Will Snafus

Hola Everyone,
Miller wrote a bunch of stuff in the tour diary after I completed the email that I wish I could have included. Most of them are about Will, but one is about my favorite lighting fixtures (Detroit). Just remember, if the grammar (or spelling) is bad, I didn’t write it! Enjoy!

19th February
Denver, CO.
We're up in the mountains here, so the air is thin. I've been feeling even more unfit than usual today, as virtually any exertion leaves me short of breath. It's little surprise when I find out later that Will was given oxygen in the break before the encores, but to watch him steam into 'In My Place', you'd never have known.

22nd February
Detroit, MI
One of the things that Chris asked lighting designer Nick Whitehouse for when they were putting together this tour, was that the lights should start the show as concealed as possible, but still be able to create a lot of different 'looks'. To this end, Nick has employed an elaborate system of pantographs, which lower lights from the rig, then tuck them neatly away out of sight.

25th February
Houston, TX
It's rodeo in Houston. This means everything is decorated up and streets are closed down. Although rodeo itself isn't particularly my cup of tea, I think anything that gets people out together communally is a great thing and there should be more of it.
Rodeo spirit permeates the acoustic section of the show, when a black stetson finds its way on stage. Will dons it, looking every inch the Texan until it's time to head back to the drumkit for Clocks.


4th March
Orlando, FL
I wander around to Matt Mcginns guitar bunker to watch 'God Put A Smile'. Shortly after I get there, the band have a bit of a carve up. Chris is still playing the end of the verse, but Guy is already going for the chorus. I'm not sure who's right, but they're both heading off in different directions and it doesn't sound pretty. It's very rare for this kind of thing to happen, but when it does, there's only one man who holds the compass and map to get everyone back on course. He's sat behind the drumkit. All four of the guys turn, grinning and shaking their heads looking to Will for guidance. He's laughing, and starts to yell above the din counting off 'one two three four...' at the top of his lungs, before exaggeratedly leaning his head back to nod the chorus in. The whole band lands as one on the downbeat and lock right back in like nothing ever happened.

COLDPLAY @ The MCI Center

Dear Everyone,

For those of you that read my last email, you’re probably loathing reading this one. But not to fear! I realized how difficult and annoying my last one was, and I made some significant changes. Not only is the email separated into chapters, but I also have an index (thank you, Lindsay!) in case you read something and don’t know what the heck it is. Enjoy!

CAUTION: I accidentally peppered this email with many words forbidden in my composition class like “was,” “the,” “there was,” and “there are.” Eliminating these words would require further major revision that would delay my sending this email even longer. Because most of you don’t care, I won’t bother to wait any longer.

First, the items I brought with me:
1. A tape recorder – No, not for the music! Last time I wrote a Coldplay email, I had difficulty remembering what Chris said in between songs. I thought I could eliminate this problem at MCI by bring a tape recorder for such amusing moments.
2. My Sign – You can see a picture of it here .
Chris’s birthday is March 2nd, the day of the MCI concert.
3. Two blank, 3x5 flashcards – One to write down the timeline and the other for the set-list.
4. Two pens – One that had a light bulb and then a second pen I borrowed from my dad when mine ran out of ink (yeah, whoops).
5. My brother’s digital camera. Some pictures turned out okay, but the real problem occurred when my brother’s camera didn’t have a large enough memory card. I had to constantly go through the pictures I had already taken and decide which ones to delete (a very sucky task). Also, my brother’s camera has a video feature that my dad used by accident that worked really well. In fact, the video is more informative than most of my pictures. *cries * Yeah, my biggest regret has to be not taking more pictures (which I really couldn’t) and taking more videos to record some of the music (which I didn’t think would turn out well). Live and learn, I guess.

Now, to find out what sound guy always smells like beer, who’s fly went un-zipped, and why I wanted cause bodily harm to my father, READ ON!!!

Note: If you wish to skip the most comical parts of this email and just want to read about Coldplay, you may skip down to Chapter 6 – 9:35.

