My Coldplay Perth Review

Coldplay, Perth 7^th July

 

1. square one

2. politik

3. yellow

4. speed of sound

5. god put a smile on your face

6. what if

7. how you see the world

8. white shadows

9. the scientist

10. til kingdom come

11. ring of fire

12. trouble

13. clocks

14. talk

 

ENCORE

15. swallowed in the sea

16. in my place

17. fix you

 

It seemed to take and eternity for the day to actually arrive.  I bought the tickets late last year and a flurry of activity to make sure we actually got some and went with some good “music mates”.   It has to be said that the Burswood Dome isn’t a very good venue – its cavernous size means that even when it has 16,500 people in it, it still feels empty.  It therefore took a while for the crowd and band to warm to each other.  The support act, Youth Group, struggled to overcome this although found a bit of favour when they trotted out “Forever Young”.

Coldplay started strong with a big countdown into to Square One timing in beautifully with the point that the drums came in.  Chris Martin is a very fluid performer – mainly in his physicality with jumping and bumbling around stage, not really looking like he is in full control of his motions.

Coldplay certainly come across as a much more intense band live – their sound is heavier, with much drums and more edge to the guitars.  Chris Matins voice stands up in the live scene – I was fearing that all the falsettos would come across weak live but his voice was strong all night.  The same can’t be said for the general sounds mix though – possibly the venue threw up too many challenges for the sound team.  The BD really is just a big concrete box not designed to treat sound well.  It took about three songs for the mix to settle and by the end I feel it had actually been quietened too much, especially as the last song was fix you.

Highlights were pretty much from the scientist onwards with swallowed in the sea probably rising above them all.  Much has been said about the lack of spontaneity in the Coldplay set list but I guess the style of song means that a lot of backing tracks have to line up therefore things are pretty much set in stone.  That being said I think there was a bit of spur of the moment when they went into trouble with Chris still on guitar and Will on Piano – it wasn’t until they got to the piano fill that Chris realised that Will didn’t know how to play it!  It made for a rather crowed stage when the next fill came and he knelt down and played it in the high register.

Would have been nice to hear Amsterdam, Hardest Part and Green Eyes, but hey I’m not winging.

The venue impacted on my general enjoyment – not the bets gig I’ve been to but well up there.  It has been improving in my mind over the last few days as I have remembered it!  Will take a bit for something to top Neil Finn at Metros a few years back!