Coldplay Night #2

So about 45mins before the Coldplay show was set to begin last night, I decided to go to the concert. Didn't have a ticket in hand but I figured that shouldn't be a problem. I'll just show up at the venue and see what happens. Fast forward life a bit and I'm sitting inside GM Place for the second straight night watching Fiona Apple open the evening. Hooray! for my spontaneity.

I really like Fiona's new album Extraordinary Machine. She has some amazing lyrics on it as always and sings with so much emotion. Live, her vocals really carry through.

Coldplay was great last night, as they were the night before. Chris mentioned the band had caught some food poisioning after the Thursday show, and wasn't sure if they'd be able to perform on Friday. However, they pulled through with another solid performance.



During the opener Square One, the countdown clock was a bit mistimed leading up to the chorus. Some people on the floor had already brought balloons for Yellow, so when the giant balloons with confetti fell from the ceiling, it nicely layered over.

The set for Friday's show was pretty much the same as the night before, but with two differences. The Hardest Part replaced Swallowed In The Sea for the encore opener, and Parachutes was tagged at the end of Yellow. The encore break was actually a couple minutes before the guys returned back on stage. The anticipation built was good since during some shows, artists will walk off stage and return literally less than a minute later for the encore. Last night, the crowd response made it feel like we earned it.

With the set being fairly similar both nights, it's more understandable since the production of their show is on a large scale. A big part is dealing with the video displays, intricate lighting issues, and extra sound effects that need to coincide with each song. That takes a long time to work out in order to make the show run smoothly. I can't complain however about hearing Don't Panic twice over the last two nights.



I really liked the end of Clocks as it gets super fast. Will was going crazy on the drum kit. Talk also had a ton of energy both nights, and where Chris reaches into the audience to sing on someone's cellphone. I noticed Chris gets some good speed going when he runs from one end of the arena to the other during In My Place. All night he was very entertaining to watch, from hopping around on stage to his yoga back bends.

Setlist:

Square One
Politik
Yellow / Parachutes
Speed Of Sound
God Put A Smile Upon Your Face
X&Y
How You See The World
Don't Panic
White Shadows
The Scientist
'Til Kingdom Come
Ring of Fire
Trouble
Clocks
Talk

The Hardest Part
In My Place
Fix You

maketradefair

Colplay performed their first of two Vancouver shows at GM Place last night. They had just started the second leg of their Twisted Logic tour the night before in Seattle.

I arrived just as Fiona Apple was playing her first song. Coldplay has had some great openers going for them. Last year was Black Mountain and Rilo Kiley. Fiona is the current opener and Richard Ashcroft and Youth Group are soon to follow.



A large majority of the crowd was actually in attendance to watch Fiona perform, though the audience wasn't very responsive. Fiona alternated between playing on the piano and performing songs standing with her four piece backing band. She danced a bit during a couple numbers and had some interesting mannerisms going with some screams and twitches. Highlights included Criminal, Tymps, Extraordinary Machine, and Fast As You Can to close out the set. Her performance lasted 50mins.

Last night was Coldplay's first performance in Vancouver since 2003. The anticipation in the crowd was heavy. Just before the band hit the stage, the audience started a nice wave that went around the arena a few times.



As usual, the guys came on stage to Square One with a large countdown on the screens behind. It was scheduled to countdown to the first chorus of the song. An energetic Politik followed.

During Yellow, some large yellow balloons filled with confetti came down from the top of the arena.



How You See The World sounded great live. A lot of people didn't recognize the song as it's a bonus track on the Japan release of X and Y. It's also on the War Child music compilation disc. They played Don't Panic!!! My highlight of the evening along with Swallowed In The Sea.

Will played keyboards during Trouble while Chris added some extra riffs near the end of the song.



The Scientist, In My Place, and Fix You had some good audience sing-alongs. During In My Place, Chris runs to the other end of the arena into the stands, and sings the final part of the song there.



Set lasted 1hr 30mins with one encore. Fantastic show!

Setlist:

Square One
Politik
Yellow
Speed Of Sound
God Put A Smile Upon Your Face
X&Y
How You See The World
Don't Panic
White Shadows
The Scientist
'Til Kingdom Come
Ring of Fire
Trouble
Clocks
Talk

Swallowed In The Sea
In My Place
Fix You

VOTE

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Marion is Rock is Marion

Went down to Zulu today. Added some shows to the lineup:

On The Menu:
Thurs Mar.2 - Matt Pond PA, Youth Group @ Red Room
Fri Mar.3 - Controller.Controller, You Say Party! We Say Die! @ Richard's
Tues Mar.7 - Jenny Lewis @ Richard's
Fri Mar.24 - Belle & Sebastian @ Commodore

Works In Progress:
Thurs Feb.9 - Wil, Shaun Verreault (from Wide Mouth Mason) @ UBC Pit Pub
Wed Mar.1 - Animal Collective @ Commodore
Mon Apr.10 - Sarah Harmer @ Stanley Theatre

Listening to:
Jenny Lewis - Rabbit Fur Coat
Tape - The Rideau
Black Mountain - Black Mountain
Porcelain - Me And My Famous Lover

Where's this igloo?

