This was my second time seeing Coldplay live, the other time was at the Fleet Boston Pavilion on their last U.S. tour in 2002. The tickets I had were for the pit/GA and I had the best seats I have ever had for a major act with only two shows which could even rival it. A Springsteen show from the Linc two summers ago where I had pit or Phish's New Years eve show at Madison Square Garden in '97 where we sat second row, side of stage. I was about 3 people from the rail and when Chris Martin came and stood on the edge of the stage I could have high fived him, it was ridiculously close.
I'm not a huge fan of Coldplay's new album X&Y, but I definitely played out Rush of Blood to the Head in college, and really enjoyed Coldplay Live 2003 for a long time. The show was a nice mix of old and new. They opened with one of their new singles Square One with Chris Martin singing most of it in front of the giant screen with numbers scrolling on it with only his shadow visible. Then they played Politik, the tune which they used to start off shows on their last tour. I think it was during Politik when Chris Martin changed the lyrics to show his Philly knowledge/love. He changed lyrics to the songs to say something like "the town where they filmed Rockeee".. "Camden New Jerseee".."and something something Philadelphia." The crowd, myself included, loved the Brit trying to get into the hearts of Philadelphians. Later in the show he dedicated a song to those people who "tailgated all day." Apparently, Coldplay never knew what tailgating was before today. He even said he would "cook you a hoagie" or something like that, pretty funny.
The third song or so was one of their older hits Yellow. During this song, huge yellow balloons fell from the rafters, which Chris Martin told the fans to pop eventually, and when they popped, yellow confeti burst everywhere.
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As you should be able to see in my photo album, the lighting was extremely colorful and really added to the music very well. Chris Martin has an amazing stage presence and is a hell of an entertainer. I thought it was funny, being so close to him, you could actually see he ripped his jacket during the show. The man puts some passion/effort into his performance. He also dedicated a song to "all the Apples of the world" which was a nice touch. No Gwyneth sightings unfortunately.
Being so close to the stage definitely contributed to my amazing time, but I'm pretty sure this show would have rocked from the lawn as well. My photo album of the show.
The opening band Black Mountain was pretty good, but it was hard to hear them with all of the annoying DMBandesque fans surrounding us.