Coldplay Get Lost

Air Canada Centre

Toronto, ON

on Jul 30 2008

Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

07/31/2008 12:54pm

Santogold might have been a bit of a strange opener for this show. Though, relatively speaking, there weren't that many people there for her set, the multi-styled songs from her self-titled debut full-length received more cheers than any opening act I've seen at the Air Canada Centre in a while. But by the end of her set it seemed like the audience was getting tired and anxious for the headliners, so she managed to pick up some more cheers by dropping Coldplay's name whenever she could.

Coldplay opened with "Life In Technicolor" while playing behind a black, translucent curtain. This is something Sigur Ros were doing about two years ago. (Interestingly enough, Sigur Ros have also been wearing 18th century military jackets at their recent gigs.) Despite immediately imitating someone else, Coldplay started off strong, running through "Violet Hill" before they got the audience screaming with "Clocks," "In My Place" and "Viva La Vida."

During "In My Place," guitarist Jonny Buckland wandered off onto one of the wings that extended into the crowd on either side of the stage. Chris Martin ran after him and launched himself flying into the air behind him — a strange rock star display during a very un-rock star song — and ended the song lying down, singing on his back.

But things started to get weird during "Yes." The seven-minute track is one of the weakest and most confused on Viva La Vida, and it certainly comes off that way live. Its main problem is it's technically two songs — one that sounds like The Velvet Underground and another "hidden" number that apes My Bloody Valentine — all in a single track. But Coldplay seem to think it should be played as two tracks live, which raises questions about why they didn't split it up on the record. They ran through The Velvet Underground half of the song before transitioning into a lackluster version of the Radiohead-imitating "42."

A full stadium singalong to "Fix You" somewhat buoyed them, but then Coldplay decided to play the second half of "Yes," using electronic drums on a glass part of the stage with white lights underneath. It came off flat again, mainly because it sounds like a different band and it just doesn't translate well live. What was even more confusing was when they ran through "God Put A Smile Upon Your Face" after that, still using the electronic drum kit and putting a techno spin on it. But then they cut the song off after one verse and one chorus. Maybe it just wasn't working.

Coldplay redeemed themselves at the end of "Lost!" when they ran off the stage, through the floor seats and up into the Red seats area of the stands for acoustic versions of "The Scientist" and "Death Will Never Conquer" while surrounded by fans. It worked, and the singalong during the former song is probably one of the loudest I've heard anywhere.

Though Coldplay said they were done, they weren't, and before their encore began, a video of Fox News anchor Bill O'Reilly calling Martin "not man enough" to come on his The O'Reilly Factor television show played. They got a jab at him by playing "Politik" and ran through some more songs from Viva La Vida before they left the stage.

But the crowd wasn't having this. The cheering was so loud that they came back on stage to play what Martin said was a "real encore, we haven't rehearsed" of "Don't Panic" and "The Dubliners" before things were truly finished.

While the audience loved the entire gig and were enthusiastic throughout, Coldplay need to stop trying to sound like other people and find their own shtick again, because it's hurting the quality of their live show. They're four albums in, and they sounded better during the tour for X&Y than they do now.

Here's what Coldplay played:

"Life In Technicolor"
"Violet Hill"
"Clocks"
"In My Place"
"Viva La Vida"
"Yes" (half)
"42"
"Fix You"
"Strawberry Swing"
"Yes" ("hidden" half)
"God Put A Smile Upon Your Face" (shortened)
"Speed Of Sound"
"Yellow"
"Lost!"
"The Scientist"
"Death Will Never Conquer"
"Politik" (first encore)
"Lovers In Japan" (first encore)
"Death And All His Friends" (first encore)
"The Escapist" (first encore)
"Don't Panic" (second encore)
"The Dubliners" (second encore)