Coldplay 4/4/06

Last night I saw Coldplay for the 5th or 6th time, I honesty can’t remember. Overall, I’d have to say it was a good show in typical Coldplay fashion. Having seen then 4 or 5 times prior to this I wasn’t excited as a lot of the people I saw there. Add having seen them numerous times to the fact that I was in the 12th row, and you’ll know why the show could have been better. Don’t get me wrong 12th row is pretty good, but when the last time I saw them I was upfront against the rail in a GA section, and before that I had 4th row seats (in a much smaller venue).

Speaking of the venue Mohegan Sun is pretty cool, even if I didn’t see a single Indian there. I like the fact that you have a pretty good selection of decent food to choose from, and plenty of places to gamble; slots, roulette, poker, black jack and keno, amongst others. I have seen two shows there before, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers about 4 years ago, and then I saw Todd Rundgren for free when I was 18. The funny thing about the Todd Rundgren performance is that it was 21+ and I was 18 and never carded once. Last night I was carded 2 or 3 times.

Back to the show. As I said above it was your typical Coldplay affair. Chris Martin “forgot” at least one lyric to one song, as he does for every show. You’d think it would be annoying as hell by now, but I still find it entertaining, even adorable (in a non-homosexual way). Johnny Buckland has been allowed to sing on this tour. He’s picking up the second verse of “Don’t Panic.” I don’t know if it was the mic or the way in which he sings, but he was barely audible. The band has decide to steal a page of the U2’s playbook by bring a girl up on stage to sing too, only this is a bit above and beyond. The band provides her with a bean bag to sit on, wine to drink and cheese to eat. It would have been nicer if the girl had been a Coldplay fan, except she sat on stage looking around, and MAKING A CELL PHONE CALL FROM THE STAGE. The band did a cover of Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” which I found to be lackluster, Chris Martin just doesn’t have the voice to pull it off. Cash had that real deep mans man voice; Martin just isn’t ballsy enough to pull it off.

That’s all I’ve got to say about that. In spite of the fact, I have seen then 5 or 6 times I will defiantly be seeing them again. It’ll will have to wait until the next album comes out. I’m hoping next time I see them there may be a resurrection of some of the older songs, such as; “Bigger Stronger” “Brothers & Sisters” “Shiver” and “Easy to Please.” I know with the exception of “Shiver” those are all extreme long shots, but one can hope.

I almost forgot to comment on how absolutely insane Chris Martin looks. He is really gaunt from touring for almost a year, and he has the white mans equivalent of an Afro. Combine the W-Afro with a receding hairline, and the man looks equal parts psycho and rock star.