch places…not exactly a ‘dirty mosher’ gig then.
The following four songs were absolutely incredible to hear live. ‘Shiver’, ‘Spies’, ‘Daylight’ and ‘Trouble’ all delivered the goods with Chris Martin being as lively and involved as I’ve ever seen. The band really seemed to enjoy having a totally appreciative crowd. After that the band followed with a medley from the new album. Al the songs were catchy and impressively performed, however only ‘Green Eyes’ stood out to me.
Soon up was the band’s most famous and arguably best song ‘Yellow’. The crowd got to sing-a-long with Martin for this track, and whilst jumping around the stage the lead man really still prove that he could carry the charisma side of the band on his own.
After the ‘fake ending’ spot that’s become a permanent feature for major bands Coldplay came back with their two new singles ‘Clocks’ and ‘In My Place’ both well received by the passionate crowd, and finally finished off their hour and a half set with ‘Life is For Living’ a slower song that seemed to mellow out the crowd ready for leaving and going back to work the next day.
A highly impressive concert from the eyes of the beholder and one that showed the talents of Martin, as he played his usual piano and electro-acoustic parts, as well as the electric guitar, but one that also showcased the rest of the band via video screens, and however unanimated they are, it’s easy to see that Coldplay are definitely not a one-man band, in fact Jonny Buckland really impressed me with his range of guitar riffs and the way he played it all to perfection.
This is a thanks to Coldplay for putting on such an inspired performance, and for doing it night after night (apparently) for the whole of their tour.
The 411: A band at its peak playing to a sell-out crowd and almost bringing the house down? That’s what it sounded like to me.
