Reviewed onTuesday December 13 (photo by Ashley Mar)
Money might not buy love, but a vast production budget can fill 51,000 hearts with joy. Love or loathe their music, there is no resisting a Coldplay show – or any show – as spectacular and warm as this.
With an opening quote from Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator, we were promised a wonderful adventure and that’s exactly what we got, by way of confetti cannons, lasers, fireworks and a dozen dazzling light shows; better than any spaceship or elevating drum kit, the flashing Xylobands worn by the majority of the audience might just be the best gimmick in gig visual design history.
“Oh, I think I’ve landed / In a world I hadn’t seen,” sang Chris Martin as he ran the length of the runway to the centre of the stadium. Well, he has seen a similar sight on at least 60 nights since March, from Argentina to New Zealand. Yet the band’s enthusiasm hasn’t waned and – despite all the pyro – this is the real key to the pleasure of the show. Coldplay are (let’s be honest) probably a decade past their best recording output but still loving every minute of playing for their fans. Chris, Jonny, Guy and Will are still the student outsiders who got a little lucky and are too scared to take any of it for granted.
Martin is completely at ease with his geeky awkwardness, so while there’s no way in hell a Tuesday night Sydney crowd could ever consider itself the best in the world, it was charming when he told us we were set for a cheering world record. When he danced, all flailing limbs, to the ‘Paradise’ remix, his kids might’ve squirmed, but for the audience his silly turn was endearingly contagious.
And what of the music? The pseudo-disco of ‘Adventure Of A Lifetime’ sounds average on record but made complete sense when accompanied by graphics of rainbow-coloured gorillas, balloons and fans of all ages nodding along. Set a gorgeous light and laser show to now-classics like ‘Yellow’ and ‘Clocks’ and you can’t go far wrong.
The same ‘can’t quite believe this is my job’ look shone on the face of supporting folk/soul star Lianne La Havas. She carried herself exceptionally well, the powerful single-word chorus of ‘Forget’ reverberating around a slowly filling stadium as the sunlight dimmed. It was all enormously entertaining.
Coldplay perform at Allianz Stadium again tonight, Wednesday December 14. Tickets are on sale now.