Chapter 1 – 7:35
After my dad and I bought some merch, we went back to our seats and waited. Hereis a picture of our proximity to the stage. I didn’t think we were that far away from the stage until the roadies began line checking; I couldn’t see anyone’s facial expressions from that distance. That’s when I knew MCI would be very different than Virginia Beach. Still, I knew it could have been a lot worse, like staying home!
While sitting in our seats, my dad and I started looking for other people with signs saying happy birthday. I didn’t see any, and I was feeling pretty good about the possibility of being the only one with a sign. My dad, of course, was skeptical.
“I’ll bet you’ll hold up your sign, and next thing you know, two-hundred people will pull out signs too.”
I laughed and shrugged off his prediction, saying, “If I don’t see even two people with signs, I doubt we’ll be seeing two-hundred at the beginning of the show.”
Slowly, more people came into the large auditorium, although 70% of the audience came during Fiona Apple (who could blame them?). As more people began to enter with beer, however, something really bugged me. A couple sat down in front us, relaxing, drinking some beer. I couldn’t help but think the smell seemed familiar. Later, different people sat down with other brands of beer that smelled like the beer at Maryland Rennaissance Faire but I couldn’t get past the smell of the beer the couple in front of us had. Well, I figured it out what their beer smelled like – Joel Bell. That’s right. Whatever brand of beer that was, it also doubled as Joel’s signature scent. I mean, maybe it was just that leather jacket of his, but seriously – Joel must have been, like, drenched in the scent of beer when he used to live here.

Chapter 2 – 8:00
Fiona Apple lasted from eight ‘o’ clock to eight forty-five. I was deeply un-impressed with her performance once she left the piano because her hand motions (flailing, real) were eccentric and, above all, weird. The sound for Fiona was also terrible, but I remembered Rilo Kiley (the opener for Coldplay at Virginia Beach) sounding just as bad at Virginia Beach. I just assumed the sound would get better when Coldplay’s sound engineer took over, but it didn’t.

Chapter 3 – 8:55
Once Fiona Apple left the stage (8:45), the crew began striking her stuff and doing a small turn over. I was really upset, however, because it took FOREVER!!! The turn over at Virginia Beach didn’t take nearly that long! The spotlight operators got into position after Fiona Apple (pic), whereas the spotlight operators at Virginia Beach got into position before Rilo Kiley, a great time-saver.
I suppose the main reason I wanted to turn over to go quicker wasn’t just because I wanted to see Coldplay. No, I was more concerned about what I was seeing occur in the floor seats.
First, I need to explain the setting otherwise you’ll never quite understand the magnitude of grief I suffered. There was no mosh pit at this concert, which I suppose made me happy because I wouldn’t have to watch what I was missing out on. Instead, almost the entire basketball court was covered with folding chairs. There were probably about six hundred of these “floor” seats. The first glimpse I caught of the horror yet to come was one row directly in front of us, in the floor seating area. Each person in the row had pieces of paper that said in bold letters, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRIS!!!” I tapped my dad on the shoulder and when I went to point to him the row, I saw little farther back a women with approximately a thousand pieces of those same papers under her arm, handing them out to every row. My dad said,
“Oh, no. Look honey!” He made a sweeping gesture to the entire floor seating section and I bit my tongue to keep from screaming (or crying). Much to my utter horror (and I do mean HORROR!) every single seat of the entire floor section of the MCI center had a white piece of paper that said, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRIS.” I looked at my sign and wished I could cry.
Don’t worry. I kept it together by hitting my father profusely on the arm for his earlier comment about hundreds of people having signs. After all, it was obviously his fault!


Chapter 4 – 9:25
That’s right, thirty-five minutes (!) after Fiona Apple finished, Coldplay still hadn’t come on stage. It was at this time that the people who were to release the yellow balloons during Yellow got into position. Yeah, I know, chapter 4 is really boring but I don’t care. This is my email!!!

Chapter 5 – 9:30
At nine-thirty, all the lights went down except bright, white intelligent lighting on the stage. pic The crowd broke into a frenzy, and the shouts, screams, and the overall energy escalated three minutes later when the arena went completely dark.

