18 March 2009: Vector Arena, Auckland, New Zealand
From WikiColdplay
Contents |
Setlist
- Life In Technicolor
- Violet Hill
- Clocks
- In My Place
- Yellow
- Cemeteries Of London
- Glass Of Water
- 42
- Fix You
- Strawberry Swing
- God Put A Smile Upon Your Face (Partial Techno Remix)
- Talk (Partial Techno Remix)
- The Hardest Part (Chris Solo Piano)
- Postcards From Far Away (Chris Solo Piano)
- Viva La Vida
- Lost!
- Green Eyes (Acoustic)
- I'm A Believer (Neil Diamond Cover - Acoustic)
- Death Will Never Conquer (Acoustic, sung by Will)
- Viva La Vida (Remix Interlude)
- Politik
- Lovers In Japan
- Death And All His Friends
Encore - The Scientist
- Life In Technicolor ii
- The Escapist (Outro)
Photos
Photos from this show can be found at Coldplaying.com in the Gallery thread for Auckland. http://www.coldplaying.com/forum/gallery/showgallery.php/cat/1693
Videos
Videos from this show can be found in the first post of the Coldplaying forum live thread for this show at http://www.coldplaying.com/forum/showthread.php?t=52863
Discussion
All post-show discussion for this show at the forum thread: http://www.coldplaying.com/forum/showthread.php?t=52863
Fan Reviews
All fan reviews have been submitted to us by the members of Coldplaying.com[1], unless stated otherwise.
well the concert was great!!! The boys were great! (loved the part when Chris asked Jonny if he was in love, and he replied YEAH! And Chris was like, "you are f***ing awesome!". The crowd.. oh boy, nz crowds need to work on being.. a crowd. I was really excited about the viva la vida mix where everyone waves their phones and sings along... yeah... didn't quite happen. I think chris kinda thought the same.. when he wasn't expecting a yes when he asked how the crowd was.. still, a great concert!!
[laurazstar]
Easily the best concert I have been to even if it is only my 4th (the previous being Snow Patrol x 2 and Matchbox 20). It was also my 4th time at Vector Arena (Snow Patrol, Matchbox 20 and Billy Connolly previously) and the first time I have seen it sold out and packed from wall to wall. Previously it's only been half full with the stage pushed forward and half the place curtained off. It's hard to put into words but I think 'epic' is the best way to sum it up in 1 word. It had everything - spectacular globes hanging from the ceiling with special effects, lasers, balloons bouncing throughout the crowd, the band going up into the audience for a short acoustic set and tonnes of multi coloured confetti flying all over the place.
Finally the lights went out, Life in Technicolor began playing and the band emerged onto the stage at about 9.15pm. Anticipation was high after sitting through a couple of pretty mediocre support acts (in my opinion anyway - at least, they did nothing to make me want to seek them out on youtube or listen to their albums which support acts from previous concerts have done for me). Great opening from Coldplay went straight into Violet Hill then Clocks which was accompanied by an amazing laser light show then In My Place. Brilliant opening to the concert.
Chris Martin then asked the crowd to make a lot of noise if we wanted some older hits like Yellow. Yellow then began after much screaming and yellow balloons filled with confetti appeared from nowhere and bounced throughout the crowd before eventually burtsing. I filmed almost all the song until one of the stewards asked me to stop so I stuck to photos after that.
The show continued with the same setlist and Fix You and Viva La Vida were highlights with the entire crowd singing every word. The band then went up into the the stand at the back to play a few acoustic tracks amongst the crowd. Green Eyes was followed by an old Will sung track (Death Will Never Conquer). A cover of I'm a Believer then followed which was very well received by the crowd.
There was then a short break while the band returned to the stage and they went into Politik which was followed by Lovers in Japan during which tonnes of multi coloured confetti appeared from nowhere. They said their thanks and left the stage after Death and All His Friends. A few people on the ground started leaving but I said to my mate that they were leaving a bit early. There hadn't really been a proper encore and there were still 2 or 3 quite big songs that hadn't been played yet so I was sure they'd be back. And they were with The Scientist which is one of my favourites. Life in Technicolor ii completed the show which made a great ending.
Turned into an expensive night with the $180NZ ticket, the $50 tour t-shirt with show locations on the back and the $25 program I bought, added to parking and dinner costs but it was well worth it. Pretty good program actually. Usually they cost about the same but are much thinner and not worth looking at.
[invisibleman18]
The concert was freaking amazing. It was everything I expected it to be and then some.
I was standing next to one of the side ramps and I was about 4 rows away from the stage. Knowing that they would play up front on the ramps, I wanted to be as close to them as possible so I was happy with where I was. But they played at the other ramp. Gah!
The two supporting acts that were a bore. You could see the crowd getting restless - some starting to boo even, me included. Lol.
My favourite performance was of In My Place, Lovers In Japan, Cemeteries of London, Fix You and Life in Technicolour II. I'm sooo glad they played Glass of Water! I was hoping they would play that instead of CSC. I was probably the only one in my section singing that song.
