Coldplay in Atlanta...A review (warning contains buritto references!)

Here is my review of the Coldplay show at Phillips Arena in Atlanta last night. (Warning this post ccntains references to burritos....leave now while you still can)

My wife and I left our house in the suburban Atlanta area and drove down toward down town (yes we are OTPers) stopping off at Akers Mill for a lovely preconcert dinner at Chipoltle (it was my wife's first time there {tear}). After enjoying a tasty chicken burrito with the green salsa, my wife having the steak with green salsa, we continued our journey ITP (Inside the Perimeter). Normally for an event downtown we would ride MARTA (public transportation) and forego the traffic and expense of parking downtown, however this time we decided to see if driving would be as bad as we thought. We found a parking space at a secure garage 2 blocks from the arena for $10 (which is not bad considering I expected to pay $20). After a short walk we were inside the arena. Since I did not have to work until 3 today a beer sounded good to me (which is rare since I hardly ever drink). After forking over $7 for a Guiness I was rethinking my decision! We found our seats which were great...about 3/4 of the way back on the left of the stage about half way up. We caught the last 15 minutes of the opening act (have no idea who they were) and they werent't bad but should fire their sound man. The vocals were completely drowned out by the instruments. After what I considered a lengthy delay to change over the stage, considering how simple Coldplay's stage set up is, we were ready for the show.

They started out with this massive video board behind the stage counting down like a giant stopwatch only there were no colon's to seperate the hours minutes and seconds it was just pure numbers. You could see Chris Martin's silhouette in front of the massive board and he began singing the beginning of "Square One". When the song kicked into the rocking part the stage lights came on and they rocked for a good 30-45 minutes with one hit after another after another. My wife and I both said afterward that they played all of our favorites in the first 15 minutes or so. Not normal for most shows where they play the good stuff at the end. At the beginning of "The Scientist" there was a funny moment, Chris Martins voice cracked at the high part (mind you they had been jamming for a good 30 minutes and he bounces around the stage like a mexican jumping bean) so he was like "stop wait wait, if this had been American Idol we would be gone next week" so he took a drink of water and started the song over. I think its great that you can poke fun at yourself like that. Next the band launched into "Yellow" ( song always makes me think of my cat.....long story)  and these giant yellow balls came down from the ceiling and were batted througout the crowd like beach balls, and when they popped they had this gold dust inside which I thought was a really cool effect. In the middle of the show the band did a little tribute to Johnny Cash doing an accoustical version of "Til Kingdom Come" and "Ring of Fire" which the crowd loved. After that brief interlude they started rocking again playing more and more great songs. Throughout the show the video board had really neat effects for each songs, they also did alot of reverse negative stuff while showing the band playing as well as other effects. My wife (who is and artist and and Art teacher) said that the effects looked like Adobe Photoshop. So the last song they played was "Talk" which is probably my favorite workout song right now. It rocked as expected, here the band showed they have a sense of humor. During the verse parts "Do you feel lost and incomplete...etc" they had this bear in zoo setting that couldn't figure out how to get out of its habitat and wondered "lost" back and forth on the video screen. During the chorus they had lasers and stuff but went back to the bear during every verse. I don't know how many people caught the joke , but my wife and I were rolling.

Now it was time for the encore and we were all wondering what they would do since they played most of their great songs during the show. No worries Chris Martin just comes out on stage with oh.......Micheal Stipe of REM  !! The place went nuts! They did an awesome version of "Nightswimming" just the two of them. So that was cool in and of itself. The band came back on stage and they did two more songs "In My Place" during which Chris came off the stage and ran down the aisle to the back of the arena and jumped up on the sound board boxes and jammed with those of us in the cheap seats. I don't think this was planned as security freaked out a little. They ended with "Fix You" off of the X&Y album and the last verse the band completely stopped playing and the crowd sang the last verse a cappella. It was an awesome way to end an incredible show!

All in all the best concert I have ever been to by far! They came out and performed every song, I didn't walk out feeling like I had wished that they had played another song. The tickets were $55 each and worth every penny!!!