Listened: Wednesday November 10
I’m probably going to date myself and confuse youngsters by saying that I remember buying Parachutes at a Blockbuster Music with a gift certificate my half-brother had given me. First of all, Blockbuster Music was relatively short-lived as a store in the first place, second of all, I rarely shopped there because it was expensive and sucky, thirdly, wow, shopping for albums at a store, and finally, gift certificates vs gift cards? Omigawd!
Coldplay is also the one of the few bands I remember seeing in their infancy who went on to become huge and successful in the mainstream. Most of the new bands I like either disappear or remain mostly cult-favorites. I remember seeing Coldplay at the Fillmore on their first US tour in 2001. Chris Martin was relatively shy and unsure how to behave onstage.
I was also on TV as a result of this show – for a short time on KBHK they were showing recent Fillmore shows late on Friday or Saturday night. I was at the front of the crowd right by the stage, so I made it on camera. Serendipitously, a friend happen to see me on that show and called me to ask if I had been there. Thanks to the internet I’ve recently found a portion of the show online (I’m at 5:43ish in the video).
When Coldplay returned later that year, they were already Warfield-sized. Then the next year, Greek Theater-sized. At that point, this was the biggest show they had ever played, and the band were clearly awe-struck. Chris had gotten a lot more comfortable with performing too; each show upped the ante of awesomeness. The Greek show is one of the best I’ve ever been to at that venue.
When they came back in 2003, they were Shoreline-sized. I enjoyed that show and their showmanship had expanded well enough to do a good job in a venue that size, but that’s about my cutoff for show size and cost. Every time they’ve visited since I haven’t seen them. A sports venue hosting their show is just too big and too costly.
I do still enjoy their albums. They’ve matured well.
Emily's Albums A to Z 
[…] (plus a somewhat disturbing album cover). At times it sounds like the Beatles, the Shins, or Coldplay. It’s just nice background music. However, I never really got into their music enough to […]
[…] sound is similar to Oasis (but much less in-your-face and charming) or Coldplay. Drawn From Memory was acquired back in my years of digging for obscure British music. The songs […]
[…] Rush of Blood To The Head is one of those albums I couldn’t wait to hear. After Parachutes, which was clearly great, but also clearly only the start of something big, I wanted to know what […]
[…] Robbie Williams) and some of the songs beat a joke to death (Bellow – parody of Yellow by Coldplay and Horny, a parody of a song I don’t know), but a few of the songs are legitimately catchy. […]