Chapter 6 – 9:35
…Anyway, that’s how my dad and I avoided getting hauled away from backstage, all because Will wanted to stare my bag of cheese curls… Okay, okay, so maybe none of that actually happened but I thought if anyone tried to skip over my humor they deserved a large dose of it instead. *grins *
Coldplay, for the most part, kept their set-list the same as last time, opening up with Square One and Politik. Since I was so close last time, I don’t think I was able to enjoy the grandness or explosiveness of Square One or Politik. The lights for the entire concert were more powerful this time because it was an indoor venue. During the chorus of Square One, the screen behind the band would start out with a box of color and the box would grow until it filled the screen – first red, then blue, and then greenbefore going back to red, repeating the cycle. They also had the count down at the beginning of the song, which I either talked about last time, or I skipped talking about altogether because I had seen pictures of it a thousand times before. Speaking of pictures, you can see a picture of the count down here, and a great picture of the band at the very end of Square One here. Also, I have a few pictures from Politik here, here, and here.
The third song, like last time, was Yellow. While the charm of Chris not really finishing yellow, and trying to hold out the last “doooooo” at Virginia Beach really can’t be beat for me, I think I actually enjoyed the yellow balloons experience more this time because at Virginia Beach either the wind would blow the balloons into the trees or fans would hold the balloons hostage. I remember Miller writing in his diary the day after Virginia Beach that many audiences reacted differently to the yellow balloons. Some audiences pop the balloons as soon as possible, while others (like at Virginia Beach) choose to keep the balloons. MCI, however, fit into the third category that chooses to send the balloons to the stage, curious to see how the band will react. Well, I already knew that Chris loves the balloons and at MCI I got to see Chris clearly having a fun time popping at least four balloons at the end of Yellow. The best pictures we took that evening were during Yellow; you can see those pictures here.
The fourth song, Speed of Sound, made me think of Jared because I remember SOS being his favorite at Virginia Beach. At the beginning of SOS, most of the balloons were still floating around the stage and Chris popped one more that was headed for Johnny’s head during the second verse. I’m not a big fan of SOS, but I do remember the lighting for the song being fantastic, as they used my favorite lighting fixtures from Virginia Beach. My favorite lights hung behind the band and lowered almost three feet from the ground. While lowering, they almost look like they are attached to metal slinkys. I wish I could properly explain what everything looked like, but I really can’t – that’s what made the concert so good.
Two important things happened during God Put A Smile Upon Your Face. The first being Chris’s adding of a line pertaining to the venue, something like, “Never let you fall….at the Capitol.” I’m unsure exactly what he said, but I’m pretty sure the word “fall” and “capitol” were paired together (they sounded like they rhymed when he said it, I swear). The second important thing was when Chris and Johnny laid down next to each to each other for the last verse. To be honest, I was more than a little unimpressed. See, I had read a thread on the Coldplay forum a long time before where a fan said he was upset that all the concerts were the same and heavily produced. This (so-called) fan used Chris and Johnny laying down next to each other during GPASUYF as an example of how produced the tour had become. Mind you, Coldplay started doing this laying down next to each other thing after I saw them at Virginia Beach, and Chris had only given a hug to Johnny before. So, really, I couldn’t make a judgment one way or another. That’s why, when I saw them lay down at MCI, I saw it as rehearsed rather than interesting.
Next was X&Y, a new song for this leg of the tour, and one of my favorites from their newest album. I really only remember getting lost in the mood of the song; I don’t remember the lights or anything else, which I suppose could be seen as a good thing.
After X&Y, the band did something I had never read about or seen at Virginia Beach. Chris, Johnny, and Guy rearranged themselves on the stage for the two preceding songs, How You See the World (Part 2) and Don’t Panic. Chris left his position at the piano and went to an elevated riser at far stage left, Johnny left his position at stage right and went to the center stage (next to Chris’s piano), and Guy left his position at stage left and went to an elevated riser at the far stage right (the exact opposite of Chris). I have a pictureof Guy, Johnny, and Will if that helps any.
Anyhow, once Chris moved to his riser, he acknowledged the Happy Birthday Signs, saying “And I appreciate those signs, by the way. Don’t get me wrong.” That is a direct quotation, by the way, that I recorded on my tape recorder. I believe Chris also prefaced How You See the World with his confession of drinking tequila the night before, but I didn’t find that story nearly as funny as the one he relayed to the rest of the audience before performing Don’t Panic.
He said, “At this point in our tour, we’ve been on tour for a year and a half now, and all of the zippers on our clothing are starting to go a little loose.” Apparently, two days before in Oklahoma City, an audience member informed Miller that Chris had his fly open. Thankfully, it was only the third song into the concert and Miller quickly wrote on the back of a set-list “Ur flying low” and handed it to Chris. Thus, Don’t Panic.
Chris, Johnny, and Guy returned to their usual positions to play White Shadows, a song I personally dislike so I really don’t have much to say about it.
