Archive for November, 2008

11.12.08

I’m just waiting til the shine wears off…

Posted in My Immaculate Taste in Music at 1:45 pm by Adriene

Last night, Jeff and I had one of our rare date nights and saw Coldplay at Philips Arena. If you know me even remotely well, you know that I’m a pretty rabid fan of theirs. I’ve been looking forward to the concert for a while now, and I’ve been almost giddy with anticipation for this for about a month now.

We got down to Philips around 6:00 with the hopes that we’d be able to sneak in a nice dinner at McCormick and Schmick’s, but that was thwarted when we got there to find an hour and a half wait ahead of us. We also tried Taco Mac, but the line was out the door. So, Food Court at CNN Center it was! Ah well. We have an anniversary coming up, so maybe we can go somewhere nicer for that.

The opener was a band called Sleepercar, which is apparently a side project of Jim Ward, formerly of Sparta. On the Jeff Holland Scale for Grading Opening Bands (JHSfGOB, where a 10 equals “OH MY GOD I HAVE TO BUY THEIR CD RIGHT NOW” and a 1 equals “Your singing is SO BAD that you make me want to take my finger, push it through my eyeball into my brain, and swirl it around for a while” [bonus points if you can place that quote]), I’d give them a 7. Fairly enjoyable, but alt-country isn’t really my thing, and they at least sounded pleasing.

Coldplay took the stage around 8:45, and the crowd was immediately on its feet. The set was a pretty good mix of old and new, flipping back and forth between standards like “Clocks” and “Speed of Sound” to some of the newer stuff from Viva La Vida. The stage setup was really cool, I thought, with a separate “crowd stage” set up in the back corner of the arena that the band used to do a small acoustic set towards the end of the show. In all, I thought it was a great show, and probably about equal to when Jeff and I saw them in 2005. There were some things I liked better about this show (it was more music-heavy than banter-heavy like the last show), and some things I liked less (the odd techno-set they did in the middle where they ruined “God Put A Smile Upon Your Face” and “Talk.”) I will say this - even if you hate Viva La Vida, the songs on that CD play VERY well to an arena. I actually got chills when they started the title track, and probably my favorite part of the entire show was “Lovers in Japan,” complete with technicolor butterfly confetti streaming from the rafters and Chris Martin exuding Bono-like energy as he ran around the stage.

Here’s the set list with a few comments:

Life in Technicolor - I actually immediately thought this would be a great intro song when I first picked the CD up. I was not disappointed.
Violet Hill
Clocks
In My Place
Speed of Sound
Cemeteries of London - The crowd REALLY got into this one - “singing la la la la la la la ley…”
Chinese Sleep Chant - It was interesting hearing them pair songs differently at the concert than they did on the CD.
42
Fix You - I was actually a little surprised they didn’t save this one for an encore. Though I’m glad they did a completely different encore set than when we saw them three years ago - some bands get in a rut.
Strawberry Swing

Techno Mini-Set:
God Put a Smile Upon Your Face - I leaned over to Jeff halfway through this and told him that I thought I could hear Scott yelling obscenities all the way from Louisiana.
Talk - I was not so much really a fan of either of these versions.

Green Eyes - I’ve noticed that they always try to do a little something extra for the Atlanta crowd on their tours, and this was their little gift to us this time, I guess. Chris said they hadn’t played it at all on this tour yet, and he mused that it was “total sh*t” as he fumbled over the first couple of notes.
Postcards from Far Away
Viva la Vida - This seriously gave me goosebumps. So beautiful live.
Lost!

Acoustic Set from “Crowd Stage”:
The Scientist
Death Will Never Conquer - Will sang lead on this one. The crowd loved it!

(Dance Remix of Viva La Vida played between main set and first encore)

First Encore:
Politik
Lovers in Japan - Probably my favorite moment of the show. This song plays excellently to an arena. If I say anything more, I’ll wind up gushing, so I’ll stop now.
Death and All His Friends

Second Encore:
Yellow - People started leaving after Death and All His Friends, but Jeff and I knew better - they hadn’t done this song yet, and I knew it had to show up at some point. When the house lights didn’t come up, I stayed put in my seat.

