22 December 2008: 02 Arena, Dublin, Ireland

From WikiColdplay

O2 Arena, Dublin, Ireland - 22nd December 2008

Setlist

Photos

Photos from this show can be found at Coldplaying.com in the Gallery thread for Dublin. http://www.coldplaying.com/forum/gallery/showgallery.php/cat/1601

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=48514

Discussion

All post-show discussion for this show at the forum thread: http://www.coldplaying.com/forum/showthread.php?t=48514

Fan Reviews

All fan reviews have been submitted to us by the members of Coldplaying.com[1], unless stated otherwise.

Just back now! UNBELIEVABLE! sadly the rumour regarding Crests Of Waves was untrue! Same setlist as last night I do believe. I recorded the whole gig on my mp3 player but the quality is awful, the sound was too loud for the mic and as such its just mostly noise. I'll try write a proper review when I'm more composed!

I thought the High Wire were pretty decent. Would like to see them in a more intimate venue and with less distractions of the arena filling up while they were playing. The 2nd act I didn't really pay much attention to, and the videos on the screen were just plain weird!

Onto The Main Event! - COLDPLAY!

It's about 9:05pm and the arena is pretty much full. You can feel the anticipation and buzz in the air. Everybody was waiting for that serenade of sound. That familiar classical piece of music echoes throughout the arena to the sound of rhythmic claps. I know the moment I've been waiting for (3 years and 5 months to be precise) was not far away.

The lights dim and the crowd unify in delight. 4 shadowed figures parade about with what could only be described as sparklers behind a draped curtain whilst the intro to Life In Technicolor rings loud. I can feel my arms tense as the excitement and adrenaline flows through my veins. Life In Technicolor concludes in a chorus of WHOA OH'S!

The curtain lifts...."It was a long a dark december...." This is it I thought. My favourite Coldplay song was just starting and at that moment it felt like I could do anything I wanted. The bass, the drums, so powerful and progressive marching in time. Violet Hill finished to Chris saying "If you're having as good a time as we are....won't you let us know" the cheers followed loudly.

Then it was like a little step back in time as they played Clocks and In My Place and it was like rekindling the fire of just hearing them again. The reason I fell in love with Coldplay, the reason why I was hooked. The lasers throughout Clocks were amazing and also the euphoric choruses of In My Place went down a treat.

A slightly shorter version of Speed of Sound followed and it was no less great. Chris then had a little interaction with the crowd just before Yellow. He wanted to know if the rumours were true that the crowd tonight were going to be louder than yesterdays audience whom he gave "10 out of 10" He began to whip the crowd up into a frenzy by suggesting that when Jonny lifted his arm all the men should scream as loud as they could. Similarly when Guy lifted his all the women were to scream as loud as they could. As if they needed any incentive I thought! Chris also said that if will did any kind of movement that was the signal for everyone to scream. So screams were traded and I think it was quite clear the girls were louder as there were some piercing screechs! Chris then gave the signal to Will who started the crowd and Yellow was in full swing complete with gigantic yellow balloons.

Chinese Sleep Chant was next which I appreciate to its fullest even if the majority of the crowd decided that this was the time to take that all important leak/beverage top up! This was then followed by brilliant 42. I loved the way it was built up to its climax and the energy could be felt all the way to the back row.

Chris moved back to his piano as 42 concluded and those jazz organ sounding notes of Fix You began to illuminate the arena. Everyone was on their feet for this. Every single vocal cord was put to use as Chris didn't even need to sing the first chorus. The anthem grew into its glorious climax with the crowd staying with it til its conclusion.

The crowd settled for a little and drew breath when the guitar riff from Strawberry Swing began to soar through the air accompanied by Guys clapping. It was such a beautiful sweet sounding song which then came to life as Will inflicted his African sounding beats upon it. The songed faded out as calmly as it began along to the systematic clapping of the audience.

Over to the B stage they went as the techno version of God Put A Smile Upon Your Face and Talk which had everybody rocking. Really enjoyed the shorter renditions of both songs. This was then followed by Chris' solo performance of The Hardest Part and Postcards From Far Away. Just before The Hardest Part he dedicated the song to anybody having any struggles or difficulties in their lives which I thought was a nice touch. He also said that in about 5 minutes he hoped he would have a famous Dublin sing along.

Back to the main stage they went and the strings from Viva La Vida brings the whole arena to its feet. This was the highlight of the night for. The crowd were so loud! dancing, singing, jumping it just had everything. Even long after the song finished the crowd continued to keep the momementum going with continuous OHHHH WHOA OHHHHHHHHHHHH OHH's!

Then I think everyone was taken by surprise as suddenly the sound of African drums once again filled the arena as Lost! was belted out. I really really enjoyed this one and I think Viva La Vida and Lost! in succession of each other is pretty irresistable combination!

