Coldplay is living la vida loca

Radiohead's distant foreign cousin - Coldplay, played to a packed stadium last night in Toronto. The tour is in support of the band's new album 'Viva La Vida'. Actually, at first I mistook them for The Killers with their scarfs and fashionably patchy, modified army blazers. At one point Chris Martin even poked fun at himself, comparing his hairstyle to Justin Timberlake in the *NSync years.
The band's classical training and love for performance made it an exciting and interactive show. They embraced experimentation with a variety of instruments and new takes on old songs. Will Champion used a number of different drums throughout the show, including a performance pad and bongos. He also sings backup vocals and rocks the guitar from now and then. Lead guitarist Jon Buckland seems to be loving the telecaster; which is pretty popular among indie/rock bands nowadays. And of course, Chris Martin being the dreamboat that he is, played both the piano and harmonica. The concert was very theatrical and visually stimulating. Butterfly shaped confetti circled the stadium and giant yellow balloons hovered the crowd, bouncing off of outstretched arms. Even their live video feed was impressive. The screens were constantly changing colours and hues, and the images came out choppy, short and frequent. I especially liked when there was an old TV beside Martin's keyboard, playing live footage of the concert. The cameras would sometimes do a close shot on the TV and it would make some really cool effects that complemented the 80s feel that the band experimented with for the show. At one point they even relocated, moving to a stage further into the crowd, toward the back of the audience. This acoustic segment of the show highlighted what everybody is doing now - an MJ tribute. And what kind of band would Coldplay be if they didn't, right?
Martin and Champion let loose on vocals while the crowd sang along to their acoustic rendition of 'Billie Jean'. Last night was Champion's birthday, so during in between encore songs the band arranged for a cake to be brought on stage. Over 20,000 people sang 'Happy Birthday' to the drummer before their closing act.

It was phenomenal!!