Lights will guide you home.

Date: 17 April 2012
Venue: Rexall Place

Guests: Scott, Angela, Patrick and Madeline
(and Melissa, a few days later, in Vancouver)

Rexall shows are a little more impersonal that I typically like, but I've heard such great things about Coldplay in concert, we simply had to go. From my sister, who has made the arduous and expensive trek to Vancouver twice to experience them in the past few years, and Angela, who said they did an amazing job at engaging the audience in such a large venue, I couldn't ignore the recommendation of two of the people whose opinions I value most highly in all things relevant (life and music). Yet again, they were both right. 

The opening band and the set up of the venue went well. The Pierces, two sisters from New York started the night off. They have a beautiful 70's vibe with their sound and style.  Metronomy, a British electro-disco band continued the warm up with interesting tap-light type lights attached to their bodies that lit up and went along with the music. Some of the music was a little too experimental for my tastes, but they played with great energy and I always am a fan of a girl rocking the drums well. This song is accompanied by one of their more strange videos... but I liked it. Because I am strange. 

Coldplay took the stage by force to launch their world tour from our great city.  They came on stage, and called out to the crowd , “Is there anybody out there?!”, then exploded into Mylo Xyloto where our light up bracelets went bananas, all in rhythm to the music depending on what colour bracelet you had. A few songs later, during the first few notes of "In My Place" whilst the Confetti cannons blanketed us with with paper snow. For Yellow, 100 giant balloons floated down from the ceiling. Thousands of voices echoed: “I wrote a song for you, and all the things you do, and it was called Yellow.” The chanting crowds in "Viva La Vida". 
In a word: Epic.

I think that being early in the tour, Chris did quite well in terms of energy and vocals. They really give their all up there, and by the end of the show, you could see how tired they all were. There were a couple mistakes, (intro to God Put a Smile on Your Face), but in the classic English, Hugh Grant style, the cleverly befuddled Chris came off as even more charming... if that is possible.

There was a good balance of the heavy hitting power ballads with the quiet contemplative songs through the set, which I think helped the boys catch their breath a little. There was a long outcropping of the stage where a day-glow graffiti-ed upright piano popped up from for Chris to do a great Linus impression for The Scientist (naturally, my fave song of the night)

       Setlist: 

(Back to the Future Theme intro music)

Mylo Xyloto
Hurts Like Heaven
In My Place
Major Minus
Lost!
Yellow
The Scientist 
Violet Hill
God Put A Smile Upon Your Face
Princess of China
Up in Flames
Warning Sign 
A Hopeful Transmission
Don't Let It Break Your Heart
(Live premiere)
Viva La Vida
Charlie Brown
Paradise
Us Against the World 

Encore:
Clocks
Fix You
(with Happy Birthday to Guy Berryman)
M.M.I.X.
Every Teardrop is a Waterfall

The Princess of China performance was disappointing... I understand it;s difficult to get RiRi to come on tour for months on end for one song a night... really puts a kink in the social life.... but really, i think a decent female vocalist could have easily performed that part... and it wouldn't have felt so much like a really big 1998 Much Music video dance party with the whole crowd staring at a giant screen for most of the song. The Moby show does this well, as many of his more popular tunes involve collaborations... this video is a little distorted, but that girl had awesome pipes and did the song justice.  I also was a little sad they didn't play "Don't Panic", but I GUESS you can't have everything you want all the time.  
 
The band did a great job of engaging the crowd, moving around the stage the right amount, and popping out in the crowd for the encore. I still love my small venue shows, but floor seats for Coldplay was a fantastic experience that I would recommend to anyone.