Next, they played an old favorite of almost every Coldplay fan I know, and also the only song my Coldplay-hater friend actually enjoys – The Scientist. I remember this song being very difficult to capture while writing the Coldplay email last time, so I suppose that’s why I’m so giddy about it now. A single, warm white light illuminated Chris at the piano while he sang the first verse. Chris really kept the mood of the song soft at the beginning, the way The Scientist should be. One would think that because of the energy the band might forget the heartache expressed in the lyrics, but they didn’t. Hearing The Scientist again really reminded me of the difference between energy and intensity, something a more experienced band like Coldplay really understands. Also, I remember the echo Chris had the audience sing during the bridge, something I could only dream of remembering after Virginia Beach. I don’t have any pictures because the camera was out of pictures and I wanted to enjoy the song instead of searching for pictures to delete.
After The Scientist, Coldplay went into their three-song-acoustic set. As usual, Chris talked about how Till Kingdom Come is dedicated to Johnny Cash, who was actually going to record the song with Coldplay before his untimely death. Coldplay also did Ring of Fire in Cash’s honor before playing one my other favorites of the evening – an acoustic version of Trouble!!! Now, I should note (for those that never received my last Coldplay email), I love the acoustic set for two reasons. First, I love…no, ADORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! seeing Will, especially seeing him center stage, playing the piano. Second, I love hearing Coldplay play songs in a totally knew way, like when they performed an acoustic version of Don’t Panic at Virginia Beach. Trouble was a perfectly example of why I love the acoustic portion of Coldplay’s concerts because not only did I get to see Will shine on a piano-driven song, but I also got to hear a song stripped down to almost all piano. I especially loved when Chris went around to Will’s right, near the end of the song, and began playing a “twinkly” harmony with Will – They sounded great together. You can see pictures of the Acoustic Set here and here.
After finishing trouble (a song, like the scientist, that I wish didn’t ever have to end), Coldplay played the new version of Clocks that made me fall in love with the song all over again (Pic). In addition to the cool intro, they added a new ending to the song that can only be described as sheer genius! I know when I wrote about Clocks last time, I gave emphasize on Will’s extraordinary performance, but it only got better with the new ending. With the new ending, Chris counts down from eight to one, getting progressively faster and faster with the graphic behind the band (Graphic) scrolling faster and faster. Who hasn’t learned to play Clock and tried playing it really fast just for kicks? That’s why I enjoyed Clocks so much; I got to see the band that created the song have fun with it just like everyone else does. But getting back to Will, he was practically doing a drum roll by “two”, whereas the other guys had it easy. I don’t want to hear it because I know what I saw. Will ROCKS!!! I know I should be giving more details explaining the rest of the song with the different arrangement, but either I already disclosed the details in my last email, or you can watch how Coldplay did Clocks on this tour by going to iTunes and downloading the video from the Austin City Limits concert. You can also watch it on my computer if you’d rather not buy it off iTunes.
Next, Coldplay performed Talk. Chris took one of the cell phones from the audience and began singing into it like he did Virginia Beach, but I couldn’t really see the crowd’s reaction from our seats. The song was mostly uneventful.
Coldplay left the stage after Talk and came back to do an encore of three songs. Also, after seeing them at MCI, I believe I have an apology to make to those of you who read my previous Coldplay email; there was only one encore. I say this because at MCI they only had one encore and it consisted of the same three songs that Coldplay performed at the very end at Virginia Beach. Therefore, I apologize.
I also need to apologize to Paul who asked me if I felt there was a difference between seeing Coldplay perform at an indoor venue versus an outdoor venue. I only cited the sound difference, completely neglecting to mention the visual effects, especially those for Swallowed In the Sea that could have never been achieved outdoors. See, there was this huge projector that looked like a mini Hubble telescope that could project images onto the entire ceiling. While they employed this technique for other songs, when they used it for Swallowed, I couldn’t have been more impressed. All of the ceiling and walls of MCI were covered with words, specifically set-lists, lyrics, and other notes for the twisted logic tour in someone’s handwriting, all of which was in motion. The best way to describe it would be like comparing the visuals and the music to a newborn having one of those mobiles slowing moving above their head while hearing a lullaby. Swallowed In the Sea is also my favorite song from X&Y, so I suppose I would be the only one to equate the stunning visuals to a newborn’s crib, but I really don’t mean that description as derogatory..
Next came In My Place. I tapped my dad’s shoulder when Will began the opening measures of this song because I knew that it was one of his favorite songs, along with Yellow and Fix You. Chris did his run into the audience during In My Place and I got a brilliant (can you sense my sarcasm?) picture of him in the audience that can be seen here.
The final song of the evening was Fix You, (pic). I definitely wasn’t anywhere near as emotional about it as before, mostly because I was satisfied with my experience at MCI, content that I would be able to remember more this time. (bows) Also, there was something eerily special about Fix You at Virginia Beach that I don’t believe I ever shared in the email as I’m pretty sure it happened after I sent it.
A woman on the Coldplay forums asked if she was dreaming or if Chris had really dedicated Fix You to a “becca.” I wrote back on the forum saying that I heard it too and that she wasn’t dreaming. After this, she wrote me a private message that read as follows:

“Thanks for answering that. I'm glad to know I'm not nuts. That was so cool because my first name is Becca but that is beside the point. Who knows? There could have been 50 million Becca's there who are also insane Coldplay fans that he just so happened to dedicate my favorite song to. When I heard that at the end of the show I actually fell out and was hysterical. It was so emotional for me because my husband and I separated recently and I was asking God for a sign that maybe we might come back together. Fix You is my favorite song off the new album and my husband and I used to dance in our kitchen together to that song sometimes on the weekends. Anyway, enough.
Sort of an interesting story I think on a more personal note than just the typical beatle mania stories you hear online. “

I was stunned. So many times I hear people calling Coldplay “over-rated” but this message really defies that lie because only real music can move people like this women was moved. And just so everyone knows, I did write her back with a bible verse, saying that I would be praying for her, and I still do even though we haven’t stayed in touch.
If I had to give a one-word-theme for my first Coldplay concert, I believe “birth” could explain quite well what I experienced because everything was so new and amazing. The theme this time had to be “redemption”, as that word kept emerging in my mind during the entire concert with every song I jotted down, every picture I took, and at every moment I spent really committing the sights and sound to memory. I felt like MCI was a much needed “re-do” considering how crazy I went not remembering enough of Virginia Beach because I assumed that the memories I had there would stay fully intact with me for the rest of my life. Well, they didn’t. Even my dad commented on how much he was beginning to forget because there were just too many wonderful things to remember. I strongly suggest that if you have a chance to see them, do so. Coldplay puts on a great show and I feel very privileged to have seen them twice.

SETLIST:
Square One
Politik
Yellow
Speed of Sound
God Put A Smile Upon Your Face
X&Y
How You See the World (Part 2)
Don’t Panic
White Shadows
The Scientist

Acoustic Set:
Till Kingdom Come
Ring Of Fire
Trouble

Clocks
Talk

Encore:
Swallowed In The Sea
In My Place
Fix You

INDEX:
Chris: This is the guy the famous actress Gwyneth Paltrow is married to. More importantly, Chris is the lead singer of Coldplay and mostly sings and plays piano, although he does play rhythm guitar on occasion for songs like Yellow and How You See the World (Part 2).

Guy: Guy is the bassist for Coldplay.

Joel: Joel is a sound-guy that used to work at McLean Bible Church. Before working for MBC, Joel was the lead singer for a band called Ghoti Hook that existed for 11 years. I have not seen Joel for years since he moved to NY.

Johnny: Johnny is the lead guitarist for Coldplay.

Miller: Miller is roadie for Coldplay that writes the official Coldplay tour diary. He is also as famous as Coldplay to devoted Coldplay fans like me.

Virginia Beach: My first Coldplay concert was at the Verizon Amphitheater in Virginia Beach. I sent out an email that was about the size of this email, trying to chronicle what happened.

Will: Will is my favorite member of Coldplay, mostly because I have a thing for drummers, especially if they are under appreciated like Will is.

COLDPLAY @ Virginia Beach

Hey All,

I'm really sorry it's been more than two weeks since the concert before I sent out this email, but when we came back we were really behind on school work and I didn't have time. Also, you may just want to skim this email because it’s a grant total of 3678 words. Yeah, I know. It’s just, I wanted to write everything done to have some closure on the whole thing. Also, I’m been trying to write this email since we got back, writing little bits and pieces any moment I could spare. That’s part of the reason why it took so long and it’s why I haven’t edited it. You heard me. I haven’t looked over anything I’ve written. So you’re just going to have to deal with it. Enjoy!