(The Escapist played as the band exited the stage)

In all, a pretty darn good show, I thought. It’s still hard to find another show that will hold up to my experience in Chicago seeing U2 back in 2005, but Coldplay never fails to pull the crowd completely in to their shows. I’ve definitely got the whole post-concert depression going on today.

PS - SCOTT, YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO COMMENT IF YOU ARE NOT GOING TO BE NICE. SO THERE. Haha!

11.05.08

Some Post-Election Thoughts.

Posted in Ponderings, Public Service Announcements, Rants at 10:36 am by Adriene

I’m not one to write political posts in general (mostly because political discussions usually make my blood boil), but here I am, writing two posts in a row about the election. However, now that, for the most part, the election is over (looks like we’re still headed for a Senate run-off here in Georgia, though), there are some things I’d like to say.

I did not vote for the guy who won. I voted for McCain. That decision was not an easy one to make, though, and if I was honest with myself, I’m still pretty firmly on the fence regarding the choice the two major parties gave us (I did not even consider any of the third-party candidates. Ralph Nader runs every single time, and I’d rather pull my toenails out with pliers than vote for either Bob Barr or Cynthia McKinney). In the end, though, I went with McCain for a few reasons. First, although I consider myself pretty much a straight up the middle moderate, I still lean right on more issues than I lean left on. I’m also not a fan of large government, and I think that some of Obama’s policies will lead to more government intervention than necessary in our daily lives. I was also praying VERY hard that if McCain won, that he wouldn’t die or resign before his term was up, because the thought of Sarah Palin as president scared the bejeesus out of me.

So, seeing as how I almost voted for him, I am not convinced that Obama is the worst thing that could possibly have happened to our country. I’m actually rather excited about watching his presidency unfold. And even if you are firmly in the McCain camp, you can’t deny the historical importance of this moment. So, even though I did not vote for him, I am going to pray for Barack Obama and his presidency. I pray that God give him the guidance to lead our country effectively for the next four years, and possibly another four, should he get re-elected.

Now that I’ve gotten the comments about our president-elect and Senator McCain out of the way, it’s time for me to turn to the American people. Maybe it’s just because I was never really one to follow politics until Bill Clinton’s presidency, but I’ve noticed that, for the past 16 years, roughly half of the country has been hoping for the downfall of whichever president we have in office at that particular time. Many conservatives itched at the possibility of tossing Clinton out of office, and the same can be said for liberals who were calling for Bush’s head on a plate. Quite frankly, that is shameful. As I said above, even if you did not vote for who was elected, that person still needs your support and prayer. I am not saying you have to agree with their policies, but you can disagree respectfully.

One thing that I am hopeful that the right does after this election is to realize that fear-mongering is NOT an effective campaign practice. If anything, it bites you in the rear. I’m positive that is one reason why Elizabeth Dole lost her senate seat. I also received COUNTLESS e-mails about how Obama was a Christian-hating Muslim in disguise who wanted to wipe Israel off the map. One of the most laughable ones even stated that the Bible (the book of Revelation, specifically) warned us against electing a Muslim president. I could think of two problems with that statement off the top of my head (one, that Obama isn’t Muslim, and two, Islam did not exist as a religion until after the book of Revelation was written), and I’m sure I could find more issues with it if I researched it further. My point is this: if you disagree with a candidate, that is fine, but spreading outright lies about him does nothing but give his supporters more ammunition.

I guess I’m basically saying “CUT IT OUT” to the American people. Stop it. I’m tired of seeing grown adults acting like five year olds and resorting to childish measures to discredit those who disagree with them. I’m tired of seeing friends of mine refusing to speak to other friends because they voted differently. I’m tired of my country being so vitriolically divided on itself. Let’s move forward and be big boys and girls about this. I also encourage you to visit this website and think about a few things: http://www.respectourpresident.org.

And with that, I am done with the political talk for another four years. :)