The lights go out and I can’t be saved at dave bushe dot net

Dave recently posted that he was shocked at me going to see Coldplay in concert.  I’ve left that hanging for a few days while stewing over the correct response.  The truth is actually very simple, and really shouldn’t need to be said.  I went to see them in concert because I like their music.  There.  Happy now?  It is of course a bit more complicated than that, but the core of it is that I enjoy their music and wanted to see them play live.  I haven’t been to a large concert in a long time, and to be honest I know I’ve missed out on some incredible moments.  I had also never been to the Olympiahalle in Munich and wanted to see it.

I’m a huge Pink Floyd fan as you know, and have been for a very very long time.  It goes back to Niamh I think, an old friend from Dublin who turned me on to them first.  I think at the time I was pretty into Jean-Michael Jarre, which gives you an understanding of the root of my tastes.  I’ve always been more into rock than pop, though that’s a generalisation as opposed to a rule.  I have seen Michael Jackson in concert and it ranks up there as one of the best concerts I have ever seen. Likewise U2, who blew my mind with their Zoo Tour.  Music is a selfish thing: It touches you in ways that it can’t and won’t ever touch other people.  Coldplay’s music pushes the same buttons in me that the Floyd and U2 push, and that shouldn’t be too hard for anyone to see.  They’re simply a great rock band who have released some brilliant music.  How could I not go to see them in concert?

Chris Martin seems to be a polarising character in the world of music.  I have to say that I really don’t have an opinion on him either way.  I don’t tend to pay that much attention to what bands do when they’re not performing (excepting Bono and St. Bob perhaps).  In concert he came across as someone who was humbled by the adoration of the crowd on the floor.  I don’t know how real or fake that was, though if I had to bet, I’d say that it was a slight enhancement of what may actually be a natural shyness.  How could you not find it appealing to have the frontman of a group be incredulous at your response to their performance.  Whatever it was, and whether he pulled it off or not, is something that only someone who has been to many of his concerts can say.  Nicely enough, the entire concert was taped for Absolute Radio (formerly Virgin) and can be view online here. To quote him after the show, “I think the concert was the least shit Coldplay concert at the moment that you could have possibly ever seen.  Do you see what I mean?”.

I’ve missed the concert scene for so long that this getting tickets for them was a “now or never” kind of thing.  I’m glad I did too, as otherwise I would have missed out on a great gig.  When I last saw U2, they screwed up my concert-going experience for the rest of my life.  They played “Running to Stand Still” and ran it into “Where The Streets Have No Name” and it was perhaps the best thing I have ever heard live.  Actually there’s no perhaps… it was the best thing I have ever seen live.  While Coldplay didn’t come close to that, in part because I had a fucker of a cold and in part because their show was a little smaller, they were pretty close.  If I was feeling better I would have left my seat and moved towards the front, but I wasn’t.  I would have preferred to be right in the middle of the crowd, as opposed to sitting beside someone who really didn’t seem to want to be there. I just wasn’t feeling up to it though.

So ultimately it comes down to this: Why Coldplay?  Well, why the fuck not?

The lights go out and I can’t be saved at dave bushe dot net