Some of you may, or may not know, what we intended to do for the concert but it's kind of important I explain. We decided we'd drive up on Wednesday night and stay at a hotel. The next morning we intended to be sitting outside the venue with folding chairs (and schoolwork) at 11:00 am. Now, the "getting to the hotel" thing worked out fine (even if we did get a little lost) and so did the "getting to the venue at 11:00" thing. It was the staying there that we were prohibited from doing. No one was in line yet, but there was nowhere to park and the employees there said that the parking wouldn't open until 5:30!!!!!
I thought I would die.
Mom on the other hand was just thrilled. She was probably thinking something like *finally we can abandon this nonsense of sitting in folding chairs all day. This is ridiculous. I mean, it's not even a Christian band!* Whereas I was thinking *What!!!! What kind of a venue is this!!!! This means I won't get to the front of the mosh pit!!!!! This means I'll have a miserable time!!!! Why is mom so happy?!?!!?!!!* And of course, Jared was thinking *dude, I'm just glad I'm not doing school work*
So, needless to say we had to change our plans. a lot.
I thought that maybe mom could just let us sit outside the venue, doing our school work. Just, you know, without her.
Mom: No
Me: But it will only be for a few hours!
Mom: A few hours!!! Someone could kidnap you and take you all the way to China in "a few hours"!!!!
I even tried the "if dad were here he'd let us stay" line but that didn't work 'cause she pulled the "I'm the mom, and dad's not here!" line. So instead of following our master plan of sitting in line all day for Coldplay, we sat in a Target parking lot. And no, I'm not kidding (how I wish I was).
Mom promised we'd go back and drive to the amphitheater again at 3:00 to see if anyone else had started a line, but I cajoled her to going at 2:00 (you don't separate me from Coldplay). No line had started and they had even closed the main gate so that we couldn't have even gone as far as we had before with our van this time.
I thought I would die.
So, we retreated back to the Target parking lot. Now, as a little side note (wait, hasn't this whole email come out like one big side note???) the people at the Target were really nice...even though we were really weird out-of-towners coming in and buying obscure stuff every hour (we went in to buy stuff a grand total of 4 times. yeah).
Anyways, at four o' clock we went back to the theater and saw no line, but, like, two cars (we didn't know what this meant at the time) were parked outside the gate that we had been through earlier that morning. We left, much to my disappoint.
Mom: no.
Me: But it will only be an hour and half!
Mom: Someone could still kidnap you in that kind of time
Me: *whimpers*
Now, you're probably wondering why you're reading this email because the subject says "Coldplay Concert @ VA Beach" not "Dumb boring stuff no one in their right minds would care about!" Well, I hear ya, and that's why I'm gonna fast forward to what I had feared would happen. We went back at 5:00 and low and behold there was line, but it was made up of cars just to get into the parking lot. We were about ten cars or less back (which, I admit was pretty good). We got into the parking lot 1/2 an hour later and we ran to get in line at the gates. Well, the good news was that those nine cars (or so) in front of us were the only people in front of at the gates. So, fast-forwarding again, we got to the front a row (there were four) and we ran...to yet another line. This line was to get into the orch (mosh) pit. While we waited I heard a girl behind us tell her friend (another girl) about something she read on the forums that Chris Martin had said. To this, the girl's friend said, "now Chris is the lead singer, right?" I promptly told mom, "now, remember, Will is the drummer, Chris is the...." and she said, exasperated, "Honey, not now." (The motherly equivalent of "shut up.") Well, at least I can say I tried. Another odd thing happened. The girl behind me said (the smart one) something on the lines of "Chris doesn't like Bush." Her friend (the stupid one) said something to the effect of disapproval, and the first girl said, "I know, I know. But we don't judge people's music based on their political opinions." I know. I was really surprised.
Well, they let us in, and I got the exact spot I had been hoping for; just off right of house center. Unfortunately, I was so concerned with getting that spot that I wasn't observant of the camera in front of my view. Mom was kind of enough to trade (love ya, mom) and I was happy. But then I realized I was right next to the two girls that I had overheard behind us.
But first, the amphitheater. There were no curtains to hide the wings, so you could see all the equipment; guitars, computers, sound boards, light boards, generators, etc. And there were really weird looking people just milling around the stage, supposedly doing stuff (what, I wouldn’t know). There were two drum-sets already on stage, and a keyboard, but no upright piano. The setup was mostly for the opening band. I looked around for the roadie Miller, but I didn’t see him (For those that don’t know, Miller is the roadie who writes the tour diary for Coldplay.com. He’s almost as famous as the band for those who check the website as religiously I do).
Well, I guess I should get to the two girls. I was right about the one girl (who I called stupid, I shouldn’t have ‘cuz she turned out to be really nice); she wasn’t a fan of Coldplay. And I was right about the other girl being a really big fan. Believe it or not, she came all the way from Canada to see this concert! So, we started talking and they were really nice. They were sisters, and one of them was a homeschooling mom of four kids and she wasn’t a fan, but her sister wanted her to come. Her sister checked the forums religiously and was very knowledgeable about the previous concerts on the tour and the setlists.
Speaking of “knowledgeable” the most interesting person there (that wasn’t performing, of course) was Rusty. He was the security guard right in front of us, on the other side of the barrier. Now, I’m not sending this email to Jayjay, but sometime I’ve got to ask him if his good twin (Yes, Jayjay’s the evil one) lives in Georgia, cause if so, then he was working at the concert. Now, this guy was die hard southern, but still he had the attitude the mannerism, and the facial expressions of Jayjay. That, and he had red hair and freckles like Jayjay. And he had been in the navy, so his head was near bold (he wore a cap most of the time, though). He talked to us about everything from how many trunks there were to load in, to the most likely person to get crushed at the concert (I was an example), to why Bassett hounds ears smell bad (don’t ask!). He was a wealth of knowledge and seemed to know everything about everything. I swear, it was like Jayjay only with a southern accent (*snickers. Can you imagine?*).
So, without further ado, the part of the story that involves Coldplay (finally). After Rilo Kiley finished, the crowd was in a frenzy. The mosh pit was finally full, and most everyone in it was drunk (mom even says she thought the people behind her were smoking weed. Weird). And I already knew that they were going to play “Square One” and “Politik” as the opening two and “Fix You” as the closer. And Rusty told us that the third song they were going to release these big yellow balloons from the ceiling, meaning “Yellow” was going to be the third song. So I thought I had a pretty good idea of what was going to happen, but knowing the songs really means nothing better than any expectation I could have held.
