Coldplay at the Auckland Showgrounds

By REBECCA BARRY

At first it could have been Pink Floyd - haunting guitars, eerie lighting, brutal anticipation. But as soon as the band bashed out the first momentous chords of Politik there was no mistaking Coldplay were the crazy diamonds shining in the rough.

Their walloping two-album catalogue made this a more memorable gig than the last as each rousing anthem ebbed and flowed over the 5000-strong crowd.

Britain's "miserablists" seemed to be intent on proving their critics wrong, rocking out from the uplifting God Put a Smile on Your Face to big favourite Yellow, the lighting pulsing with their good mood.

Frontman Chris Martin seemed genuinely ecstatic to be here, flinging himself around the stage like a skittish puppet, and later hunching so low over the piano he almost disappeared into it. At one point he hammered the keys so passionately he had to have his hand bandaged.

But this is a band who have mastered the art of dynamics. "It's depression time," he quipped, before taking a fresh sonic breath with the melancholy but lilting Trouble.

He couldn't handle the seriousness of some of his own songs however, resorting to self-deprecation to cast off the pin-drop silences.

"We're the new REM," he joked, smoothing a hand over his Michael Stipe hairline. "Er, not because of the quality of the songs."

Then he exposed the couples in the crowd with a stirring solo rendition of Louis Armstrong's A Wonderful World. Or was that Gwyneth harmonising in the wings?

Encouraging the crowd to join in on Everything's Not Lost, the band made the songs work no matter what they did to them - guitarist Jonny Buckland's baying discords and a stint on harmonica, Guy Berryman's sparse but voluminous bass lines, Will Champion's sensitive accompaniment on the skins. Unfortunately, it wasn't just the crowd singing back - the scaffolding rung out with reverb as the high notes hit the back of the stadium.

A slightly out-of-tune Clocks also threatened the encore, forcing Buckland to swap guitars. But Coldplay adapted with the professionalism that has made them one of the most popular bands in the world, even if they've abandoned some of the subtlety for that big rock sound.

"Absolutely tremendous," Martin thanked his audience. The compliment is easily returned.