Whatever your views on Coldplay, you simply can’t argue with the mass appeal of lighter-waving ballads such as ‘In My Place’, ‘Fix You’ and ‘Yellow’. Or can you? Under dark autumn skies on a Monday night in Dublin, forty or so thousand people would probably have taken you outside for a swift seeing-to if you dared suggest that there was something a little naff about Coldplay.
They certainly know how to put on a show. But there was way too much extraneous stuff going on, and it almost overwhelmed the band on the night. Mini Eiffel Towers at the back of the arena spewed out white smoke and beamed shards of laser light, while dozens of giant yellow balloons appeared (during ‘Yellow’ of course).
And when tens of thousands of coloured paper butterflies erupted out of vertical wind-cannon thingies, they almost obliterated the view of the stage. Oh, and there were fireworks aplenty during and after the show. Add to that that the fact that the band dress like toy soldiers, and you have a scene that wouldn’t have been out of place in Willa Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.
Even the video-screens that covered the entire backdrop were impressive, but they too were a tad distracting, while an X Factor video vote on the audience participation, complete with Simon Cowell appraising the crowd’s singing, was funny for about four seconds.
Still, no-one was complaining, and when Chris Martin told the crowd they were the best ever Monday night audience, they cheered in rapturous agreement. A snatch of Jimmy McCarthy’s ‘Ride On’ proved how much he meant it, and the excitement reached fever pitch on ‘Viva La Vida’ – an irresistibly catchy number in the flesh.
Twice during the two-hour show, Martin & Co trooped out on extended ramps for unplugged sessions that included Michael Jackson’s ‘Billie Jean’. Though it was undoubtedly exciting for those close to the action, it broke the flow of things, and the taped dance remix of ‘Viva La Vida’, played through the PA as they re-grouped on the stage, somehow diluted the impact of the earlier live version. Encores included ‘The Scientist’ and a reprise of the opening tonight’s salvo ‘Life In Technicolor’.
Elbow were magnificent earlier on, and easily won over the partially indifferent crowd, though even Guy Garvey conceded that they were a warm-up act.