They sounded almost exactly like the recording, but even better. Hearing Chris’s voice without any compression was amazing, and the lights were absolutely fantastic. I was completely blown away with every tech-wise. They even had three lighting people in chairs up in the rigging running three spotlights for Chris, Johnny, and Guy. Chris was completely out of control for Square One running around the stage like a maniac. Once the song ended I thought I’d lose my hearing not the pa system but from the crowd. “Politik” was even more surreal because I had seen them perform this song on the dvd. I was ecstatic. I can barely remember the song because I was so overwhelmed. But that was nothing compared to the third song.
Then they played yellow
I could have died.
It was awesome. The balloons were being released from the ceiling, but most of them were blowing out of the theater and I knew I wasn’t going to get to touch one, so I just turned around again to watch Coldplay. I felt so bad for my dad because his favorite Coldplay song is yellow (and the live version, too). Now, Coldplay has being doing this thing where they don’t finish the song until all the balloons have been popped. So, Chris is supposed to sing the final line of the song (kind of like how he ends “Fix You”) and he tries to hold out the note and he starts to laugh and asks for the audience to pop the balloons. He finally ended the song, but as we later found out, not all the balloons were popped (he thought they were).
Then came God Put a Smile Upon Your Face. I found it quite funny when they began to play because the reason I was aloud to listen to Coldplay was because this song referenced God. It’s true, and there I was listening to Coldplay live with my mother right next to me. I was very well done, might I add (like it’s even necessary).
And if all you do is skim this email then you will most likely miss the part where I explain Amsterdam. When Chris sat down to play the opening notes of Amsterdam, I nearly began to cry. As I’ve probably explained to most everyone I’ve seen after the concert, Coldplay was supposed to have retired Amsterdam for this tour. When I first found out, I thought I’d just pray every day until the concert that God would make Coldplay play Amsterdam. Well, I hadn’t prayed in a while after finding out that Coldplay had put “warning sign” back into the tour set list. I have to inform you, however, that I would have gladly given up hearing “warning sign” any day for Amsterdam. I can hardly put into words what it felt like. Getting to hear my favorite song by those who wrote it was extraordinary. If I had died that night, my life would have been pretty well complete. But that was only the fourth song into the concert (and the 2000 word mark. I’ve still got 1556 to go!).
After Amsterdam they played quite a few other songs, but to save some time, I’ll just go over the highlights.
After Amsterdam, they played “Everything’s Not Lost,” which I was pleasantly surprised to hear. Now, if anyone reading this email loves this song as much as I do, they will be completely jealous that I got to hear it arranged the way it was. Christ intro’d the song saying to the people in the back, “that we haven’t forgotten about you” (or something like it. It was too long ago to me to remember his exact words). As I heard the bridge, I knew I had to make a concerted effort to remember the new arrangement they played. I sincerely hope that Coldplay will be putting out a DVD for this tour if only people can hear “everything’s not lost” the way I heard it. While Will sang the usual version of the bridge, Chris played a new harmony on the piano WHILE singing a complementary harmony to what he was playing on the piano!!! It sounded amazing. And, while Chris sang the new version, Johnny came right up to the upright piano and started mouthing the words. I also remember Chris redoing the lyrics for most of the song, and really liking them. This had to be my second favorite song of the evening, which explains why I forgot so much. The songs I loved the most, are the ones that were just too good for memory. Although, I’d like it to be known this was the song I tried the hardest to remember while it was being played because I wanted to play their new arrangement later when I got home. So much for that!
And a quick note about the “scientist”: at the end, Chris gave an exhausted hug to Johnny, which was really cool because you’d think that they’d get enough of each other, touring and all (at least, that’s what Joel used to tell me). Instead, it showed that the band was just as into their music as the audience was (at least, the true fans anyhow). (On another note, you know it’s really bad when my version of a quick note is 65 words.)
Before I go on, I just remembered that during the performance quite a few things happened, and since I don’t remember when (it was a surreal evening, okay?!!?!!!!!@!@!#!!!) I figure I might as well mention them now. There was a thing were Chris had the audience to some repeating after him (he’d sing a line, we’d sing it back). Also, to the intro to one of the songs, Chris said something that the band thought was just the funniest thing ever, though I don’t know why. I can’t remember the context (oh, you’re a real help, elie) but it had something to do with Coldplay never playing at airports or cake parties. Chris began the song but then stopped and said, “well, I’ve never been to a cake party.” I’m guessing the joke was plain dirty ‘cause I didn’t understand it. I was just amused seeing the band kinda goofing off. Also, I should mention that Coldplay did redo some of the lyrics to “Politik,” mentioning other bands, although I don’t know who. Another thing that happened that I don’t remember when (I could find out, but I doubt anyone cares) was when Chris told everyone to take a picture at moment during the song. I heard about Chris doing this for the entire tour so far, and I heard great things about it, but I was under-whelmed by how intoxicated some people were in the audience were, causing them to have the worst timing. Because of this, most of the flashes that went off, weren’t in synch and it wasn’t as cool as I heard about it being. Oh well. I think that’s it. Gosh, it’s so sad. I remembered where all (but one) of these events fit into the set. If I hadn’t had so much school work this email would be ten times less crappy. But, as I mentioned at the beginning of this email, I don’t plan to edit this. I’m just going to send it warts-and-all because it would consume more time than I’ve already spent on this email.
Now for “Talk.” Chris absolutely went crazy on this song. Other than the run during “In My Place” (which I’ll certainly get to later), this was the song where Chris got the craziest. He ran all over the stage and even took someone’s cell phone and started talking singing into it. Can you say “wicked, awesome!!!!”???? Chris was lying on his back, kind of rolling around while he sang (which wasn’t as gross as it sounds. I just can’t explain it well).
After Talk, Coldplay did an acoustic set, but before they could start, Chris noticed that one person in the orch pit had hoarded a yellow balloon. And because I’ve tried miserably to explain this part of the concert to other people with the little memory I have of the incident (it was one of my favorite parts ☺), I’ll just quote Miller:

