Coldplay: A Story of How I Popped My Concert Cherry.

On Tuesday night I finally popped my concert cherry, and was it ever glorious.

(Warning: I ramble a lot in this post, so if you only care about the concert, skip down 
below the picture of me holding a Coldplay sign.) 

As you probably guessed, I saw Coldplay at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. I've been a Coldplay fan for years, and they hold a truly dear spot in my heart. Their music helped me get me through a lot, and also helped me grow closer to both my best friend and my boyfriend. So, obviously, I was ecstatic when Tamika called me on Christmas Eve to tell me her mom had gotten three tickets. We had given up complete hope of going to this concert, since the tickets sold out within two minutes back in early December.

Going in, Mylo Xyloto wasn't high on my list, I prefer Coldplay's earlier music (Parachutes by far is my favourite album), but after walking out of that concert I still wonder why I haven't spent the past months doing nothing but listening to it on repeat.

The evening started off at the Jack Astor's on John Street, and I had Steak Fajitas, another first! (I have a horrible habit of ordering caesar salad everywhere I go...) They were absolutely delicious, once I got used to arranging my own food in a restaurant. I don't go out that often as you can probably tell.

We were blessed with the waiter we had. Not only was he geeky and sweet, as well as very easy on the eyes but he gave us free drinks! Though best of all, he was a Coldplay fan! 

He even left us a cute little note on the bill!

It seemed like all of Toronto was a Coldplay fan that night. I saw so many people walking around wearing  Coldplay shirts. Though it was probably because we were still in close vicinity of the ACC... A couple that stick out in my mind were these two guys I walked past while leaving Jack Astor's. They were both wearing beautiful handpainted shirts with Paradise lyrics all over them. I wish I could have gotten a picture! 

After our delicious meal it was time to head back to the Air Canada Centre and line up. We were first in line at our gate, though it didn't matter much since the line was about ten people long. I had been freaking out all day about my camera, since they had banned "professional cameras", by which I think they meant DSLRs. Thankfully the security guy thought it was just a point and shoot and didn't even bother looking at it. 

Then it happened. We got the wristsbands. I know that sounds silly, but I had been waiting for them for months. Worrying that they were going to stop giving them out and all of that. I have to admit, I freaked out a little bit when I finally got to put it on my wrist. (For those who don't know, Coldplay manufactured special wristbands that light up on cue with their music during the concert. They were magical.) 

Then came merch time. I don't know why I didn't believe Tamika when she said merch was insanely expensive, because in about five minutes I was out $70. It was worth the money, I still cannot believe the quality of the program or the shirt.

I think this shirt is the most expensive item of clothing I own.

The program is about 30 pages and the size of a vinyl record sleeve.
It's filled with  lyrics and writing from the band and
the only ads in it are for Oxfam. It's magnificent.

Oxfam! That reminds me! Every Coldplay tour supports a different Oxfam campaign (the most famous will probably be the make trade fair campaign when Chris had "make trade fair" written on his hand). This time it was in support of the "Grow", a campaign calling action to help improve the ways we grow and share food. 

The photo I took for their online photo wall.

So finally! To the concert! 

(The links are to youtube videos of the performances)

Emeli Sandé was the first opening act, and oh my gosh was she ever brilliant. Seriously, the girl has a voice to rival Adele's. She's a Scottish R&B singer who according to my boyfriend is getting really sucessful across the pond. I think a testement to her talent is the fact that she's touring with Coldplay a mere five months after her first album had it's debut. 

The arena was still filling up when she was on stage, and I really wish there were more people in there to hear her. I absolutely loved her stage presence, she was soft spoken, and took the time to introduce and give a little insight to each of her songs. She really made it feel like you were in an intimate little venu with her. 

She sang a song called wonder that she describes as being about "the spark that's inside everyone of us", it set the tone for the night perfectly. You should really give it a listen.
Edit: Turns out she's much more popular than I thought, seeing as she sang at the opening ceremonies. 

Sadly we only got five or so songs before the next act came on. Marina and the Diamonds. I'm not going to say much because I know people online are crazy about her, but I didn't like her music much at all. I really have no clue why someone thought her sound would go well with Coldplay's.

Though I must admit, she had a very nice voice, and was very, very entertaining. At one point she brought out one of those walking yipping toy dogs and let it wander around the stage while she sang. 

While she was on the cute side of kooky, her drummer was verging on crazy. 

He looked like he was severely constipated the entire time.

