Coldplay at the Forum

The Forum was a nightmare as usual. Armed with some local street knowledge and a GPS we got to the venue quickly but then spent an hour waiting to park and paying $20 for the privilidge. The venue is what it is - an outdated basketball arena, although with the low ceiling the atmosphere can be electric when the crowd gets going...

Coldplay Inc played for less than 90 minutes, which unfortunately included most of the new album. Plus points were the huge 'Liberty Leading The People' backdrop (restored to it's original glory without the paint splattered Viva La Vida title) although it (and the band) were partially obscured by a huge net (Mr Paltrow's hair-net?) for the first couple of songs... Other highlights were passable versions of Clocks, The Scientist and Fix You...

On the downside, Coldplay did what they do best - stole ideas from other artists... from the extra drums rolled on stage for some numbers (Radiohead) to 'acoustic' sets on little stages in the audience (U2) and even a political video montage (Jay-Z) before the encore... The acoustic sets (one stage was about 10 rows in front of us which was quite interesting) were particularly bad and featured an appalling version of Yellow...

At one point Mr Paltrow compared the crowd to Starbucks (we were Venti compared to the previous nights Grande...) which was a little like the pot calling the kettle black... Coldplay Inc will continue taking your money until people wake up, smell the coffee and realise they can find something better (and cheaper) elsewhere...