It’s hard to believe that it’s been well over a decade since a rainswept Chris Martin strolled off a shitty beach and into our consciousness with that inescapable song Yellow.
Since then he has married Gwyneth Paltrow, wrote political things on his hand, named his children Moses, Table, Apple, Gravy and Northeast and generally tried to become U2. Coldplay’s popularity has not suffered- in fact, it has exploded and they are probably one of the biggest bands in the world today.
it was announced on Wednesday that Coldplay was playing Sxsw as part of the ITunes festival and so it brings this band back into my view years after I had abandoned them. Which brings me back to reminisce about their classic song “The Scientist”.
Featuring Chris Martin’s trademark sad singing accompanied by a touching piano arrangement, The Scientist was a track off their second album that help propelled the band into super stardom. You know, for what it’s worth, this was a reasonable song. On top of that, it had a really good video and gave us the classic line “Nobody said it was easy/nobody said it was so hard” which I’ve used in at least several witty Facebook comment threads. I think most people know the lyrics to this song anyway. Anyways, Coldplay are playing SXSW, maybe they are trying to gain back some indie cred. Maybe Apple paid them a million dollars. Regardless, they will be in Austin, playing the gorgeous Moody Theatre, and probably inspiring a million tweets from former hipsters losing their shit over songs like this.
It’s a bit outrageous to see Keane in such a small venue under the bright sunlight in Austin, but there they were, at Filter magazines Cedar Courtyard party, catering to hundreds of people instead of their usual stadium sized crowd overseas. Keane may not be big in an indie kids heart but make no mistake, these guys can and have filled much larger spaces. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to go see such a large band play such a small venue.
Keane has come a long way since they initially made their way into the spotlight, when they were partially regarded as Coldplay’s younger brother with the chubby kid with an angelic voice. Since then, they have trimmed up and developed a more rock orientated sound while still keeping the elements that made them big in the first place.
With a new album (named Strangeland) in tow, the band broke their sxsw virginity at the courtyard, delivering a solid set of new and old . It’s interesting to see the progession of Tom Chaplin, the lead singer. Infinitely more confident and with a bevvy of rock star experience, Tom moves around the stage with a purpose and delivers his tender vocals with just the right amount of sass. With the piano prominently sitting on the stage, the group previewed some tracks off the new album (including a certain track that I’m sure was Springsteen inspired) but it was the older tracks like Is It Any Wonder that had the crowd singing along.
The track “Somewhere Only We Know” ended off the set. What a closer. It’s one of those songs that is quite wordy in nature but for some reason you know all the lyrics. It’s a fantastic track, induced a Cedar Courtyard singalong and you can’t really beat that kind of experience.
It’s hard to believe that it’s been a full eleven years since Chris Martin walked through the rain on the beach and delighted everyone with his simple ode to a women not named Gwyneth. That track of course, was Yellow and started the English band Coldplay on a steady rise to the top of the charts. Arguably one of the biggest bands in the world, Coldplay are now back with their fifth album, Mylo Xyloto. Having not really paid attention to the band since A Rush of Blood to the Head, I decided to have a good listen to see what the 2011 version of Coldplay has to offer.
Mylo Xyloto
Must be the oddest title ever, but I’m not going to bother looking what this song title means. Probably something Gwyneth Paltrow discovered on the way to finding herself. How did some actress go from such a sweetheart to such an annoying figure in a span of ten years?
Hurts Like Heaven
I’m enjoying the quick pacing, soaring guitar and synthesizers on this song. If this song was released by a bunch of kids from Brooklyn (or someone in Toronto/Montreal), I’m pretty sure all the bloggers would be all over it. It’s one of the weird states of blogging today, once a band has been dismissed as a mainstream act, I feel like they have almost a disadvantage on the internet. Rolling in the millions of dollars they have helps I guess.