“Chris put on his best schoolteacher voice and scolded the balloon’s bearer. ‘Burst that immediately, it should have been gone five songs ago’ there’s laughter as the owner refuses to damage their souvenir. Eventually, another one is held aloft further back, then another, then two together. There’s more laughter as it’s clear that Virginia Beach is taking their balloons home with them and nobody’s gonna stop them.”

Now, I must mention that Miller left a few things that I actually do remember! Like, Chris didn’t stop hounding the guy to pop his balloon (because Miller was on stage, I was completely unaware that there were others. For, Chris centered his attention on the guy in the orch pit), and more he scolded the dude, the most Will and Johnny and Guy cracked up. They must really love their jobs. Then, Chris gets a bit serious and starts talking about how people are supposed to pop them because they look really nice and a bunch of yellow and gold confetti comes out and how the guy was ruining it for himself because he wouldn’t get to enjoy it. Finally, Chris just concedes that he can’t make the guy pop it. And then made on the best statements of the evening.

“Why don’t you d-n Virginia Beachians pop your f-cking balloons?!?”

This statement was met with resounding cheers and laughter which I joined into until mom gave me this look like *if you keep doing that, you’re going to be grounded for the rest of your life and we’ll leave the concert right this second.* Needless to say, I tried to contain myself (well, only a little).

Now, I’m going to skip over stuff that, had I not already amassed 3185 words already, and been working on this document for over a week would have put in. I feel as if this “email” is severely defeated the purpose of itself. I’m sorry. ☹
Well, I might as well tell you about the last three songs (and then my hasty goodbye with Rusty and the two really nice women).
They left the stage and, of course, they came back out. After all, they still hadn’t performed “Fix You.” They played “In My Place” and when Will (my favorite member of Coldplay, which I think I mentioned at the beginning, but I haven’t taken a look at it in a week) began the song I was so amazed. Will was obviously exhausted but he gave the song more effort than anyone else, beating the crap out of those drums.
During this song, Chris finally did the run into the audience that he does during every concert. He had faked everyone out during (how many times am I going to use that word?!?!!) “White Shadows” so I was a little off guard because one moment he’s singing on the stage, then next thing I know he’s half way out of the amphitheater and I’m watching him on the big screen. My mom says that she saw a group of security guards bolt up there with him, but I didn’t see a one. I’m glad she saw it, though, because I was freaking out that he had just run up there!
They left for another encore and they came back out and I think this is when Chris mentioned the Cake Party. I could be wrong. Anyhow, I was very amused that Guy came back out while I beer and a cigarette. He got a lot of time to drink and smoke during Chris’ intro to “Swallowed In the Sea.”
After this they performed “Fix You.” I was so excited. I didn’t want them to leave, and I’d tell you more about the song I could only remember it. Well, after they finished “Fix You” I knew they wouldn’t come back. I asked the one hard-core-Coldplay-fan-sister what her member name was on the forum, and asked Rusty if I could have the pick on the floor. He handed it to me, but then they told everyone to leave the mosh pit. We bought some stuff at merchandise and went to our hotel. And that, my friends, is “THE Email”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!