Coldplay fun

Annette and I went to see Coldplay tonight at the (fabled) Palace of Auburn Hills and I’m all keyed up (which is why I’m still awake and posting on my blog at this hour). Here’s a few highlights:

• Somewhere in that photograph is the band. I’m pretty sure. It isn’t just that the camera on my phone is kind of crappy (which it is); it’s also that we had not good seats. We were in the 200-level, which is the upper-deck, and hey, guess what? I found out that there are 19 rows in the 200 section of the Palace. You know why I found this out? Because we were in row 19, and behind us was a freakin’ concrete wall and I could have touched the ceiling.
• As a result of this vantage point, it seems to me that the members of Cold Play and the opening act, Fiona Apple (more on her in a second), were remarkably small. Like two, three feet tall, tops. Actually, what did occur to me just now: do you remember that bit from Kids in the Hall where the guy holds his thumb and index finger together and he looks through it and says “I crush your head”? It was a bit like that. In any event, the lesson I learned is get tickets in the 100-level section or a low row in the 200s.
• Fiona Apple– and I will say at the outset that I am not a fan– was kind of bad. Besides the fact that she was not really able to deal well with the “arena rock” venue (she would have been much better in a club or a place like the Michigan Theater or something), she sang poorly and was as twitchy as a monkey on crack (and that might not be as much of a metaphor as I had originally intended).
• Coldplay was very good– a very polished, well-rehearsed, talented group. I especially liked their version of the Johnny/Roseanne Cash song “Burning Ring of Fire,” part of the segment of the show where they came off of the main stage for a more intimate “minor stage” performance out front. This seems very popular at big arena rock shows nowadays. And then there was a segment where Chris Martin (the lead singer) ran all the way to the other end of the arena and sang the end of one of the encore songs.
• But screw this “intimate moments;” the best part of the Coldplay show was the high tech/multimedia/super-duper lighting spectcle. Which was also one of the reasons why they were good in the arena rock format.
• The beer/wine situation and such was not great and kind of amusing at the same time. Between the Fiona “twitchy, cracky monkey” Apple set and Coldplay, I went out to go to the bathroom and to get Annette and I another round of drinks (we each just had one before). The bathroom line for the men was bad, but the women’s room line was just crazy. Anyway, after I finished my business in the men’s room, I noticed that in the line waiting was a young woman– a bit discreet, possibly on a dare, possibly because she had to pee and saw her chances with the traditional way.
• The line for beer and wine was just as bad as the men’s room, and, given that another beer would have forced me to pee again during Coldplay’s show, I made an “executive decision” and decided to skp the second round. Which turned out to be the right choice.
• Every time I venture east of the Detroit airport (Annette claimed this happens to her every time she goes east of Bombadill’s), I end up getting lost, and tonight was no different. Long story short: getting there was pretty easy, but getting back wasn’t.
• I’d like to see a basketball game there– if I could get decent seats….