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.