Coldplay Concert Review: Thanks for giving us your Friday night

The hype had been building for months: 7 tickets, the company of good friends and an amazing band that has come into it's own in recent years. What does that spell? 22th row floor tix, Cinthia, myself, Ryan, Claude, Sylvie (+ 2 of their friends) were at Scotia Bank Place to see the band Coldplay.

We got to the show in the middle of the opener. Rickard Ashcroft (ex-frontman for the band The Verve. He played two of the songs I wanted to hear which is fine as I'm not a huge fan of his. Lucky Man and the power song Bittersweet Symphony are probably his best tunes. The latter will most likely be one of those songs we will remember in 50 years from now. There is definately something magical about this tune (sampling legal battle issues with the Rolling Stones aside).

9:30 - The Twisted Logic Tour hits Ottawa! The set-up: a large rectangular video screen behind the band, a small upright piano in the middle of the stage, nice projections of images on each sides of the stage made for a simple show in ways of visuals but powerful in supporting the music. Red laserbeams were quite cool during the middle of their set (Artoo likes laserbeams. laserbeams cool!).

SETLIST:

Sqaure One
Politik
Yellow
Speed Of Sound
God Put A Smile Upon Your Face
X&Y
How You See The World
Don't Panic (w/ Jonny Buckland)
White Shadows
The Scientist
'Til Kingdom Come
Ring Of Fire (Johnny Cash Cover)
Trouble
Clocks
Talk
---
Swallowed In The Sea
In My Place
Fix You

Some highlights:

• Martin apologizing for his shaggy mop of hair, joking that if anyone was disappointed, they could get a $2 rebate off their ticket.
• During Yellow, 25 or so huge yellow balloons filled with gold sparkles dropping from the rafters for ice level audience members to play with.
• The nod given to canadian band Arcade Fire.
• Cool rendition of a Johnny Cash song.
  
• Ryan introduced to the concept of a chair.
• Red laser beams (cooooolll!)
• Incredible rendition of "Fix You" to close the show!
  

The show lasted about an hour 35 minutes. i can't say that there were any songs that I wanted to hear that didn't get played. Set was tight and very well staged. Interactions with the crowd was okay - no more. It was cool for the lead signer to run at the back of the arena and finish one of the songs standing on the boards.

I was quite pleased with our seats and I found the sound to be excellent throughout the Coldplay set. A definate high note for this great performance on a cold night in Ottawa.