Coldplay ~ Live in San Jose ~ 4/28/12

Do you know the way to San Jose? Well I didn't, until last night. Oh, I guess that isn't entirely true... I've had lunch downtown with a friend who was staying there on business one time 20+ years ago... and I've toured the Winchester Mystery House (totally worth it)... but that's about it except for driving through now and again on my way to Santa Cruz or Monterey.

It's about 70 miles from where I live, and occupies the southern tip around the San Francisco Bay, and yesterday afternoon, armed with 3 maps and 1 set of personalized directions from a friend who frequents the Sharks hockey games, one of my sons and I set out for the HP (Hewlett Packard) Pavilion to see the rock band Coldplay.

I remember when they were just breaking big in the early part of the 2000s, and when they came to Shoreline in concert back then I was *DYING* wanting to go so badly. But it wasn't meant to be, what with Shoreline being even further away than San Jose, and $$$ tickets, and no one to go with... but of course, one cannot simply forget such disappointments. So when they came around again, and my son *really* wanted to go, I said okay, even tho I'd lost contact with the band years before.

There were two warm-up bands, The Pierces ~ two sisters, last name Pierce ~ *not* as is "body piercing" which is what I thought when I first heard their name ~ and Metronomy, a kind of a synth-rock band. Both very entertaining. I liked the "Heart-esq" sister band better, and my son liked Metronomy better. I wanted to buy The Pierce's CD afterwards but the line was too long at the souvenir stand. And it wasn't making very good progress. In fact, I stood in line for maybe 5 minutes and it didn't move *at all* and it was a really long line! So I bailed. But may look for their CD online.

Metronomy had cool bags on sale within my price range (cheap), but I've got enough bags, and Coldplay gave us all wrist bands to wear, which were a nice souvenir, so that was another reason that I wasn't too interested in standing in a long line... even tho I wanted a Coldplay pin, too. Guess I shoulda shopped before or during the show. But I digress....

When Coldplay was ready to come on, we were told to put our wrist bands on and that they would be part of the show. Wondering what they were going to do! Well, they lighted up and flickered at different times. Was like being in a huge bowl filled with multicolored stars... Very cool. And, they had these 'paper butterfly' cannons down on the floor. We were in the nosebleed section but a couple 'butterflies' drifted up to us, so that was nice.

Here are a couple videos from their concert of April 18th in Calgary, Canada. The first one is a favorite song, and when the butterfly cannon was first activated, and the second one shows what the wrist bands looked like all lit up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP5Jz5XrE5Q&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDqPVxlKvHs&feature=related


Very cool "extras"... but, you may have noticed that while I was enamored of the gadgets and special effects, that I haven't had much to say about the music, and that's because I really haven't followed them since their second album, A Rush of Blood to the Head ~ and while I *LOVE* their first album, Parachutes, they haven't really kept my attention since. Oh, I'm willing to give them more of a try, but just haven't. My son, on the other hand, has all their albums and then some, and is a very big fan... but I only knew a few of the songs.

They only played one song off Parachutes, and four or five off Rush of Blood to the Head... and the other songs, unfortunately, would not have inspired me to rush out and buy the albums if you know what I mean. And I found out later that fully half of the songs were from their newest album that they're trying to promote. Okay, so I get that.... they want to get people to buy their newest product ~ that's why most bands tour in the first place ~ but *half* the songs??? Overkill on the new stuff and without enough of the old stuff that I love so well. And they only have 5 albums, so I don't think I'm asking *too* much. But maybe I am.

I knew a couple of the newer songs, but the concert in general was a little slow in places, and a little boring in places ~ but hey ~ such is life. At least they had a good energy about them and some good rockin' times were also had. And, I could tell they were trying to put on a good show, which counts with me. I like it when the band all seems to like each other and be a cohesive unit with everyone into it. Maybe I would have enjoyed them better had I been more conversant with their newer music... but I wasn't. My son was perfectly happy, tho, so that was great, and the other young people around us were all having a great time as well.

So all in all I had a great time too... and some quality time with one of my 'adult children' (my current favorite oxymoron)... It doesn't get much better than that.