Pemberton Festival: Coldplay

July 28th, 2008

You all know that I think Chris Martin is one of the ultimate best British frontmen around. He’s at once sexy, coy, charismatic and captivating. Coldplay, along with Live Nation were the brainchild behind the Pemberton Festival, and Chris Martin helped hand-pick the location along with some of the lineup.

Because of N*E*R*D‘s tardiness, the rest of the main stage’s set times were bumped up by almost an hour. Instead of going on at 9:30pm, Coldplay took the stage at 10:20 and played till 11:40, well past the venue’s 11pm outdoor curfew.

Chris was sweating like a beast by the third song (Clocks) – as usual he was really working hard on stage. I loved the accompanying black and white visuals during Viva La Vida that showed footage of Chris, Guy, Jonny and Will as a string quartet performing those sections of the song. A very nice touch.

And during Yellow, incidentally the only song the band performed off their debut album Parachutes, Chris got lots of help from the crowd, who were eager to join in. It’s a very hard song to sing along to…the lyrics are simple, yet everyone seems to forget the proper order. And sometimes he mixes it up. I would have loved to have heard Sparks or Everything’s Not Lost…or even Don’t Panic or Trouble, but alas, there was no time.

At one point the band stormed down the security-only catwalk to the soundboard and performed an acoustic version of Lost and then The Scientist. Jonny, Will and Guy all surrounded Chris with their acoustic guitars. It was like a band of brothers – this new kinship that the band really feels like sharing with the rest of the world. Then, just as suddenly as they’d appeared at the soundboard, they were back on stage, blasting into an explosive version of Politik.

I can only assume that the band wasn’t able to supply the crowd with an encore due to the late start time – they ended with Death And All His Friends. It’ll be interesting to see what other setlists look like when the band continue their tour in support of the album for the rest of the summer. Full setlist below!

Setlist
Life In Technicolour
Violet Hill
Clocks
In My Place
Viva La Vida
42
Fix You
Chinese Sleep Chant
God Put A Smile Upon Your Face
Speed Of Sound
Yellow
Lost
The Scientist
Death Will Never Conquer
Politik
Lovers in Japan
Death And All His Friends

Can anyone fill in those two blanks? I feel strongly that they must have been from X&Y, an album that I’ve admittedly neglected, which would explain why I was unable to identify the tracks. Let us know in the comments! [UPDATE: Thanks to Eli for posting the complete setlist!]