So after about an hour of her, it was finally time for Coldplay! And by that I mean it was time for them to set up for Coldplay, which took at least half an hour.

I'm not sure how well you can see it there, but the stage has a catwalk that connects to another, smaller, x-shaped stage at the end. During the wait, there was this one crew member who kept pacing around the x. The weirdest part was that he did it in a pattern. First he walked down the catwalk and circled the x once, then walked back, and then he did it again but circled the x twice, then three times, and so on and so forth. 

We named him the "X-man", his mutant power is to provide power
to the stage by circling it for half an hour.  

This continued for sometime, until the lights went down and.... 99 problems by Jay-Z started playing! Coldplay you trolls! 

Quote from Tamika "I've got 99 problems
and this song is all of them."  

Once 99 problems finished, the lights went down all the way and that's when it truly happened. Coldplay walked on stage to the theme song from Back to the Future.

Then the magic began.

All of the little lights filling the arena were the wristbands. I told you they were amazing.

The first song they played was Hurts Like Heaven, my favourite off of the album. Like I said before, I had been excited about these wristbands for months, but words cannot describe how awe-inspiring it was when they all went on for the first time. I swear everyone's jaw dropped at the exact same moment. But there were only a few seconds to be gobsmacked, because Coldplay started playing. 

I gotta say, a couple seconds after they began I got a bit emotional. I had been waiting for this for seven months, and actually being there with the lights and the lasers and the wristbands and all of those other people who loved Coldplay just hit me. 

You know you'd freak out about those lasers too.

They played into In My Place, which I was pleasantly surprised to find on the setlist. I didn't think they would play it seeing as it's ten or so years old now, but I'm so glad that they did. That was when everyone picked their jaw up off the floor from Hurts Like Heaven and stood up.

Then something even more amazing happened.

The confetti canons went off. 

For someone who's never been to a concert, confetti canons are  kind of a big deal.


Since we were in the centre balcony, (they were amazing seats, front row and high enough to see everything) the confetti was just out of reach for us. I found out later that the pieces were in the shapes of the little symbols from Mylo Xyloto. I'm still kicking myself for not sneaking back in and grabbing some.

 The live footage projected to the screens was incredible. Their filters and effects were brilliant, and the clips honestly looked like they could be used for a music video. During Major Minus, which was next, the footage was red and black, and these two demon eyes kept flashing over the footage. Every time I think about the concert that image sticks out in my head.

The lights were flashing red too, which made it even more eerie. 

After that came Lovers in Japan, which everyone was dancing and singing along to. About halfway through the song, a whole bunch of giant neon beach balls/balloons were released into the crowd. I'd seen it recording of live performances of Yellow, but the energy and excitement that radiated through the arena once they were released was completely unique. 

The next song also happened to be my second favourite part of the concert, The Scientist. You could feel the connection that so many people in the arena had with that song, the way that everyone was singing along perfectly and hanging onto every single note. 

Even Chris Martin thought it was "fucking fantastic".

Then came Yellow. Chris dedicated it to the victims of the Colorado shooting, and it just felt that much more meaningful. 

It started off slow with only Chris on the piano, and then it built up to the whole band backing him, the stage erupting with light, and everyone singing back with every single part of themselves.

Violet Hill came afterwards, and I spent the whole song leaning completely over the rail and singing. I think Tamika may have been giggling at me. 

They finished up that part of the set with God Put a Smile Upon Your Face. That was the song that got me through a ton over the past year and a bit, and hearing it live just meant so much. As you've probably guessed by now, I got emotional a lot during that concert.

It started off with this truly epic drum solo from Will, and they all had fun with it. Jonny and Chris danced down the catwalk to the x stage, and there Jonny played the best guitar solo I've ever seen.

They played the next part of their set on the x stage, which started off with Princess of China. I was wondering how they were going to pull it off without Rihanna I was really hoping Emeli would sing instead..., but they did is surprisingly well. They had Rihanna's lines recorded and played them on the screens and I found myself really enjoying it. 

After Princess of China was Up In Flames, and after that was Trouble. Trouble was another one of those songs where the whole audience was singing back every single word, and I found out after that our concert was the first and only time they played Trouble during the tour! One thing that I really loved about the last two songs of this part of the set were the minimal instruments they used. Since they moved to a much smaller stage, Will only had what I think to be a snare drum to play on. It was glorious.

