A friend of mine recently put her Bucketlist up on a wall and remarked how amazed she was at how quickly items are getting checked off the list now that she has made the actual list. The law of attraction is at work.
On January 27th, I had posted about a moment from a Coldplay concert in Tokyo and mentioned ‘Watching Coldplay Live went straight into my bucket list when I saw this.’
So, I was among the lucky ones at the Emirates Stadium on 1st June, 2012 to watch Coldplay live. Coldplay is the closest thing I have to a favourite band. And Chris Martin is probably the only musician I look up to. I love what he stands for, especially the fact that he is among the few non-drinkers, non-smokers in the industry and that he calls himself an ‘alltheist’ i.e. a believer in everything. I’d been for a couple of other Live gigs and I hadn’t paid as much for either and was hoping this would live up..
And it suffices to say that neither held a candle to this one. Coldplay were absolutely unbelievable. It was a mix of the fact that it involved my favourite songs and the fact that they paid immense attention to detail, used props for all songs and made it a true visual spectacle. Whether it was streamers flying all over the station or large balloons, they nailed making it an ‘experience’.
I’ve uploaded a video of the collection of clips I filmed on the phone. Many of them are really shaky especially during the great parts – I apologize for that. Youtube user HKMoo has covered the whole concert and done a much better job of it.
But, for now, I’ll share my video and share my favourite moments.
00:18: ‘In My Place’ – The whole stadium is full of coloured pieces of paper. Beautiful sight.
Before this song, Chris Martin thanked the stadium for giving them their Friday night and said ‘I know you’ve been through a lot to get here – crazy ticket prices, bad traffic, smelly neighbors in the crowd etc. We’re thankful for that and we’re going to give you every ounce of our energy tonight.’ And boy, they did..
03:16: ‘Yellow’ – You see a remainder of massive balloons that were all over the stadium during ‘Lovers in Japan’ (see first related video on the side)
04:35: ‘Viva la Vida’ – Crazy excitement from the crowd when ‘Viva la Vida’ kicked off. Clearly the main event.
07:40: ‘Viva la Vida’ – THE moment that was on my bucket list. Apologies for the very shaky camera work. A friend of mine said the moment gave him chills when he watched it on my phone. It still gives me the chills.
08:50: ‘Charlie Brown’ – This was probably ‘the moment’ of the concert. We had these LED wristbands that were controlled by them. They had lit up earlier in the concert but this was the first moment once night had set in. The sight is absolutely incredible.
13:00: ‘Fix You’ – This whole song is of course worth watching. From this point on, the crowd more or less sings the song. Again, wonderful especially around 14:00.
14:50: Very small part of ‘Every Teardrop is a Waterfall’
This is what the stadium looked like with all those wristbands alight.
After remembering the hill people yesterday, I feel very blessed to have been able to afford a luxury like this – a concert that turned out to be a wonderful memory especially having gone with mom and a couple of friends.
It was a wonderful experience. And it was a good reminder that money is always well spent on ‘experiences’ vs ‘things’.
Happy Friday!
A Learning a Day 
