With thanks to some poorly placed words on the BBC last week, Bono generated a Coldplay vs U2 rivalry not seen since the days of Oasis vs Robbie Williams.
That all begs the question. How good are Coldplay and where do they sit in a world of U2 and Radiohead?The answer is they are all good. We don’t have to pick one because we have them all.
Coldplay are about 100 shows into the Viva La Vida tour already so Australia got them at the well-oiled stage.
Everything about this show was perfection.
Visually the band have paid attention to representing the music with the right mood and they do have to budget to carry that off.
The yellow balloons during ‘Yellow’, the lasers through ‘Clocks’, the video backdrop during ‘Lovers In Japan’ all kept the feel of the show at a different pace.
Also their B and C stage parts gave different parts of the audience a close-up view at various times.
It didn’t hurt that Coldplay are coming off the back of their biggest album ever either. All bar one ‘Viva La Vida’ song is represented in the setlist. Because the album was so big, the fans knew all the songs anyway so it was like a greatest hits set.
With ‘Viva La Vida’ taking up have the set, the old songs had to be cherry-picked and they chose well. ‘’The Scientist’, ‘Politik’, ‘Fix You’, ‘In My Place’, ‘Yellow’ and ‘Clocks’ satisfied the hit-starved sector of the crowd.
Chris Martin was witty (“we’re one of England’s premier soft rock bands”). He got his Bono jibe in (“I’ve had to put up with shit from Bono for 13 years”.
But what was obvious moreso than on previous tours was that Coldplay now plays as a band. Will Champion especially compliments Martin on vocals from behind the drum-kit and has a bit of a Phil Collins thing going on with the band if ever Martin decides he wants to do a Peter Gabriel.
Radiohead has been absent from the Australian soil for too many years. They could pull off this size event and get away with it. Muse should be able too. With a new album on the way, they may just about to hit their peak and go to this level as well. U2 are already there which is why Bono must be so nervous about the bands coming up behind him.
Coldplay haven’t even gone the Stadium tour yet. Let’s hope they can keep it at Arena size.
