Coldplay at Rogers Centre! Pix + Review

July 31st, 2009

COLDPLAY @ ROGERS CENTRE
By Liem Vu

Metric’s fantasies may include getting some “Stadium Love” but it’s Coldplay’s reality.
With a lackluster set from opening bands Elbow and Kitty, Daisy, and Lewis, 50,000 fans were sent into a frenzy when Jon Hopkin’s ambient track, ‘Light Through The Veins,’ began to chime. As the prelude to ‘Life in Technicolor’ continued, the Sky…er…Rogers Centre was transformed into a constellation of flickering digital cameras as fans attempted to snap a picture of Chris Martin, Coldplay’s frontman and former-Sexiest Vegetarian.

In all their unpretentious glory, the motley crew of Brit-pop rockers came on-stage with sparklers in hand, a clear contrast between the sonic and visual sterility of Coldplay’s “Twisted Logic” tour.
With their triumphant return to creative form (and to Toronto), the quartet whipped out a slew of tunes, old and new, including ‘Violet Hill,’ ‘Clocks,’ ‘Yellow’ and ‘Life in Technicolor ii.’

As a band with an ethos that has always been based on an unspoken sense of timidity and humility, songs like ‘Violet Hill’ seemed to carry a more emotionally charged aggression to it.
At times, the songs carried even more gravitas than its Brian Eno-produced record counterparts. For example, ‘Post Cards from Far Away,’ although more or less the same as it is presented on Prospekt’s March, carried a more sinister and foreboding tone as a subtle ambient track played along.
Like in first leg of the ‘Viva La Vida’ tour, the mild-mannered Martin was abundant in child-like energy and fervor with his sprints, hops, and contortions.

Playing various songs around the venue including the right stage runway to the back of the floor area, the band resurrected the ‘God Put A Smile On Your Face’ remix from yester-year. With a Kraftwerkian digital drum kit in tow, the band played the vintage track and slowly eased it into a reworked version of the Computer Love-sampled track, ‘Talk.’

Unlike the highly jarring pyrotechnic ejaculate that Nickelback seems so fond of, Coldplay employed more PG-13 friendly props like yellow balloons (Yellow), butterfly confetti (Lovers in Japan) and green lasers (Clocks). Although these motifs have been done before in their previous tours, there’s still a sense of wonder and bedazzlement engaging in a mass sing-a-long with thousands of Coldplay fans while glowing butterflies rain down on you (Note: OK, in retrospect, that sounds cheesy but trust me, you’d have to be a Megan Fox to not care if you were there).

While newer tracks like ‘Glass of Water’ often caused the casual audience members to become befuddled with silence, perfectly positioned anthems like ‘Viva La Vida’ quickly resurrected the energy.
Although the visual and musical spectacles were the planned selling point of the gig, it was Martin’s charismatic charm that won over the audience even to the point of convincing the 50,000 fans to create a collective cell phone wave. He also demonstrated his knowledge of municipal politics with a reference to the garbage strike in Toronto and how he couldn’t get a hair cut because hair cutters were also on strike.
Besides asking if the audience was okay, Martin also displayed his lyrical virtuosity by swapping out words for Toronto-centric ones. For ‘Violet Hill,’ he sung, “If you love me, let me play in Toronto.” And for ‘The Hardest Part,’ he changed the lyrics to, “The hardest part was having Justin Timberlake’s hair before he left N’Sync.”
While the ‘Billie Jean’ cover garnered mass audience appeal, there was still a sense of a misplaced feel and intention. Was it a homage? Was it an attempt to win audience members who suddenly became MJ lovers after the fact? Was it too soon?
While the answer is unclear, it was nevertheless an evening demonstrating why Coldplay is not only a commercially successful band but also a creative one, having evolved from simple piano-acoustic diddies to synth-heavy tunes to highly textured musical tones.
Coldplay, I salute you in all your Sgt. Pepper-y glory.