Coldplay at the Shoreline-Largest Coldplay Concert Ever

Friday's concert at the Shoreline Amphitheatre marked a turning point for Coldplay, and three songs into the British band's set, singer-songwriter Chris Martin paused to capture the moment.
"I've just been told that this is our biggest show ever, and if everyone here had voted for us we would have won 'American Idol,' " he quipped before turning to his piano to sing "Trouble" a track off of 1999's "The Blue Room" EP. By song's end, half the amphitheater was singing along.
Referencing the band's new popularity before playing an old favorite was a telling gesture. Since releasing its Grammy-winning second album, "A Rush of Blood to the Head," last year, Coldplay's stateside following has swelled from a devoted fan base to a broader mainstream audience that missed its brilliant (also Grammy-winning) debut, 2000's "Parachutes."
The quartet is now a radio staple; "A Rush of Blood" has gone platinum; Martin is dating Gwyneth Paltrow (at least it's not Winona). At Shoreline, the crowd boasted a trans-cultural melange of indie kids, older prog-rockers and fresh converts who discovered the band through their local modern-rock stations.

Is good fortune a bad thing? Not for Martin, who repeatedly marveled at the size of the audience and venue. But for veteran Coldplay fans, who have watched their group move from relatively intimate sets at Bimbo's and the Fillmore to the Greek Theatre and finally the 20,000-capacity Shoreline, this transition from inspired underdogs to rock stars probably carries a bittersweet aftertaste.

Yet the progression is as fitting as it is fortunate. Coldplay's expansive sound, in which even piano ballads seem built for cathedral recitals, is perfectly suited to huge venues, and on Friday it effortlessly filled the amphitheater's sprawling space.

If Coldplay's 90-minute performance felt rote after a year of touring, it still sounded magnificent. The band kicked off with its standard opener, "Politik," a classic Coldplay arrangement in which hushed, confessional verses ignite into choruses of Wagnerian scale. The loud-soft dynamic worked well on "A Rush of Blood to the Head" and "Don't Panic," and reached its pinnacle with "God Put a Smile Upon Your Face." Starting as an acoustic ballad, the song built into a symphony of acid-rock distortion and soaring, bittersweet vocals as Martin cut loose to dance across the stage with his guitar.

Whether hunkering at the piano or whirling in circles like an ecstatic dervish, Martin has developed a stage presence kinetic enough to reach the lawn seats. His keening vocals fill the music with soulful veracity, whether toning down the treacle in "Everything's Not Lost" to create an inspirational anthem or adding a melancholic touch to the lilting melody of "The Scientist." On the neo-psychedelic "Daylight," Martin even managed to make verses extolling sunshine sound dark as lead guitarist Jon Buckland wove through Eastern-tinged riffs.
At times Coldplay's lavish sound echoed early U2, particularly on the mid- tempo "One I Love" and the new song "Moses"; at others, particularly in the lush dream pop of its first hit single, "Yellow," it recalled the band's days at the vanguard of Brit-pop's second wave. Coldplay has found that rare middle ground between accessibility and complex musicianship: Exchanges between guitars and piano shifted the music's mood and texture, while bassist Guy Berryman and drummer Will Champion created a rhythmic backdrop that provided a booming, danceable vibe.

The encore included the ubiquitous "Clocks" and "In My Place," still powerful and achingly beautiful after a thousand airplays. Dedicating the night's final number, the piano tune "Amsterdam," "to my lady and my dad," Martin told the crowd, "We thought there's no way we can be a soft rock band with short hair. We've proved that we can."

They've proved more than that -- among other things, that a gifted and adventurous rock group can enjoy mainstream success without whoring its talent.

We might never see them play Bimbo's again, but witnessing Coldplay's uncompromised success is a fair trade.

By Neva Chonin-SF Chronicle

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