The gates were open, bins and security standing ready in the security gates. Impatience was spreading. At once it started raining then. Moaning and groaning went through the crowd, jackets and capes where thrown over. Just so it stopped right after again. The bag and ticket controlls finally started. Quickly catching a light wristband and the mini marathon started. On the road with their “A Head Full Of Dreams” tour Coldplay stopped in Zurich finally again after four years. So everyone wanted to get the best spot possible.
Admission
From 1 pm on I was standing in front of the stadium, with me about 15 Coldplay fans at my entrance. Most were speaking French or Italian, equipped with t-shirts and merchandise. Even parents with their maybe 10 years old daughter had arrived early and were sitting in camping chairs in front of the security gates. Back then four years ago, about the same number of people were waiting in front of the stadium at this time. During the last tour it was easy to get front row. I assumed that my spot will be good, realized inside the stadium soon tough, that there won’t be a perfect spot. The concert visitors were guided from gate C to the other end of the stadium, down into the standing area and the same way back again to reach the entrance of the golden circle. Because there were early entry tickets, a big part of front row was already taken. But honestly, golden circle tickets cost enough and the advantage of early entry tickets is definitively too small to pay even more. From the main stage there was a long runway to the back, where there was a small round stage. As I realized later, there was even a third small stage in the normal standing area. With my golden circle ticket I couldn’t get there. So the stage setting seemed not much different to the one during 2012 tour. The best seemed to place myself somewhere along the runway. About 2,5 hours later it was showstart.
The Support Acts
Swiss musician Lea Lu was first support act. For her performance on the the big Coldplay stage she took some additional people into her band. So she was standing on stage with six musician and singer. They started with “Arizona Ice Tea Flash” [Video here] and played for about half an hour. Many of her songs are more quite, but the atmosphere was good in the audience. For the second last song she even announced a special guest: It was indeed none else than Bastian Baker, who entered stage. I only seen him the day before at Sihlcity. My thought: “Cool, a duet?!”. But whatever kind of weird deal they might have had: More than standing next to the background singers with some “Ohohs” this dear Mister didn’t do. A little bit shaking the hips added, then he was gone again [Video here]. The fans from abroad seemed quite irritated. Well, me too. And it was honestly disappointing, I expected more there. Some were joking, that he only came to greet Chris Martin. And no joke, reffering to a later interview it was indeed kinda the reason for this performance. Fitting to the last song, new title “Enjoy The Rain” [Video here], which they performed acappella, it started to rain a little. The song was a great end to her set.
After a short changing break it continued with Foxes. Foxes is the artist name of British pop musician Louisa Rose Allen. She was standing on stage with three guys, who accompained her with keyboards/synthies, drums and bass (and where was the guitare?). This woman got really a great voice, but the whole thing was a way too similar sounding “boom boom” to me. It became quickly monotone. And the enthusiasm and the interest of the audience seemed also limited. The performance felt quite dragging [Video here].
Coldplay – A Head Full Of Dreams
In time at 8.15 pm the audience already started to get impatient, started whistling and clapping. Haha, that was sure too early. But very soon after the Maria Callas song “O mio babbino caro” was played and videos from Coldplay fans around the world were shown. And with a group of multi-lingual Swiss fans the band was anounced and taken to stage. Coldplay started their 2 hours show with their album title “A Head Full Of Dreams”.
Chris Martin ran along the sides of the stage to greet the audience waving, while the other three ones grabbed their instruments and started. Chris still got the same incredible energy as four years ago. And already after about half of the songs, when Chris walked down the runway, there was a huge bang and colorful confetti fountains shot into the air. Accompained by cheering, screaming and surprised cries by the overwhelmed audience, paper shavings covered the stadium, got stuck in the hair, trickled into the jackets, going down the whole back. At the end of the evening I had confetti EVERYWHERE.
It continued with their older hit “Yellow”. The xylot wristbands started to blink in matching color and the spectactors were holding their arms into the air full of joy. A little pitty, that it wasn’t all dark yet, so the whole thing would have taken its affect from the beginning. But it wasn’t less impressiv. When I read online shortly after tour start, that the wristsband will be part of the new tour again, I was looking forward to it like a child. They couldn’t be missed! They went on with “Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall”. In the background a Swiss flag was shown, Chris messing around was covering his face with the one he kept carring around. At the end of the song it was drizzling conffetti in form of colorful birds.
For “The Scientist” it became a bit more quite. Chris sat down at the piano and let everyone sing along. “Birds” followed and after their hit “Paradise” Coldplay changed to b-stage at the end of the runway.
