Chris Martin’s group triumphs in the first of its four massive concerts in Barcelona, which they dedicated to Tina Turner
Perhaps, more than a group, it is a walking attraction, whose tour does not compete so much with other pop events, but rather with Disneyland or a Champions League match, but Coldplay unfolded this Wednesday some twenty songs in the olympic stadium, and it was, after all, the music that sustained a night aimed at a powerful collective communion. The audience, as part of a grandiose and at the same time magical intimacy ‘show’, in the first of four nights that consecrate the power of that multicolored pop and bearer of good intentions.
Open stage, as if it opened to the whole of the stadium, two spheres with esoteric symbols and a welcome environmental video. And the first song, with its strengthening spirit: ‘Higher power’, about our extraordinary powers and the astronaut that we carry inside (or something like that). Chris Martin sang it moving to the alternative stage through the long catwalk, wrapped in the first ‘big bangs’ of the thousands of (returnable) LED bracelets that made the Estadi a kind of celestial vault.
Snake charmer
But Coldplay’s is more majestic than overwhelming, and rich in tonalities: open to the ‘afro-funky’ border on ‘Adventures of a lifetime’ and lending itself to snake charm on ‘Paradise’ (Martin dominating the masses without yelling, whispering). And with the will to impose the emotional recollection, with piano and acoustic guitar, of an esteemed old piece such as ‘The Scientist’, reproaching oneself for having been too rational in a relationship.
Chris Martin took the floor there, giving us the “bona nit and good night & rdquor; and showing us his gratitude for being there “despite the traffic and the queues & rdquor ;. After predicting “the best ‘show’ of our lives & rdquor ;, he had a few words for the legendary artist who disappeared this Thursday with the dedication of the concert to the beautiful Tina Turner”.
A ‘castellera’ in action
The group knew how to create a well-resolved sequence of breaks and joy, plots of darkness and tunes arranged for the confetti, the balloons and the invitation to jump in community (which, in the kinetic carpets, curling the loop, became clean energy). . He soon attacked the Barcelona (and Barcelona) ‘hit’ par excellence, ‘Viva la vida’, followed by a closer success, ‘Something just like this’ (his recording with The Chainsmokers), and he spared no gestures of closeness with the audience. The most shocking perhaps, the dry stop of ‘Yellow’, a piece from his first album, when Martin sighted a girl raised, like a ‘castellera’, a few meters from her nose. “It’s the best thing I’ve ever seen at a concert.”
Oscillating between one stage and another, but without giving himself the superman, Chris Martin dominated the field with the attitude of enjoying the show as much as the audience. Those red hearts formed in the stands by the bracelets (in ‘Human heart’) might seem corny, but in the context of the concert they responded to his loving and enveloping raison d’être. And they didn’t get to cloy: they were followed by a muscular ‘People of the pride’ (with Martin making a rainbow flag his own) and a piece, ‘Clocks’, distant and tormented, to the delight of fans of the first Coldplay.
Ride to power
After all, they are four English guys who sing about love (‘My universe’, their entente with the Koreans of BTS) and who want us to be happy at their concerts. Martin was skillful in occurrences such as rebooting ‘A sky full of stars’ asking us to put our phones away, so that we are just “bodies and souls& rdquor; (and fireworks). And he was upset, already in the encores, with the great final trick, when, after ‘Sunrise’, the rumba took power.
Neither more nor less than the Gipsy Kings got into action to score with Coldplay an energetic ‘Proud Mary’, by Creedence Clearwater Revival, in gesture towards Tina Turner, who in his day adapted the theme successfully. And immediately after, applying the rumbero rhythm, a resounding ‘Bamboleo’ (the venerable ‘Caballo viejo’ by Venezuelan Simón Díaz), and ‘Volare’ by Domenico Modugno (official title, ‘Nel blu dipinto di blu’). The audience, rather stunned, but joining the party (more or less), and celebrating that Coldplay resumed their course with a ‘Fix you’ that tasted like glory.