#and when they played yellow they released these huge balloons filled with confetti for the crowd to throw around/pop

[cherrylng]

Coldplay Live Reviews - 11th February, 2009 - Saitama Super Arena [ROCKIN'ON (April 2009)]

11th FEBRUARY SAITAMA SUPER ARENA

Life in Technicolor

Violet Hill

Clocks

In My Place

Speed of Sound

Yellow

Chinese Sleep Chant

42

Fix You

Strawberry Swing

God Put A Smile Upon Your Face

Talk

The Hardest Part

Postcards From Far Away

Viva La Vida

Lost!

Green Eyes

Death Will Never Conquer Viva La Vida Remix

Politik

Lovers In Japan

Death And All His Friends (encore)

The Scientist

Life In Technicolor II

One of the biggest bands of the 21st century, after all

"I'm so happy to be here in Tokyo. Last time we were in Los Angeles, we were at the Grammys (enjoying the cheers with satisfaction) and it's great to be here in Tokyo after winning the Grammy!" Chris Martin blurted this out as part of his MC rather early in the show. It's so blatant. But the charm of Chris Martin is that this doesn't come across as sarcastic at all. And that was the reason Coldplay won that day. Martin, you have become a star in my mind at this moment.

The four members of Coldplay took to the stage in the darkness, each holding a firework. Like the album, ‘Life in Technicolor’ and ‘Violet Hill’, the forgotten first single from ‘Viva La Vida’, started the show in the same hard-hitting manner as at Summer Sonic. But then Martin sat down at the piano and played the intro to ‘Clocks’. Gee, isn't that too early? Neither the band nor the audience had fully warmed up yet. However, even though the performance was a little rough, reflecting this, the beautiful melody that made Martin one of the best melody makers in the world completely captivated my body and soul. Ah, just when I thought my personal climax had already come, there was a raging hit parade of ‘In My Place’, ‘Speed of Sound’ and ‘Yellow’. The aforementioned lines were also released during this period, and during ‘Yellow’, balloons filled with confetti descended on the standing zone of the arena (Martin was smiling during the song when he ordered the audience to send one of them flying onto the stage and then popped it with the head of his guitar, eliciting a huge cheer). The band had only just begun, but they seemed to be running amok, as if they were about to come to a grand finale.

But, after all, the star of the day is not Coldplay's past, but the Grammy-winning hocus-pocus present of "Viva La Vida". The audience intends to do the same. The song selection from "Viva La Vida" was strong. The audience was still in a frenzy for the climax of the show, from the chorus of ‘Viva La Vida’ (Will's work on the drums made me cry) to ‘Lost’, which the band themselves had likely prepared as the climax of the main show, but it was striking that the relatively low-key '42' and 'Strawberry Swing' were more well-received than the inevitable singalong 'Fix You'. Among these, ‘Lovers in Japan’ performed towards the end of the show was a highlight. When "HAIKU" was suddenly projected on the big screen, the whole audience was stunned, but I doubt anyone was not moved by the fantastic vibrancy of this song, which stands out on the album. The beautiful ensemble, together with the huge amount of confetti that fell so thickly that it obscured the stage, covered the venue with a great deal of happiness (no band is more suited to confetti).

Martin's behaviour is amusing, by the way. He sprinkles in confusing Japanese phrases like "Awesome / Subarashii" or "Are you having fun?/ Tanoshinderu?" at various parts in the songs, dances like a marionette with its strings all tangled up, plays the piano wrong in 'The Hardest Part' and repeatedly says "fuck" (is this a joke based on the song title?), and acts all naive from beginning to end, as if he's just looking for someone to point it out. But it's amazing that such inexplicable behaviour is always so well defined. A star indeed. Even when he's blurting it out, it doesn't leave a gap. Martin and Coldplay, who never show any signs of hesitation or worry, are truly one of the greatest acts of the 21st century. It was a show where I could finally realise this. (Ryo Uchida)

Rock far beyond ‘rock or no rock’

There were ramps on either side of the stage, which led down to floor level. A small sub-stage was set up at the back of the floor (where the acoustic part was performed) and a huge spherical screen hung from the ceiling. Shortly after 6pm, the background music inside Saitama Super Arena suddenly switched from hip-hop to classical music. It was Johann Strauss' ‘The Blue Danube’. I wondered what was going on, but it turned out to be the band's opening number. The four members appeared with torch-like fireworks in their hands. The opening song was ‘Life in Technicolor’, which is the same setlist as Summer Sonic. Of course, the show was also developed in the worldview of "Viva La Vida" as a whole, but compared to the Summer Sonic set where they had Alicia Keys play piano in ‘Clocks’ and even performed a cover of [SMAP's] ‘世界に一つだけの花/Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana’, this show was of course a vivid presentation of the "Viva La Vida" mode—or rather, it was a live performance that told the story of how far the band Coldplay had risen thanks to "Viva La Vida". The part that symbolised this was the rapid succession of ‘Clocks’, ‘In My Place’, ‘Speed ​​of Sound’, and "Yellow" from the third song onwards.

Needless to say, all of these were single hits that have been representative of Coldplay's career to date. I thought it sounded like a stock clearance sale, but that's exactly what it was. Above all, the reaction of the crowd was magnificent, and apart from the core fans at the front of the arena, there was a clear difference in excitement between ‘Yellow’, ‘In My Place’, and ‘Viva La Vida’. In other words, this was a concert by "Coldplay of ‘Viva La Vida’", not by "one of the leading rock bands of the 2000s with four albums under their belt". So there was no need for a hot rock groove, and of course the band understood that. That is Coldplay's destiny, and the very difficult and complex balancing game they are forced to play as a rock band.

It is interesting to note, however, that while the atmosphere of this show was naturally quite different from Radiohead's show that I saw at the same Saitama Super Arena, it was not dissimilar to that of U2's. While Radiohead were quite a stoic rock show, and U2 seemed to fulfil their ‘role’ more convincingly and without failure, Chris Martin is a man who is inherently strange and far from the stability of a so-called pop star. He moves restlessly around the stage, sometimes singing and thrashing about, and even doing a few last minute antics at the end of each song. But at the same time, he can shout "I came here straight after winning a Grammy!" or scattering yellow balloons during the song ‘Yellow’, and handling detailed operations such as "moving to the sub-stage in 30 seconds, and then returning to our usual position on the main stage while the lights are out." And it's not that either one is essential, but both are very serious. This is reflected in the ambivalent title and theme of the latest show, which is stranger every time I see it. Despite being such a big and accomplished show, watching Chris is thrilling. The thrill is definitely that of rock ‘n’ roll. Such inconsistency is what makes Coldplay so interesting and why they continue to be one of a kind. (Tomohiro Ogawa)

Translator's Note: This is quite the amusing read of the live reviews by the journalists who saw that concert. Compared to reading the live reviews talking about Muse's concerts -which they're used to Matt's eccentricities and expect his awesome guitar playing- this felt as though they didn't expect Chris to be far more eccentric than they anticipated LMAO

I tried to find if there were any live video recordings of the Feb 11th show, but unfortunately there wasn't any. However, an audio recording of the whole concert is now available on YouTube... that came from Guy Berryman's In-ear monitor, for some reason. Quite an interesting way to listen to the whole concert.

There's also the video version that was recorded for MTV, but it was for February 12th, and cut down to only 40 minutes of content.

Good news is that full audio recording of it from the audience's perspective is available for listening too.

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wishing you the happiest of birthdays Maisie @jedivszombie