To see Coldplay!!
So this concert going experience was a little different that the one that I am used to. The website said that the doors open at 6 for the 8pm concert, so I got there around 6:30 and people were kind of hanging out in the lobby because the doors were not open yet to get into the seating area. People, of course. were drinking Koelsch and just kind of milling about until the doors finally opened. So since I was seated about an hour beforehand, I was basically people watching. The demographic of the Coldplay concert goers of Germany was much different than I expected. The couple to my right was about 60 years old and the couple to my left was a tattooed mid 30s pair who had to leave for a bit during "The Scientist" because the girl was sobbing uncontrollably. It was quite astounding how widely ranged the ages of the fans were. The opener was rather good, although didnt talk very much, and then after her there was about 40 minutes to Coldplay where they were just playing random songs. The most hilarious part about this for me was when they played "99 Problems" by Jay-Z directly before Coldplay came on (lyrics for all you old folks who may not know this rap song "If you're havin' girl problems I feel bad for you son, I got 99 problems but a bitch ain't one") and everyone went absolutely insane. Everyone started dancing and (trying) to sing along. Anywho, then Coldplay came on and sang "Hurts like Heaven" to start it all off:
What are all those lights around the stadium Christen? Are the multi-colored camera flashes? No! When we all came into the stadium, we were given these watch-looking-bracelets. As soon as Coldplay started singing, to the surprise of everyone in the audience, all of our bracelets started lighting and flashing (one of the lyrics to Coldplay's upcoming single "Charlie Brown" is "We'll go wild, we'll be glowin' in the dark" and I think this was a homage to that). It was one of the coolest things I have seen. BTW my seats, although high, were not that bad at all, I felt like I was up close and center. The stadium was about the same size as the Cintas center just to give a perspective.
Second song that they played was "Yellow" (hence the light)
Chris in the middle of a confetti explosion! (I believe it was during "Hardest Part")
another confetti explosion
One of the funniest parts of the concert was Chris kept saying "Danke schoen" and at one point he even said "Wir sind gluecklich, dass wir in Koeln sind" which just means we are lucky to be in Cologne, it was really cute I though and I, not being German by any means, thought it was really cool that he was trying at least to speak this language.
They had these bulb-ish things all over the stadium where they would project the concert, it was cool because they were like floating above everyone
Here is the band singing "Up in Flames"
This is Charlie Brown, and it was one of the coolest songs of the whole concert. It is clear that it is one of the band's favorite songs of the album so they really pulled out all of the stops for this one. Everyone was dancing to this song with their bracelets on so all of the little lights looked like they were dancing too.
Okay I decided to take a video of Viva La Vida, and I may or may not be singing the entire time.... you have been warned! It is a Christen/ Chris duet. But the cool thing about this song was that everyone sang the "yelling" part I guess you could say "ohhh ah ah ahhhhh ah" and since it was not words, even the non english speakers could sing along. People were singing this to encore the band as well.
Part of the encore was this song, I thought Brendan would especially like it since we were talking about whether or not Chris would since "Christmas Lights" or not (their Christmas song last year).
There last song, of course, was "Every Teardrop is a Waterfall"
I said it last night, and I will say it again, this was one of the best experiences I have had in Germany yet. So glad I found out about this before the tickets sold out.... they are coming to Berlin and Frankfurt next week, maybe take the family on a road trip?
