Coldplay Concert - photos of Chris Martin, Gwyneth Paltrow - Twisted Logic tour, Shoreline

So tonight I almost met ChrisMartin and Gwyneth Paltrow. Oh, and almost Arthur Levinson, CEO of Genentech.

Huh? What? Keep reading! There’s even a video at the end.

Tonight I went to Coldplay concert in Mountain View. I went to one at the same venue in 2003 - so I have a basis for comparison.

This time I had a pretty good seat because of the perk of being a Mountain View resident:

Section 202, Row C. Even better, being a dorky tech guy, I got the seat right next to the camera, light board, and sound board:

I know a lot about television cameras having worked in a professional grade TV studio back in Middle School (but that’s another story).

Here’s a shot of the DJ who played music before the show, and his DJing equipment. There’s even a PowerBook 12″.

At one point, he was using Microsoft Entourage 2004, the product I used to work on. Neato!

I’m such a dork - here’s a picture of the supercool light board:

I also got to see some notes from their concert on Wednesday at the Amphitheater at Clark County, Washington:

You can tell from this photo that Black Mountain was touring with Coldplay. They were actually pretty good, unlike the opening band for the 2003 concert.

Anyway, so right before the concert starts, Chris Martin’s (the lead singer) wife shows up with her Entourage. Here’s a picture of just Gwen:

Apple, their daughter wasn’t in the Entourage that came with Gwen. I would’ve taken more photos, but the bodyguard didn’t quite appreciate it.
Gwen was there for almost the entire concert. It was pretty surreal being about 7 feet away from the lead singer’s spouse. She truly enjoyed the concert and had a rocking time, dancing through most of the songs. It was pretty special to see that! It’s not often you see the spouse of the artist next to you, who is also a star. Very very cool.

I wish I had more photos of Gwen without her hood on - but, well, it was pretty darn cold so I don’t blame her for keeping it on.

Back to the show, Coldplay had this massive digital screen that was used very effectively:

Though my seats were pretty darn good, it was often hard to see Chris because the stage lights were so bright. Fortunately, I could closely watch the show from the camera next to me:

I had read that Coldplay really tried to improve their stage presence from the 2003 tour. And it really showed. The lighting was really awesome (must’ve cost a pretty penny), and Chris did a great job of using more and more of the stage. I hear that Bono and U2 are the gold standard for stage usage - I’ll find out in October when I see them in Oakland.

That said, while Coldplay had a much better show than 2003, and got in some great San Francisco references, as well as some not-on-the-album improvisation, Chris Martin still looked a bit awkward on stage. Practice makes perfect I suppose, and time will tell.

That said, Chris did a great job of trying to include the audience more. Such as when he ran off the stage and up to where I was sitting. Yep, just like my Andy Lau experience in Hong Kong - except far better. I was about 7 feet away from him:

That mop of hair on the right of Chris might be Gwen actually!

Here’s a brief video of him jumping and running back to the stage: ChrisMartin.AVI

Overall, this was a great show. Thanks for coming by Coldplay!