Paradise
The strings section that starts off this track seems to be directly ripped off from some medieval adventure movie where a bunch of rag tag characters discover either a really attractive princess or a temple. Also, sounds a lot like “pair of dice” instead of “paradise”
Charlie Brown
The opening parts of this track (some high pitch rewind effect first used in Bigmouth Strikes Again) reminds me of a Passion Pit song. Where are they now? The guitars are soaring in this one though, seems tailor made for an epic arena concert moment where Walmart moms are wetting their Lululemon pants as Chris Martin pretends like he’s going to go into a crowd but then runs back on stage just to play the piano for it song’s “tender” closing moments.
Us Against the World
Tender acoustic number that evokes memories of starry nights. The whole ‘us against the world’ theme sounds like something Bono would have written in the 80s.
Every Teardrop is a Waterfall
I can’t help but feel like I’ve heard this track before, but it’s pretty catchy in the beginning but descends into your normal Coldplay yearning and long pronounciation of each word choruses.
Major Minus
I listened to this track twice because I wasn’t really paying attention the first time. Not the most memorable track although the line “us against the world” is once again used.
UFO
Nothing to really say here
Princess of China
Not sure what Rihanna has to do with China but I guess when Coldplay comes a’callin, you don’t say no. She doesn’t really add much to it though. The dual vocal part of “you really hurt me” adds a nice bit of drama to an otherwise unmemorable song, I guess. If Coldplay really wanted to go with an edgier track, they probably should have enlisted Nicky Minaj.
Up in Flames
Slow piano falsetto number that is probably quite swoonable to a certain demographic. It’s easy to dismiss this as another Coldplay slow track but fact is most bands would give an arm and a leg to write a song like this, but since it’s Coldplay, let’s dismiss this as another slow Coldplay track for you to hold your smartphone in the air.
Don’t Let it Break Your Heart
The title reminds me of the Backstreet Boys song “I’ll never break your heart” which isn’t the best way to start off a song. In this track, pounding pianos are accomanpied by a rousing guitar riff that given other lyrics could probably pass as a song played by born again Christians in a church or something. It’s quite soaring, the church people would close their eyes, put both their hands in the air and then get down on their knees or something. Some might even faint from all the glory.
Up With the Birds
meh
Overall, it seems pleasant enough. Despite the band claiming this is a concept album with a more industrial rock direction, Coldplay will always just sound like Coldplay. I don’t really think that’s a big problem for them since their sound has made them millions of fans worldwide. Would I listen to this regularly? Probably not. Would I be annoyed if someone I was in a car with decided to play this on a road trip somewhere? Probably not.
Toronto – Remember when you were 17 and your favourite boy band was making a stop in Toronto at the ACC. You took the GO train into Toronto for the big night and probably went to Jack Astors for dinner before the big show. Then you found your way eagerly to your severely overpriced seats among the other 20,000 rabid fans. You sat there through the opening band because doors opened at 7PM and you didn’t want to miss anything. When the band finally appeared your ears were assaulted with shrill screams and you spend the next hour singing at the top of your lungs to a well-rehearsed pop band highlighted by an even more well-timed light show.
Now, reduce the venue size and replace rabid fans for indifferent kids, more interested in standing in beer lines than seeing the band play. This was Phoenix at Ricoh coliseum.
Phoenix has rocketed to stardom and managed to score a Grammy for their Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix album largely due to their anthemic pop sound. I would describe them as a hybrid of Coldplay and U2. The French band has been touring for 18 months, limiting their ability to create new material, so their set list has remained pretty static. Shockingly, they opened with Lisztomania, their first single.
About halfway through the performance the lights dimmed and a large white curtain fell down in front of the band. Silhouetted, they played Love like a Sunset, one of their only instrumental songs. The curtain was finally drawn at the song’s climax, adding a dramatic element to the song’s long build-up.
In the latter half of the show all of a sudden half of the band disappeared from the stage. We thought this was the end of their show but after recovering from the menacing strobe lights, noticed people on the floor flocking to the soundboard where 3 members of the band were standing. Here they played acoustic versions of Big Sun, Love For Granted and a French folk song (because they’re in Canada, non?). The band was shrouded in darkness save for one spotlight highlighting their location. Despite this pleasant surprise, the crowd (outside of the floor) was barely paying attention at this point.
As always Phoenix closed with 1901 and the band kept playing while the lead singer hopped into the crowd and surfed among fans, brave man.
