On Saturday night, Coldplay performed a show for a small audience at the Belasco Theater in Los Angeles that was livestreamed on TIDAL. The event was originally supposed to take place on Friday last week (November 13), but the band decided to reschedule the full concert and play a short acoustic set instead out of respect for the tragic events that occurred in Paris that day.
Full disclosure, I am a huge fan of Coldplay. They are by far my favorite band, so it would be hard for me to not be biased in writing a review of a concert in which I was lucky enough to see them up-close in a small crowd, in comparison to the stadium and arena-sized crowds they usually play for.
After the rapidly building anticipation of waiting in line for over eight hours, Coldplay started the show with the new song “A Head Full of Dreams” from their upcoming album with the same name.
Immediately, I was overwhelmed with not only the new song, but also the beautiful set design of the stage, which included a large screen backdrop that played moving visuals of the album cover, moving kaleidoscope-esque images, and other visual effects. Also, the stage was adorned with a rainbow assortment of marigold flowers and colors, fitting for the theme of A Head Full of Dreams.
Their setlist consisted of three more new songs from A Head Full of Dreams: “Adventure of a Lifetime,” “Amazing Day,” and “Up&Up,” as well as classic songs such as “Yellow” and “Clocks.” The songs easily transitioned from one to another and there was never a dull moment in which the band lost the audience’s interest.
One of the best parts of the night was during “A Sky Full of Stars,” when star-shaped confetti showered the audience as frontman Chris Martin sang the fitting words “You’re such a heavenly view.” Another highlight for me was getting to hear “Adventure of a Lifetime” live after having listened to it non-stop since its recent release, and singing along to it with such an enthusiastic audience.
The band concluded with one of the aforementioned new songs, “Up&Up,” which Chris Martin introduced as “the song [they’ve] been waiting to write for 15 years.” The song is moving and uplifting, and was the perfect conclusion to their show.
It was an amazing experience to get to hear Coldplay perform these new songs live before the release of their album, and it made me even more excited (if that’s even possible) to listen to the album when it comes out December 4th. I can’t wait for them to announce tour dates, because I’m already eagerly awaiting the next time I can see them in concert again.