Thought I’d link to some other mostly glowing reviews of the concert Sunday night. (See I’m not the only one who enjoyed it tremendously.)

life according to jag
*Blogstar
the copeland
the world according to….
Peter of the Cosmos – This guy commends the soundboard operator for doing a great job. That’s in great contrast to one of the posters above who said that the guy was inconsistant at best. I didn’t notice either way which is odd because I usually pick up on stuff like that having specialized in audio in both high school and college as a broadcasting major. I was having too much fun to notice that anyway though.
Clarity Among Confusion
Southern Exposure
Beginnings in endings…

Links courtesy of Technorati and the new Google Blog Search Beta (isn’t everything from Google in a perpetual beta?)

I attended the Coldplay concert at the Starwood Amphitheater in Nashville last night. What an amazing experience. I’ve been to a handful of concerts now. 2 Linkin Park events, a couple of Dave Matthews Band ones and some Christian Concerts. This concert was completely different. To start with the music was incredible. To hear the songs I have been listening to and loved for 3 or 4 years in addition to the brand new ones was indescribable. Despite their so called “soft” image in the media (and self proclaimed) these guys really rock. They rock hard. There were a couple of times where I was sure a mosh pit was going to break out (that didn’t happen but it could have). It was nuts. The atmosphere was electric and I think it flowed in both directions. Chris Martin and the boys exuded a level of excitement and happiness I’ve never seen before. I’ve heard Chris say thank you for allowing us to have the greatest job in the world. These guys went out there and exemplified that gratitude last night. They were really cool. Just regular guys lucky enough to be doing something they love and have other people enjoy it. There was no rock star posturing. They were really down to earth. You’d think one of the biggest bands in the world would be somewhat alloof and stand-offish. Not these guys. It was really refreshing. The most amazing of all though was that it was all authentic. Coldplay is the genuine article. I’ll never forget that. At one point in the show Chris Martin reached out into the crowd and procurred a phone from one of the fans and proceeded to make a call in the middle of a song. That lucky fan sure has got a story to tell. Chris made a call on my phone!!! Before their semi acoustic tribute to Johnny Cash (featuring the song they wrote for and had plans to record with the lengend before his death, ‘Til Kingdom Come and a rousing rendition of Ring of Fire) the guys came out with their digital cameras and took pictures of the crowd. It was as if they were mere fans themselves who were just excited to be there. I thought that was cool. It was proof that they’re not letting this rock star stuff go to their head.

Speaking of cameras I sure wish I had mine. I went to see Dave Matthews Band at the Starwood back in August. There were no cameras allowed. I tried to sneak a little disposable in and it was confiscated. Before leaving home yesterday I was tempted to toss my digital camera in my bag but thought better of it. On the road to the venue I passed a Walgreens and thought about dropping in to grab another disposable to give it another shot. I quickly discarded the idea figuring it would be a wasteof money having it taken away again. Besides the concert was supposed to start at 8pm and it was 7:45. I didn’t want to miss the festivities. Turns out I had nothing to worry about on either front. I’ll talk about the concert starting time later but as far as the cameras were concerned they were everywhere. Everybody seemed to have one. I looked on the ticket and it didn’t say anything about no cameras like the DMB ticket did. Lots of folks were taking pictures with stand alone digitals in addition to their camera phones. I was kicking myself about this the whole night. I had to settle for taking pictures with my new camera phone. I looked at the pictures today after waking up. They look like crap of course having been taken by a camera phone. The phone has a built in video feature with audio that I used several times. The 8 second videos are choppy (about 5 frames per second) and the audio is filled with the off key singing of me and my fellow fans. Oh well. I’ve learned my lesson. Always take a camera. I’ll be taking both the digital big boy and a disposable back up from here on out. The worse that can happen is I have to take them back to my car which is no big deal. I need the exercise anyway.

The stage didn’t seem all that special at first glance. During the long set up time between the opening act and Coldplay’s appearance (more on that later) the backdrop appeared to be a simple gray tarp. Nothing much to look at. Boy was I wrong. The supposed gray tarp turned out to be an impressive video wall. It blew me away when the thing lit up at the beginning of the show. When I saw that I knew it was going to be a top notch show.