Then another personal highlight of the night when the band left the stage and began ascending the stairs to a tiny platform in the middle of the crowd which just happened to be no more than about 6 feet away from where I was situated. I had debated this earlier in the night with my friend that they would come to the spot beside us to play the acoustic set, and luckily I was right I tried to collar Jonny as he came up the steps, I scream to "let me play Green Eyes" unfortunately it wasn't to be! Heart warming renditions of Green Eyes/Jingle Bells (which Chris proclaimed as a new song!) and Fairytale Of New York followed. Fairytale of New York went down a treat with the Dublin crowd as they ably assisted Will with his vocals on this. They promptly made a quick exit from their little platform and gave the crowd a little respite as a remix of Viva La Vida played.

After a short break the band re-emerged on stage to a thumping rendition of Politik. I just love the contrasts of the song from the thumping chorus' to the subtle piano of the verses. Again building to another astonishing climax. This was followed by Lovers In Japan which is probably my most listened to Coldplay song of late. Its really infectious and again it didn't fail to deliver both in audio values and aesthetics. Literally hundreds of confetti butterflies were scattered and blown across the arena as the band played. As the song was nearing its conclusion they dimmed the lights and turned on these kind of ultraviolet blue lights which seemed to make the butterfly confetti illuminate and mesmerize the audience.

Chris returned to his piano to start off Death And All His Friends. Which again was very pleasing to hear and one which went down extremely well as its little funky bassline in the middle had everyone grooving. The song finished to rapturous applause and the band made sure the crowd knew they appreciated their participation and contribution to the evening by walking to all corners of the stage and applauding.

The band left the stage as more Viva La Vida chants struck up from the crowd. They returned to the stage from their brief encore break with an absolutely beautiful and heartfelt rendition of The Scientist. It really was moving to have been there and to have witnessed what a beautiful song it truly is. Chris also threw in a Take That cover of Back For Good at the end which sounded a lot better accompanied by The Scientist's chords rather than the original, or am I being a little biased??

I knew by this time the concert was just over and I just wanted to appreciate the final song in all its glory. It ended how it started, with Life In Technicolor. Except this time it was the Life In Technicolor II in all its glory with lyrics and more anthemic chorus' Chris thanked the crowd for coming and also wished everyone a Happy Christmas during the song.

The song finished an ultimately the gig. I felt exhausted, elated, overwhelmed all the emotions you could imagine. I was just speechless, but I had a permanent grin on my face. One which is still here now as I write this!

The gig maybe over, but the memory of this night will never fade away. Thank you Coldplay for one of the best nights of my life!

[thanks bohs man]

Talked with Denise just one minute ago. Wonderful gig! She recorded a lot of videos and shot a lot of photos! Same setlist of yesterday, she is still outside waiting for the guys (they took a look to her banner about 'Crests Of Waves')... Denise met Chris yesterday in a casually way. He said Crests Of Waves was tried in soundcheck (even today) but it sounds ugly! Maybe one day in the next future will be performed... Denise will be tomorrow in Belfast, trying to talk with Chris again (or perhaps with the others), but today she shown his banner to Phil Harvey and he smiled!

[thanks iriden & coldpatrix]

Finally just arrived back home from one of the best gigs I've ever seen. I'll post a more in-depth review with many videos tomorrow but for now Bohs's review summed it up well. It was absolutely amazing. But while it's still all fresh in the memory, the highlights have to be Yellow, Fix You, Green Eyes and Viva La Vida. Bohs wasn't joking, the reception Viva got once the strings entered after Postcards was UNBELIEVABLE!

[thanks deise59]

I just about got to the gig on Tuesday night. The flu was getting the better of me, but I set my alarm for 8.30pm and managed to drag myself out of bed to get to the venue. I missed the support acts [oh, what a shame...]. And noticed that Coldplay had dropped Jay-Z’s ‘I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)’ in favour of a Pogues song [dunno which one, sorry]. That was a bit different, but a nice change. The setlist was exactly the same as the night before, but because I was down in the floored seating, obviously the gig was much more fun. They were having awful trouble with the seating plan though. I was expecting to be seated on the left of the stage [Jonnyzone], but I ended up in the middle on the very end of the row [not that I'm complaining]. The seat next to mine hadn’t been sold, so I had bags of room to move around and get my Coldplay groove on :D.

I spotted familiar face in front of me - Danny O’Donoghue, the lead singer of The Script. He was there with his tall, leggy girlfriend, who didn’t seem to mind that everyone and his mother was coming over and asking him for a picture [I spotted him first though... ;)]. He was really nice and polite and is a good looking boy, that’s for sure. I told him I’d seem them at V Festival earlier in the year and that they did a great job. They had seats behind me, on the back row, but them were moved to the lower first tier. Maybe they were confused as to where they were sitting. Everyone else was…

I think they just about got Coldplay’s gear into the joint. The video screens were on either side of the stage, not at the end of the runways, where they usually are. The central magic ball looked a little awkward, but they managed it. Guy was doing a groovy bop during ‘Clocks’, swaying from side to side. I could watch that all day… During ‘In My Place’ Jonny sort of forgot that he is meant to be standing near Guy for the 2nd part of the song. Guy was looking over at him as if it say ‘Come over here dude…’. That was funny. And when he came down the ramp, he was so close to us. Chris did a great jump as if he was doing the high jump. The girls won the screaming match this time around. The Berryman Effect definitely had an effect.