The crowd wasn't as responsive as I liked but it was still a great performance overall. Chris still managed to interact with the crowd very smoothly even though we didn't give him the response that he wanted. I tried sticking around after the show, hoping the band would come out again to sign autographs or something but the security guards kept chasing us out. Couldn't get the setlist either. Damn.
I spent close to $500 for this concert and it was worth every dollar. I can't wait for the next concert.
[shred]
Media Reviews
Forget about the faux French Revolution uniforms. Flag away accusations they make "music for bedwetters". And ignore all that gossip about the Hollywood marriage, the macrobiotic diet and naming your kids after fruit.
When Coldplay take to the stage, something epic happens. Singles you've dismissed as radio-friendly fodder become foot-stomping classics. Songs thought of as straight U2 ripoffs turn into surprisingly grunty rock numbers. And you'll find yourself singing along to previously ropey ballads, as the British rock act bend them into stirring singalongs, warming your heart like a nice hot cup of cocoa.
Even frontman Chris Martin stops being an annoying celebrity do-gooder when he plays live, endearing himself to the crowd with his tailor-made lyrics, self-deprecating humour and overwhelming energy. Thanks to his rafter-raising voice and deft piano skills, you can even forgive Martin when he dances around like a drunk teddy bear, pretending he's been shot.
Yep, Coldplay took Vector Arena's sold out crowd to epic heights not yet seen at the two-year-old stadium in their first New Zealand show in a whopping six years. Patient fans who'd waited that long to see them were treated to a two-hour set of hits cherry-picked from Coldplay's four albums - including many from last year's award-winning Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends.
They were adorned with more garnish than a Christmas dinner spread. Lasers scanned the crowd. Giant orbs descended from the roof. Giant screens illuminated the stage. Glitter machines flooded the arena with paper butterflies. And runways down the sides of the stadium allowed Martin, bassist Guy Berryman, drummer Will Champion and guitarist Jonny Buckland to get up close and personal with their fans.
At one point the quartet delivered a daft disco remix of God Put a Smile on Your Face using miniature instruments set up on one of the runways. They were so close to the crowd, at least one fan fainted. Then there was the mid-set three-track routine performed at the very back of Vector, as the foursome perched precariously on a small stage. Martin said was like performing "on the edge of the Grand Canyon".
It didn't all run to plan. They had their very own Spinal Tap moment as giant confetti-filled balloons bounced around the stadium, with two of the biggest landing - and popping - over Chris Martin as he sang a disjointed version of fan favourite Yellow. No wonder he couldn't sing properly - he was too busy clearing confetti out of his hair and booting balloons off the stage. Perhaps some football boots would have helped.
But Coldplay delivered where it counted, peppering their set with epic anthems and soaring ballads that prove they deserve to be counted among the world's biggest bands. There was the laser-enhanced version of Clocks, the wildly energetic In My Place, the feel-good vibes of Strawberry Swing, the drum-heavy Viva La Vida, the middle-eastern tinged prog-rocker 42 and the concert-opening-and-closing Life In Technicolour.
And Politik proved Martin can take the blandest of lyrics - in this case it's, "Open up your eye-eye-eye-ahh-eye-eyes" - and turning it into something powerful and memorable. It's a bloody hard trick that, time and again, Coldplay make look all-too easy. They didn't play Speed of Sound, but it didn't matter when they belted out breathtaking ballad Fix You, which saw a piano-based Martin acting like a crowd conductor as 12,000 Kiwi fans sang nearly the entire song for him.
It just doesn't get more epic than that.
Say what you like about Coldplay - the band knows how to control atmosphere. They have the rare and awe-inspiring ability to change how you feel, and change how an entire room feels.
It had been six long years - and two chart topping albums - since Coldplay last came for a meet-and-greet in New Zealand so it was only fitting the band put on a proper show at the Vector Arena. From the hypnotic laser show that accompanied Clocks early in the night, to the pulsing, blaze of strobe lights that capped off Politik, the band treated us to all their best bells and whistles.
Martin pulled out his best dance moves - like the erratic jerking of a puppet in knots - and even drummer Will Champion gave a little something extra in the form of an original bluegrass ditty he wrote some years back. They played the new hits and the old favourites. But Coldplay's greatest skill is playing the crowd, which they did with such deft precision it left no doubt as to why this band are so big.
They even broke out their best Les Miserables costumes to accompany a French revolution backdrop. As giant yellow confetti filled balloons rained from the ceiling during their early hit Yellow, all of Vector Arena delighted in the bouncing rubber spheres. As Chris Martin pulled a pew up to his piano and played the haunting, opening lines of 42, goosebumps prickled the necks of all those present.
As glowing spherical lamps descended from the ceiling, the crowd stood mesmerised by the twirling, psychedelic pools of multi-coloured light. As the band ran from the main stage to the back of the arena and into grand stand - where they played songs including a cover of The Monkees' I'm A Believer - the sell-out audience beamed as the band showed they weren't too cool to get among them.
"You can't come all the way to New Zealand without coming to the back of the room," said Martin. "After a 97-hour flight, you want to meet everyone."
