The latest Coldplay concert in Bangkok was a feat of photogenic spectacles designed to bedazzle, complete with light-blinking wristbands, sci-fi-warped animation on spherical screens, balloons in the shape of planets and exploding fireworks above the roof of Rajamangala National Stadium ("The football field not often used to play football on," as a Thai national squad member noted.)
The 60,000-strong crowd was decidedly international, heavy on the Far East side plus a fair contribution from the subcontinent, and spanning demographic generations, led, of course, by Gen X-ers present at the Parachutes breakthrough and rounding off with teenagers (!), the latest converts to the group normally favoured by their cool uncles after Chris Martin made the savvy move to feature the Korean boy band BTS in My Universe. He even thanked "the Army" -- fanspeak for BTS loyals -- for turning up and cheering him on.
Naturally, the visual motif of the Music Of The Spheres World Tour follows the concept of their 2021 album of that same name. Spheres as in planets, and so it's Coldplay across the universe, traversers of musical galaxies and human constellations.
The set list, too, shows their 24-year sonic journey from brooding Brit-pop with semi-depressing lyrics to crafters of mystical conceptual albums and on to a powerhouse of crowd-rousing, hope-bearing, pop-rock-electronica stadium anthems with New-Agey colourings. Coldplay has perfected the art of making everybody happy.
So, we proceeded from John Williams' Flying Theme from E.T. in the prologue (cosmic, I told you, minus the soaring bicycle) to the four-song first act with Higher Power, Adventure Of A Lifetime, the soothsaying para-para-Paradise and The Scientist. Martin's vocal and presence are commanding, his nasal tone and falsetto soaring over the powerful speakers, and his constant scampering up and down the runway linking the main stage of B-stage jutting into the standing area (I was seated, thankfully) was an inspiration of kinetic energy. The crowd kept roaring, all the more so when he moved on to Viva La Vida, Hymn for the Weekend, and of course, to what I think is still their best songwriting, Yellow.
Coldplay concert in Bangkok. (Photos: www.facebook.com/coldplay)
Midway through, he picked two fans to go on stage and sing Up And Up with him at the piano. As it turned out, both were Chinese. Martin also pleaded, on mic, for someone in China to give Coldplay permission to play there, as if someone with authority in Beijing to do such a thing was there in the Bangkok stadium with us, sipping beer and mumbling along with Up And Up.
As we all know, the wounded pride and cryptic romance of early Coldplay has given way to the messages of humanity, inclusivity and cosmic harmony in later albums, and so we were treated to Human Heart and The People of the Pride, punctuated by Clocks, then on to Something Just Like This, My Universe (the Army screamed) and Sky Full of Stars. At one point, Martin, Jonny Buckland, Guy Berryman and Will Champion put on a T-shirt with "Everyone is an alien somewhere" printed on it. Rest assured, the intergalactic theme won't be missed by anyone at a Coldplay show.
I went to the Feb 3 show. It was my third Coldplay gig in 21 years, the first being in 2003 at Impact Arena (no blinking wristbands) and the second in 2017 also at Rajamangala (already with wristbands). The 2003 show was the most intimate -- easier when we were young -- and the latest one the biggest, fullest, most special effects-laden. And yet Martin and his mates had a way of persuading us that the brouhaha was part of their musical identity -- we were invited to jump right in and we gleefully did.
The 110-minute show wrapped with Sparks, Fix You, Biutyful and A Wave. But let me rewind to the start of the show, when one of the many screens announced a message: "As much as possible, this show is powered by renewable energy."
It's commendable, it's Coldplay philosophy, and so it felt a little ironic (on our part, not theirs) that the traffic to and from Rajamangala Stadium for every major concert is an absolute pandemonium of gasoline fumes and fossil fuel-burning, to such a degree it should make Chris Martin squirm in his EV limo.
Roads and sois were paralysed, the footpaths of Ramkhamhaeng 24 chaotic, strewn with construction barriers and debris. The jam was infernal even on a motorcycle taxi. I'm aware the subway line now being built on Ramkhamhaeng Road will mitigate this, but now is now, and an abject failure in crowd movement -- 60,000 people released onto a street with insufficient public transport -- should prevent any environmentally-minded bands to even commit to playing here again.
Coldplay is right. The sky is full of stars, but the streets of Bangkok after their show was full of madness and mayhem.