I had a great ol’ time during ‘Yellow’. I actually managed to catch a few of the yellow balloons, which I’ve never been able to before and I popped a couple. Some guy in front of me was popping every one that came his way. Jonny popped his one first time around. I think he’s got the hang of it now…LOL! During ‘42′ Chris did this crazy dance, turning his arms into windmills. And he didn’t pick up his guitar until the very last minute. That was so funny to watch. Chris banged the drum during ‘Lost!’ so hard that the sticks flew into the air and into the crowd. I would’ve loved to have been in the front row to catch one of those! The guys were really close to us as they walked down the ramp and upstairs to the B-stage. I was half expecting Simon Pegg to join them [did you see him on the Sunday Night Project. He did a great job]. The crowd started to get a bit out of hand after that. There was no control at all. People were on my left gathering around the left ramp and security were doing nothing about it. I had some drunk dude, staggering about near me, filming on his mobile phone. I had to push him away LOL! Eventually, a supervisor dude came down and made them all go back to their seats.

I got loads of butterflies during ‘Lovers in Japan’. I was scooping them up off the seats around me. A nice addition to my collection. Guy’s bass was so resonant during ‘Death and All his Friends’ which I absolutely loved. At the end of the song Chris banged his hands on the piano keys with a loud thud. LOL! During ‘The Scientist’ I had to laugh when the guy behind me goes in a heavy Irish accent ‘I fecking love this song!’. It was another mega gig by Coldplay. I am kinda sad that it was my last Coldplay show for the year. The time has flown by and now I have to wait till September to see my boys again [*cries*]. I was very surprised that Coldplay didn’t play ‘The Dubliners’. I thought they wrote the song especially for them. Ah well…

[WF]

I had the pleasure of seeing Coldplay Live in concert last Monday evening. I’m not the fan that I once was but By god they restored my faith in their Live set anyway with a 2 hour show full of hits from their first album parachutes all the way through to their current offering, Viva la Vida (or death and all of his friends).

My first comment would have to be on the venue. The O2 is superb. On paper I thought I had pretty bad seats but once I got inside the door I soon realised that theres probably not a bad seat in the place. Even though one of my pet hates is sitting at a gig, I had no problem here because the view everyone has is great. The staff are all very helpful (at least in my experience) and they find you your seat in a matter of seconds. A pint is going to cost you six euros but thats pretty much the norm at gigs and festivals these days. The gig itself was great. I’m not one for jotting down setlists during a gig but from memory, they started out with Violet Hill and ended their second encore with Life in Technicolor II. The highlight had to be the visual display of their rendition of ‘Lovers in Japan’ - towards the end of the last verse the lights darkened and a mass of luminous paper butterflies were released from the rafters. Gimmicky? Maybe, but I’ve never seen anything like that at a gig myself and the visual effect was great. See picture at the beginning of this post.

All in all, they still put on a superb show for their fans and I’ll be there in the Phoenix Park next September to see them again.

http://www.ind.ie

Media Reviews

LOVE 'em or loathe 'em, there is no escaping the fact that Coldplay's meteoric rise during the noughties was astonishing.

Despite a poor critical reception last June, their current album 'Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends' holds the honour of being the most downloaded album in existence, topping the charts in a whopping 36 countries. Back when this space was a horrendous dockside barn with atrocious acoustics, Chris Martin and chums played here while touring 'A Rush of Blood to the Head'. Both the venue and the band have raised their game since.

Even though Coldplay unashamedly rip off Pink Floyd, Radiohead and U2, and are currently being sued for plagiarism by Joe Satriani, their delivery and production values are impeccable. Apart from having to pay the outrageous sums of €6 for a pint, €6.50 for a glass of wine and €3 for a bottle of water, the O2 lives up to the hype. Three songs into their set, they've got the crowd on their feet with 'In My Place'. Their breakthrough hit 'Yellow' is also disposed of surprisingly early on and the audience are firmly in Martin's hands.

Martin clearly is so fixated with Bono that at times I feel like he's auditioning for a remake of 'Rattle and Hum'. Two runways either side of stage see plenty of melodramatic running. Indeed, it's little wonder that they played five-a-side in Shamrock Rovers' spanking new Tallaght stadium over the weekend to warm up. An acoustic interlude takes the show quite literally into the audience. Martin jokes that this is the "Boyzone segment" of the night, as the band launch into 'Jingle Bells' and drummer Will Champion gives 'Fairytale of New York' a lash with 10,000 or so on backing vocals.

Coldplay haven't reinvented the wheel or even come up anything original, but you've got to give them full marks for crowd pleasing.

http://www.independent.ie/

22 December 2008: 02 Arena, Dublin, Ireland

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