A Hopeful Transmission played next, and it really set the tone for the more upbeat songs that comprised the next part of the set. I had noticed during Trouble that there were these giant piles of fabric in each of the exits, and I jokingly wondered if they were going to throw massive duvets on the audience. 

Once A Hopeful Transmission finished, and Don't Let It Break Your Heart began, these giant fabric lanterns were filled up in each of the exits. Each one was one of the symbols from Mylo Xyloto, there was a teardrop, and a butterfly, a broken heart, and about three others as well a was a dove for Up With The Birds which was directly below us.

 Here's a video of them since I have no panorama skills.

This was one of the best things about the concert, even though it seemed absolutely impossible, every moment was even more magical than the one before it. The lanterns quickly deflated and disappeared, the lights went bright, and the beginning of Viva La Vida started playing. As soon as the first few notes were played the whole arena started singing the signature "oh oooh way oooh"s and bringing Chris into the song as he made his way back to the x, leaving the rest of the band on the main stage. It was insane, you would blink and discover that Chris had seemingly teleported from one part of the stage to the next. We sang him out too, as he sang the last final lines over our "oh oooh way oooh"s, and ended up laying down on the catwalk, and put his hand over his heart as we kept on singing for him. I'm not sure if it was from exhaustion or adoration, but I'd like to think both.

 

 But it was truly Charlie Brown that owned that part of the set. The lights went crazy, the wristbands lit up for the first time in quite a few songs, and the crowd went wild.

At the end of Charlie Brown Chris told us to put our hands up, and it was just such a sight to behold. I think he put it perfectly "What a beautiful sight, thank you for giving it to us."

Coldplay thanked us for being a wonderful audience and announced that Paradise would be their last song for the evening. I crossed my fingers for an encore, and they started playing. 

It was really wonderful, because the whole time the screens were filling up with the lyrics from all the other songs, like in the Every Teardrop is a Waterfall video. It made you feel nostalgic for the concert even though it hadn't ended yet.

They finished and bid us adieu, leaving the stage empty, the wristbands flickering, and the audience cheering for an encore. We cheered for at least five minutes, and I started to lose hope, disappointed that we weren't going to get an encore, but still so happy about the amazing concert that I just experienced. 

And then those cheeky Englishmen showed up on a stage in the middle of the audience! The girl behind them looked like she was going to faint.

"We thought we'd give the front of the audience a break from the sweat and the smell of four Englishmen." 

Of course I yelled "TRUST ME! WE DON'T MIND!" and my whole section cheered. It was wonderful.

Chris started singing Us Against the World, and told us that we had to cheer for the rest of the guys to come out. With our audience that wasn't a problem at all. One by one they popped out, beginning with Jonny and ending with Guy. 

They finished the pop up audience portion with Speed of Sound, and Will, Jonny, and Guy all left through the exit. I was expecting it to be the end, since it was then 10:30pm and they'd given us our encore, but then I spotted him. Chris running from the back of the audience to the stage. It was absolutely hilarious watching the security guards chase after him as he outran them and high fived as many people as he could before hopping back up on stage. Why the UK doesn't have this man on their Olympic team I do not know.

They played Clocks and then went to black again, I swear they were trying to send me on an emotional rollercoaster. But then finally my favourite part of the concert came up, Fix You.

 

Compared to Fix You, the other times the audience sang sounded like drunken karaoke. But once Fix You began, every single person in that theatre sang along perfectly. I don't know why this song seemed so special, but hearing everyone sing along to a song that must of meant a great deal to them at some point in their lives was just incredible. At the end Chris let us finish, joining in for the last line.

 I think Tamika put it perfectly: "It kind of made you feel connected to all the people there and at the same time it was like we were thanking the band. I guess just the looks on their faces made truly enjoy and remember the moment." 

Then came the true end of the concert, Every Teardrop is a Waterfall. If Fix You was the audience's  thank you to the band, this was Coldplay thank you to us.

 


There's a line in the second verse "I'm on a roll this time, and heaven is in sight." Chris replaced "heaven" with "Ontario", and even though it's probably something he does everywhere, it meant a lot. That night truly felt like heaven, getting to finally hear the music that's helped me through so much, and somehow feeling like I got to thank those who created it.    At the end of the concert, Chris thanked a bunch of people, and at the end he said "and thanks most of all to you." That was the best part about this concert, in an arena of almost 20,000, it felt personal. It felt like they were truly thankful for every single person in that arena. 


That's why I would like to thank Coldplay from the bottom of my heart, for giving me, and so many others, the best night of our lives.
❤ ren