Coldplay hit Sydney this week on their way to playing in Auckland on Wednesday and Thursday. Scott Kara was there
Chris Martin bounds round the stage, jerking and contorting like he's being shot. He falls to the ground, writhes a little, shows the baying girls lined up along the crowd barrier his lily-white torso, and then rises before taking another imaginary blow.
While this gangly goofball doesn't command the stage in a posy Bono way he's still quite the show pony - just not the poised frontman.
And the rest of Coldplay look the part tonight too in their matching military uniforms-cum-technicolour dreamcoats, created especially for their latest album Viva La Vida.
If this sold-out show in Sydney's Acer Arena is anything to go by, Coldplay are now officially acting like a stadium rock band. They sidle up to each other a la Mick and Keith, fill the venue with everything from ballads to belters, and even play a short set among the crowd on the terraces.
During In My Place Martin sprints from one end of the horseshoe-shaped stage to the other to pounce on guitarist Jonny Buckland. And as the funereal lope of Lost! reaches a climax he takes a flying leap at his keyboard, nailing the chord he was after with deft precision. You feel sorry for his piano stool as he bounces incessantly.
They've come far since their first visit Downunder in 2001. I remember that quaint little band who played an afternoon set at the Auckland Big Day Out. Yes, you could tell they were on the verge of big things, but songs like Yellow and Shiver were coy compared to now.
With the help of producer Brian Eno - the man behind some of U2's best work, including co-producing the band's latest album No Line On the Horizon (see story below) - Viva La Vida is the most drastic stylistic leap Coldplay has made in a 10-year, four-album career.
With its trippy mood swings, lush string arrangements and multiple part songs - like 42, Yes and Lovers In Japan/Reign Of Love - it's the band's most interesting album to date.
And it's bold considering Martin and his mates could seemingly trot out any number of Yellows or Clocks at will. These days the more challenging song structures of Viva La Vida, which still retain the band's rousing accessible-to-the-ear sound, makes for a supergroup-style live experience rather than simply seeing a band play a bunch of catchy, melodic tunes.
There are some downright wigged-out moments too. Even though it's less than four minutes long, 42 is the best of these. It starts poignantly with Martin seated at his keyboard, eyes closed and sweating, as he delivers the opening line, "Those who are dead are not dead, they're just living in my head". This gives way to Guy Berryman's slugging bass and Buckland's taut and tense guitar, then it's into a light and breezy Martin-lead mantra of "You didn't get
to heaven but you made it close" and the all-in crowd singalong "oh, oh, oh ...".
There are all sorts here tonight. Many have come straight from work, still with their office garb on minus the ties; boyfriends and girlfriends canoodle to the slower songs; and some youngsters are here with their folks.
Martin says mid-set, "Sorry if you've been dragged along by your grandchildren," but that could just as well be reversed considering the band's all-encompassing popularity.
If there's one unifying characteristic of this Coldplay crowd it's that they are well behaved and polite. Except for one rowdy rebel - who wouldn't look out of place at a Slayer show - sitting next to us. With every flail of air drums, a strong waft of stale body odour leeches throughout our row. Still, he loves Coldplay, knows all the words - and the drum parts.
When tickets for the band's first show in Auckland went on sale late last year it sold out in two hours. And this Sydney show is the first of four sold-out shows at the 15,000 capacity Acer Arena (formerly the Sydney Superdome).
The current show is not one that leans on the new album. While it includes almost all of Viva La Vida, there's a heavy emphasis on 2003's A Rush of Blood To The Head, a small selection from X&Y, and Yellow is the only one that makes it from 2000 debut, Parachutes.
It starts rather unusually with U2's Magnificent, from No Line On the Horizon, blaring ruthlessly through the sound system. And it gets stranger when a seemingly random guy starts sweeping the stage before launching into a breakdance routine. But he's not very good.
Then the band appears from behind a black curtain waving glitzy sparklers to the chiming crescendos of Viva La Vida's opening instrumental, Life in Technicolour. The curtain drops and it's straight into Violet Hill, and then a stunning Clocks.
The light show is so good it's distracting, especially the ball-shaped screens - hanging like giant lava lamps from the roof - with live images of the band beamed on to them.
Then there's Cemeteries Of London, with it's "la la la la" football chant; Fix You gets a fist-raising singalong; but God Put A Smile Upon My Face gets an unfortunately camp, Pop-era U2-style reworking. The - some might say sentimental - highlight though is a ballsy version of early hit Yellow (complete with big yellow balls bouncing round the crowd with confetti inside them). What a song.
Although, it's quickly spoiled by a brief cover of John Farnham's terrible You're the Voice. However, come this week at Vector Arena one imagines Martin and band might replace it with a far better, more localised number.
LOWDOWN
Who: Coldplay
When and where: Vector Arena, Wednesday and Thursday supported by Hollie Smith and Mercury Rev
