Immersion Worship

As mentioned in my recent post about losing my knee somewhere between a seat and a step, on Monday of this week my friend Danny bestowed upon me one ticket to see Coldplay at The Forum in Los Angeles. And I was really quite excited about it since I’ve never seen Coldplay (and really wanted to, since Viva La Vida is such an awesome album) and I’ve never been to The Forum (despite it being host to some legendary artists and bands).

Sparing the details of my knee dislocation, the show was absolutely fantastic. Chris Martin is a showman; he knows how to engage the crowd and has a strong stage presence. As musicians, Coldplay are up there with some of the most talented rock musicians around.

The show opened with their 4 or 5 biggest hits to date, but every song they did was full of energy and sounded great. My only disappointment was the heavy use of samples and loops. I’m not a big fan of the “taking Pro Tools on tour” method; I’d much rather hear four musicians get creative with filling their sound out than relying on pre-recorded orchestral movements being played along with them. But then there was also plenty of new sounds and approaches to older hits to go along with that.

Towards the end of the show, Chris Martin announced that he was “bored of playing at this end of the room”. The band then hopped off the stage, in to the crowd, ran to our end of the arena, and played a two-song acoustic set in the middle of the crowd, 30 feet or so from where I was sitting. Will Champion even sang a number. And I can also confirm that Chris Martin’s hair really is that bad.

All in all, an excellent show by an excellent band. Thanks for ticket Danny, and for running for ice when I fell like a fool and yelled like a little girl.