Coldplay 04-06-06

I saw Coldplay on Thursday night at The Wachovia Center in Philadelphia. Not a bad show by any stretch, but the sound in big venues like this one generally stinks. It stunk Thursday night - all kick drum & bass with a wash of everything else mixing with the crowd noise.

I still maintain that Coldplay's tunes from A Rush Of Blood To The Head represent by far their best work to date. Those songs certainly stood out as far superior to the rest of their catalogue at the show. "Politik", "Clocks" and "The Scientist" were great live - majestic and uplifting in all the ways that good British pop rock should be when it's done well. Of the new songs, "Fix You" seemed to hang best with the band's strongest material.

The guys worked the large venue with confidence, and Chris Martin did a nice job singing in spite of his apparently serious throat problems. Good thing the show was the last of the US tour.

Opener Richard Ashcroft was met with somewhat polite ambivalence by the Coldpay faithful. I was psyched that he opened with "Lucky Man" from his former band, The Verve. He closed his set with "Bittersweet Symphony", which seemed to get the crowd going more than his solo material, most of which was from his latest, Keys To The World. I was hoping he'd give us a little "Money To Burn" from his first solo album, Alone With Everybody. No such luck for me, but in case you're unfamiliar with the track, I think it holds up with his finest work with The Verve.

Money To Burn (mp3)

Most of you probably got to see Mr. Ashcroft rock out on "Bittersweet Symphony" with Coldplay at the Live 8 show, but in case you missed it here's a link to a video of the performance.

Bittersweet Symphony (Coldplay with Richard Ashcroft) - video

One advantage to having XM Satellite Radio is the exclusive live concerts they broadcast. Here is Coldplay's acoustic XM Session from 2005.

A Message (XM Artist Confidential)
Kingdom Come (XM Artist Confidential)
Clocks (XM Artist Confidential)
In My Place (XM Artist Confidential)

Here's an acoustic version of the b-side "Moses" performed live on KROC. Can't remember where I got this, so I'm sorry I can't give credit to the blogger who hooked me up.

Moses (acoustic on KROC)