First title was “Magic” then, which suited so incredibly well – “I call it magic, when I’m with you” – it definitively was magic… the songs, the visuals, the fireworks and conffetti as well as the whole atmosphere in the audience. From my spot it was difficult to directly see on stage, but the visuals on the big screens at the main stage were so incredibly beautiful. The band was filmed from above and playful dreamy pictures were laid over them. You got goosebumps. As a second song on b-stage they started “Ink”, when Chris messed it up and joked, that he probably will be fired after the show. So as it might be the last concert, it should become the best. That’s when he started all over again. Good to see and hear that even Chris Martin isn’t prefect. The Coldplay frontguy seemed during the whole concert so super likable too.
Before they eventaully started singing “Everglow” and went back to the main stage, Chris introduced the band not all too seriously: Jonny Buckland on guitare. Guy Baryman on bass, who could be a model and was there before Ricky Martin and Enrique Iglesias even were invented. Chris joked he was glad, Guy joined Coldplay and didn’t go solo. And Will Champion, the drummer of the band, who was so old and just retiring, when he joined the band…
While the band went back to the main stage, a video to commemorate boxing legend Muhamed Ali, who passed away recently, was shown. Back on main stage they continued with a mix of old and new songs: “Clocks”, “Midnight”, “Charlie Brown”, “Hymn For The Weekend” and “Fix You” all were accompained by colorful visuals, confetti and fireworks. But when they did cover David’ Bowie’s “Heroes”, it all went simply black and white. Totally nice and respectful to his honor.
„Viva La Vida“of course was celebrated by the audience. For this song the big clock was used and Chris ran up and down the runway, crisscrossing the stage full of energy. He let the fans sing along, whilst the lights on the wrists were blinking in tact wildly in all colours. The Swiss flag, his permanent companion, was still attatched at the back of his trousers. At the end of the song, he let himself fall and kept rolling around on stage…. what a crazy guy. Haha.
They continued with the new title “Adventure Of A Lifetime”. And it’s when suddendly huge colorful balloons were floating over the heads of the audience. And matching the official video visuals with chimps were shown, of course as colorful as throughout the whole concert already. Honestly it almost was a bit diffictult in this moment to conentrate on anything but the balloons. Chris let the audience sit down, was counting to three in German and let everyone jump up again, going wild. It was a huge party at the Zurich stadium.
A stage change followed again: This time they went through the audience to C-stage, to the small stage in the back in the normal standing area. Well, not directly through the audience, there was a aisle built for the quartet to pass. The three songs accoustic set started with “In My Place”. It was follwed by a fan wish, that could have been submitted via instagram and the band chose one: Coldplay hasn’t played “Strawberry Swing” in years. Even this one suited so well with lines as “…and it’s such a perfect day. It’s such a perfect day…”. In about the middle of the song, a “shit!” slipped from Chris as he made a mistake and stopped his guitare play to continue right after again. After the song he said, that the journalist probably think now, that this sounded pretty shit – and they were right. But Chris came back from visiting his daughter in the USA and wasn’t feeling well. So he missed out on the soundcheck cos of a visit at the hospital, couldn’t practice the song. He was thanking the Zurich doctors, who got him ready for the concert again. Well, it din’t really sound that bad. And that he didn’t feel well ahead of the concert, you didn’t really notice.
After “See You Soon” they went back to the main stage, where they came already slowely to an end with “Amazing Day”. In the background there were more colorful visuals on the screens. You really got catapulted into a dream world with them. For “A Sky Full Of Stars” not only the screens became a beautiful starry sky, but with the lightning wristbands the audience turned into a sea of lights in the shaded stadium as well as stars shaped confetti was rippling down over everyone. Of course they turned up one more time with the light show. The beautiful “Up & Up”, that immediately became my favourite, as well as the great laser light show finished the concert evening. Whilst parts of the official video for the song were shown on the screens and fireworks went up into the cloudy sky one last time. The band said goodbye. You didn’t really want to let them go.
I’ve read several reviews about the concert, but all somehow very negative: It wasn’t any real rock, it was too electronic and all the works with fireworks, visuals and confetti was only there for distraction cos they weren’t so good anymore musically. Some criticized that the mistakes Chris made, were only fake and the ballades didn’t really fit. I only can say, it was like four years ago absolutely amazing again and just bombastic. It was a great setlist. With the wonderful accoustic part and their ballades they definitively proofed, that they can do more than just putting up a show. I loved every moment of the concert. And the ticket prices didn’t hurt anymore. And in case against all rumours that it was the last tour, if they’ll have another one, I’ll be there.
Websites:
www.coldplay.com
www.lealu.ch
www.iamfoxes.com