Just a couple of gripes with the show. The actual show didn’t get started until well after 9 pm. I’m not sure when the opening act, Rilo Kiley, got cranking but I got to my seat at 8:03. They played 4 or 5 more songs before leaving the stage. Great I thought. 20, 25 minutes to set up the stage and we’re ready to go. Stage setup was more like an hour or close to it. Ugh!! Sure they played cool music over the PA system in the interim but that gets old after a while. Another thing that was I was a bit dissapponted with was the length. The band got on stage around 9:45. They were done at 10:50. It was a great show so of course I wanted it to go on forever but even putting those feelings aside you’d have to say it seemed a bit abbreviated. I read today that Chris and the guys were recovering from some sort of virus or something which forced them to cancel a couple of shows earlier in the week so maybe that’s the reason the show was so short. I’m not sure. Another minor nitpick came after the show was over. It occurred at the merchandise stand. The first one I went to ran out of paper for the credit card machine. How does that happen? You’re at a huge concert. You announce that you’re going to take credit cards which of course a lot of people are going to take you up on with it being 2005 and all. And then you up and run out of paper? Give me a break. That’s poor preparation if you ask me. Luckily a short trek to another stand yeilded the over priced tour t-shirt and hat I was seeking.

A quick note about the opening act, Rilo Kiley. They were good. On their last tour Coldplay invited Eisley out on the road with them. I really like them so I was at least mildly interested to see who they had brought with this them this time around. I was pleasantly impressed with Rilo Kiley. The lead singer, Jenny Lewis, has a really nice voice. I like the band’s sound as a whole. They even had a trumpet player sit in on a couple of songs. If there’s one sure fire way to win me over it’s throwing in some trumpet. I wanted to grab at least one of their CDs afterwards but alas the $65 bucks I dropped on Coldplay swag obliterated my budget for the night.

All in all an amazing experience. The way it’s looking there won’t be any more big concert events for me until next year so I’ll savor this one for a long time.

I got back from Nashville a little while ago. It was a nice trip. Got to see Coldplay in concert. More on that later though. One of the things I love to do on road trips is to crank up the tunes. It makes the time fly by and tonight it kept me awake. Well tonight the iPod was on fire. It could do no wrong. The thing played great song after great song after great song. It was awesome. Normally when I’ve got my beloved iPod on shuffle (which is most of the time) I have to skip every couple of songs to get to one that I really feel like listening to. Not tonight. Out of the 2 hour and 20 minute trip I think I skipped 4 songs total. It was like we were on the same wave length. Very cool. So anyway before call it a night and hit the sack I thought I’d the share the songs that I was rocking to from the outskirts of Nashville all the way back here to Memphis. Enjoy.

[Song ----> Artist -----> Album]

1. Forgiven – Alanis Morrisette – Jagged Little Pill Accoustic
2. More Than Likely – P.M. Dawn – The Bliss Album
3. All Creatures, No. 2 – David Crowder Band – Illuminate
4. Fearless – The Bravery – The Bravery
5. Desert Rose – Sting – Brand New Day
6. Used To Love U – John Legend – Get Lifted (I got the John Legend album a few weeks ago but haven’t listened to it completely yet. Had never heard this one. I repeated it 4 times in a row. ‘Nuf said.)
7. Shape of My Heart – Sting – Ten Summoner’s Tales
8. …. Meets His Maker – DJ Shadow – The Private Press
9. A Rush of Blood To The Head – Coldplay – A Rush of Blood To The Head
10. Never Let Me Down – Kanye West (ft. Jay-Z and J-Ivy) – The College Dropout
11. Comin’ Back – Bent – Ariels
12. My Head Sound Like That – Peter Gabriel – Up
13. So Much To Say (Live) – Dave Matthews Band – The Central Park Concert
14. Break Me Gently – Doves – Lost Souls
15. After The Rain Has Fallen – Sting – Brand New Day
16. Hey Now – TobyMac – Welcome to Diverse City
17. No Woman No Cry (Live) – Bob Marley & The Whalers – Legend
18. Out of Order – Duncan Shiek – Duncan Shiek
19. Daughters – John Mayer – Heavier Things
20. Angry White Boy Polka – “Weird Al” Yankovic – Poodle Hat
21. Under Pressure – The Used/My Chemical Romance – Under Pressure (Single)
22. Every Day A Story – Fragile State – The Facts and The Dreams
23. So High (Cloud 9 Remix) – John Legend & Lauryn Hill – So High (Single)
24. My Harlem Lullaby – Mase – Welcome Back
25. Fire On Lake – Michael Kamen – Band of Brothers
26. What Do You Believe? – Grits – The Art of Translation
27. Lovechild – Grits – The Art of Translation
28. All Along The Watchtower – Jimi Hendrix – Experience Hendrix – The Best of Jimi Hendrix
29. Under The Bridge – Red Hot Chili Peppers – Red Hot Chili Peppers: Greatest Hits
30. Mr. Man (Duet with Jimmy Cozier) – Alicia Keys – Songs In A Minor
31. Go To Sleep – Radiohead – Hail To The Thief
32. Sleep, Eat Food, Have Visions – Four Tet – Everything Ecstatic
33. The Letter – Joe Cocker – Joe Cocker: Definite 1964-1986 – His Greatest Songs

Isn’t that an awesome list? Way to go iPod!! Time for sleep. Later.