Pittsburgh Penguins forward Ziggy Palffy announced his retirement today. Crap, looks like I've basically been eliminated from contention in 2 out of my 3 hockey pools this season. Anyways, best of luck to him as he's only 33yrs old.

On a more positive note, these Hickory Sticks in front of me are delicious.

To The Lullabies

The Constantines played the Media Club last night. The show was sold out and completely packed. Good thing with the washroom at the venue is that it's located just behind the stage.....so you can pretty much go to the washroom, then come out and end up right in front.

The first opener was called Mohawk Lounge. Unfortunately, none of them had mohawks. They did however play an energetic set.

The second band was a Seattle quartet called Crystal Skulls. The vocalist/guitarist had a nice Rickenbacker guitar....looks like it was a Model 330 semi-acoustic series. The tone on it sounded great.

/guitar geek rant.

The Constantines played a strong set. They're one of those bands you have to see live to fully appreciate. They opened with Draw Us Lines, the first track off their 2005 acclaimed release Tournament Of Hearts. The Ontario indie rock quintet continued playing hard throughout their entire performance to a very crowded Media Club. The capacity at the venue is only 120.....I'm pretty sure we were well over the limit last night.



Some highlights included Love In Fear, Soon Enough and Arizona. Set lasted just over 1hr with one encore.



I also remembered during the show that if you forget earplugs, or they somehow fallout a minute after you put them in (dammit)...you can also use tissue paper. They're pretty good at reducing sound.

the space in which we travel in

Did some swing dancing last night. Whoa.....there was a lot of people. The crowd was twice the size of a regular non-band night. The atmosphere in the place was incredible. We had a nice jam circle going near the end.

Sinking Ships

Went to see some friends play last night at Southarm.





Their new Sinking Ships song sounds really good, especially 2mins in when the bass starts to pick up. You can listen to the song HERE.

Afterwards, we went and busted out some Mario Dance Dance Revolution on the Game Cube.....so much fun.

i'm addicted

Found a copy of the first Goo Goo Dolls album.



The CD is out of print and pretty hard to find these days. It's funny listening to this release because the band started out as a hard rock trio before progressing to a more mellow sound. Robbie also does all the vocals on this album.

Johnny Rzeznik is a very underrated guitar player. I can't believe he's able to write so many songs in different guitar tunings. Basically every song on Gutterflower is played in a different tuning. I remember seeing them in concert and counting over 15 guitar changes after songs.

Some Goo Goo Dolls Guitar Tunings:

Big Machine - D#-A#-x-A#-D#-x (d and high e strings taken out)
Black Balloon - D-A-D-A-D-D
Dizzy - E-A-D-G-C-G
Here Is Gone - Db-Ab-Db-Ab-Db-F
Iris - B-D-D-D-D-D
Naked - E-A-D-G-C-E
Name - D-A-E-A-E-E
Slide - D-A-D-G-D-D
Sympathy - C#-G#-C#-F#-C#-F#
Think About Me - D-A-D-G-D-D

too much walkin, shoes worn thin....... too much trippin and my soul's worn thin

Picked up the PostSecret book today. Even though I haven't sent in any postcards, I feel such a closeness to all the stories being told, as if they are my own. In some cases, I know they are.

Slapshot

Went to the Canucks vs. Flames game last night.


Holy crap we actually won....and against the Flames this year. Canucks were down 3-1 in the third period before we came back and Salo tied it with 30 seconds left in the game. Morrison scored the winner in OT.


The Sedin sisters played pretty well. Salo's slapshot is monsterous. I'd hate to get hit with it. Dion Phaneuf has a great career ahead of him.

Breathe the sky in through your window

Ran into an old friend yesterday. He plays guitar now.....so we jammed for a bit last night. My cousin was there too and kept making me bust out Oasis solos. No more Live Forever for at least the next week.

Late night workouts have consumed me lately.

Scored one of those black 4GB ipod nanos.

Been recently listening to:
Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine
The Decemberists - Picaresque
The Strokes - First Impressions Of Earth
Wilco - Kicking Television
Weeping Tile - Valentino
Constantines - Tournament Of Hearts
The Like - Are You Thinking What I'm Thinking
You Say Party! We Say Die! - Hit The Floor

Still falling over:
City And Colour - Sometimes


I am so
out of tune
with you

And the stars are aligned...

So it's a new year, and I'm taking down the old calendar and putting up the new one. I never throw the old ones out. They're kept in a nice little pile in my closet along with the memories stored in my mind. I'd hate to lose them. As always, I'm gonna find ways to make this year better than the last.

The last night of 2005 was fun. We sat around and played some games. Then we busted out some drunken karaoke. I'm pretty sure the neighbours heard us.