Press (cold) play, sit back and enjoy...

Last night we went out to Earls Court, to see a band we are relatively recent converts to, Coldplay. I use the term "convert" loosely as they will never be one of our favourite bands, but will always pump out serviceable albums with great riffs and loops that will keep us interested and keep us buying their albums.

We couldn't get seats together so had to sit apart. For those who haven't been to Earls Court, it is one of the biggest indoor arenas in London (~15,000) and it was packed to the rafters, with tickets selling out to all 3 shows in around 15 mins. Coldplay are probably the second biggest band in the UK (after U2). But going on last night, U2 have nothing to worry about.

I'll start with one of the upsides of the night. I was pleasantly surprised to find Richard Ashcroft (The Verve) was the support act. He was very good, with obviously the biggest applause saved for the Verve trio of songs "Sonnet", "Drugs Don't Work" and "Bittersweet Symphony". The latter was his final song and caused some issues when he was told his time was off and asked to finish up. Rather than submit, he simply leant towards the microphone and putting on his jacket said, "This is what happened to rock n roll. They make me come on at 7.20 and sorry, but they're making me get off now. This means I won't be able to play a song called .....Bittersweet Symphony." Oh how politicians must yearn for this power, as of course when he mentioned what we were to miss, everyone went nuts and demanded he play it. To which he nodded to the guitarist and with the backstage staff goin crazy, he played on. The audience responded (as they had the whole set) to him and the atmosphere was fantastic. He was very polished and had the crowd entirely behind him. Little did we know it was probably the most atmosphere we would get for the night.

Coldplay came on, and like they'd pressed play on the CD player, played track 1 from X&Y, "Square One". They borrowed from most of their albums and played serviceably. Chris Martin was vying for the Gumby of the Year award with some acrobatics that would make a Chinese gymnast stand up and applaud. He was most at home behind the piano and played energetically and skilfully.

The crowd were...well...how can I describe the crowd? Let me start with a stereotype: middle-class, not much in the way of music fans "but I like Coldplay", and not keen to stray from what they hear on radio (including Coldplay tracks not released as singles it appeared). Any song not played on XFM (/Fox FM) in the last 6 months, was met with stone-faced stares like Coldplay were covering some vague Bahrainian folk ditty written centuries ago. This included songs like "God Put a Smile Upon Your Face" and their second best performance of the night "The Scientist". But they loved "Yellow" and "In My Place" as well as the highlight of the night, "Clocks". I know it's a cliched song yada yada yada. It is a brilliant song however, and Chris Martin went sick on the piano, including having a pace-off with the drummer to see who could play quicker. It really didn't matter, they're both incredibly fast.

The two disappointing things for me were:
1. The sterility: not helped at all by the fact that after each song, Martin rarely interacted with the audience and when he did, it was to say something inspirational and special like, "Thanks for comin out tonight, you've been great". I was waiting for the "try the veal" line! The other low point here was that between each song, the stadium went black for 30 secs while they rearranged the set. Seamless...
2. The acoustic set: in the middle they did a set of 4 or 5 songs acoustic with the band at the front (a'la how U2 does with Sunday Bloody Sunday and Stay). Put simply: it died. The audience didn't respond, there was no intimacy and frankly, it was boring. Luckily they later redeemed themselves when they picked up the beat but good bands (and bands you pay $100 to see) don't stuff up like that half way through a tour.

So I have been a tad harsh on the band. They were very good, tight, polished etc. But they were a bit sterile and after seeing Ben Lee, The Waifs and U2 in the last few months (the first 2 costing less than half a Coldplay ticket), they were up against it. I didn't expect them to be brilliant, and they weren't. But they were serviceable and hey their music is good and that counts most I reckon. I also need to remember that it's not rock'n'roll, it's pop. People call it rock but a good measure of rock is how an audience responds to the music and I'm sorry but clapping along (what was it, church?) and 'jigging' (no other word) is not what rock inspires you to do. I do concede for a pop band, they do have a lot of talent, particularly Martin whose voice was brilliant no matter what shape he contorted his body to.

Richard Ashcroft, however, I would pay to see and would love to see him in his own gig in a little club, which is probably the kind of thing he does weekly around London. There are positives to living in this city...