I was lucky enough to attend the free Coldplay concert last night at MSG. I suppose it should have been clear going in, and even clearer now that this show was merely a warm up show for the band. The show lasted a bit over an hour and included lots of energy, in crowd performances (with stages set up in the pit on stage right and dead center in the mid level), and most of their previous hits.
But Chris Martin’s continual mentions that the show was free so we “couldn’t ask for our money back” was funny at first – until the mistakes in songs, forgotten lyrics, out of tune instruments, etc. By the end of the set, I had ignored all of those little mistakes – nobody’s perfect – not even rockstars (and I use the term rock loosely) and really enjoyed the show.
They band closed with a song off of the new record. The song is a great song, but it seemed odd to end on a song that most people won’t know by heart. But hey, there’s always the encore. Surely we would hear Politik or Shiver or Scientist.
The lights were out. The crowd going wild. Chanting “Coldplay! Coldplay!”
The lights came up. Some started to leave. The crowd that remained grew louder in order to compensate for those non-believers. The “Beat the Traffic” fans. “Coldplay! Coldplay!”
Behind the scrim – footsteps. The crowd goes NUTS! until they realized it was roadies dismantling the equipment.
The saddest part about this show is that a great experience left a sour taste in the (spoiled?) fans’ mouths. All I heard leaving the Garden was disbelief that they left for good – sans encore. It didn’t ruin the quality of the performance I saw – but it did end the event on a sour note.
So, are we spoiled? Have encores become so common place that not doing an encore is now the cool exception. Is it just grandstanding to take a drink of water backstage, come out again and send the fans off on one of your anthemic hits? Is it a slap in the face to fans who – despite not paying for tickets did pay high concession and merch prices – chanted your name for 1 or 2 more songs (after only playing about 68 minutes)?
In my humble opinion – Joe D said it best: “There is always some kid who may be seeing me for the first or last time, I owe him my best.”
June 24, 2008 at 4:18 pm |
At least you don’t feel as bad dropping 16 bucks on brews and Garden-inflated meals.