Many of Coldplay's songs have always had a stadium-size feel to them. So, on the back of the worldwide success of latest album Mylo Xyloto, it is no surprise that the band has graduated from arenas to stadiums.
The last time Coldplay were in Melbourne they played three brilliant shows at Rod Laver Arena. This time around it would be just one, at Etihad Stadium, which in the past few years has housed U2 and Pearl Jam.
Opening for the British four-piece was American band The Pierces and Australian indie darlings The Temper Trap. The former’s folky rock and stilted vocals were a poor fit and their music exuded little of the energy required by a support act. The latter started slowly, with songs such as “Love Lost”, “Fader” and “Trembling Hands” getting surprisingly underwhelming responses from the crowd. But the last 20 minutes of their set were terrific. “Science to Fear”, “Resurrection” and “Drum Song”, the last three tracks from their album Conditions were thrilling and rocked hard. Closing with their biggest hit “Sweet Disposition” the band thanked the crowd, now well and truly warmed up for Coldplay.
Two of the stages four huge circular screens repeatedly flashed “PLEASE PUT ON YOUR WRISTBAND IT’S PART OF THE SHOW” and it became beautifully evident when the band took the stage to “Hurts Like Heaven”. Etihad exploded in colour. The wristbands flashed all over the stadium in red, green blue, yellow, pink and white, as fireworks shot up into the sky and confetti was blasted everywhere. As the song came to an end several big balloons were released as well and you would have been forgiven for thinking you were at a Flaming Lips concert.
The first part of the main set only featured one other song from Mylo Xyloto, the excellent “Major Minus”, one of the few songs from the album with a slightly darker tone. Surrounding it were several of Coldplay’s biggest hits, namely “The Scientist” and “Yellow”, both of which somewhat lost their impact due to being played so early in the set – “The Scientist” was often the penultimate song back on the Viva La Vida tour.
X&Y cut “God Put a Smile Upon Your Face” benefited greatly from a more aggressive reworking, changing the tone for the first part of the song and then breaking down in a face-melting conclusion, not unlike the way U2 performs “Until the End of the World”.
“Princess of China” worked surprisingly well with Rihanna’s parts relayed by the video screens, while “Warning Sign” was a warm, earnest highlight despite it being one of the few songs to which the crowd didn’t know every word.
That was one of the most surreal aspects of the concert, and it makes it almost impossible to debate Coldplay’s status as the biggest band in the world.
Typically at a concert there are four or five songs a large majority of the audience can recognise and sing along to harmoniously, but the popularity of Mylo Xyloto and the ‘greatest hits’ nature of the rest of the set meant the crowd sang along for almost all of the night. Chris Martin need hardly have sung during “Yellow”, “The Scientist”, “Viva La Vida”, “Fix You” or any of the singles from the new album, and not a single chorus went unrecognised.
“Viva La Vida” and “Fix You” of course are the two biggest hits from the band’s two previous albums and both were sensational. “Viva” benefits greatly from drummer Will Champion’s cowbell thwacking while “Fix You” sent a shiver down the spine of every attendee.
“Every Teardrop is a Waterfall” was derided by many critics upon its release but there is no denying its aggressive catchiness, and it turned out to be a brilliant closer as the wristbands flickered, GA goers jumped up and down and fireworks exploded again.
Martin was as affable as ever. He may not be the world’s greatest frontman but he is the perfect frontman for Coldplay with his self-deprecating humour and lackadaisical nature.
All in all it was a fantastic concert by a band perhaps at its peak. But with a back catalogue that is now quite extensive and a huge amount of well-loved songs, its 90-minute duration is a let-down. What would be the harm in extending the show by half an hour and playing songs like “Don’t Panic”, “Strawberry Swing”, “Death and All His Friends”, “42”, “Square One” “Amsterdam”, “Sparks”?