“Nothing Else Compares” - from Clocks, A Rush of Blood to the Head
This was it. The big reason for the trip. And it didn’t disappoint. The show was fantastic, the band even more so. Though I’ve had my share of rock concerts (Pearl Jam, Silverchair, Rage Agaisnt the Machine), none was as slick as Coldplay’s. The video backdrop of computer generated imagery and the live feed of the concert was a real trip. Reminded me sometimes of the Videonics MX1 video mixer effects I used to edit with.

Chris Martin was wonderful and exerted every effort to connect with the audience. The organizers had this silly notion that the spectators would remain in their seats throughout the duration of the show - NOT! When the first chords of Square One was heard, everybody in the front rushed to the stage. This concerned security so much that they gave Martin a piece of paper to read out loud (much like the way people ask for bday greetings and requests here from showbands) -

Chris: We’d like to ak all the people to settle down and go back to their seats
Audience: Loud Booing
Chris: (Throws the piece of paper) Nobody likes playing to a fuckin’ dead crowd anyway.
Audience: Loud Cheering.
Chris: Seriously, You won’t get that in a Whitesnake concert!

Some random recollections:

The website where we got tickets explicitly stated that cameras of any kind were not allowed. I was so bummed that every Lee, Chan and Yuen were snapping away ALL THE TIME. One even had a 300mm on a Nikon. Arggh!

Chris ran all the way to the back of the arena to pay homage to the audience situated in “a different time zone” (his words)

Coldplay covered a Johnny Cash(?) song - Ring of Fire, and localized the context to Hong Kong.

I was surprised that plenty of people were a bit older than the usual attendees of rock concerts. More than half were caucasians, perhaps expats, most in business attire. Seems that the band’s fanbase is crossing age demographics OR most of the concert goers didn’t have a clue waht to expect (save for some radio friendly singles).

This incident leads me to believe it’s the latter: Coldplay was about to enter the stage so me and my wife stood up and applauded. White couple behind us taps us from behind and says - “Could you please sit down, we can’t see a thing.” Hellllooooooo!!! As my wife said, honey, you’re in a rock concert, if you want to watch sitting down, go catch Barry Manilow!” We promptly rushed down to the lower box railing and enjoyed the show standing up, cheering, the whole time.

Met a local couple during the show who expressed the same disdain for the people behind them. A bond is formed. And we jumped and banged the whole way through.

My wife recognized Hale after the concert and struck a pose with them.

When Yellow was played, huge yellow balloons (a staple in the Twiste Logic tour) fell down from the arena roof.

It was an amazing, amazing experience. Next mission - U2.

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