Coldplay, Abu Dhabi

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COLDPLAY EMIRATES PALACE ABU DHABI

Coldplay, The Viva La Vida tour, played last night at THE Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi.

It was a beach side concert, with sand, sea & storms, next to the palace..stunning location. The band....brilliant, how could you not love Chris Martin!.. It was so great to finally see one of my favourite bands live, & with the exoticness of Abu Dhabi, the "once in a decade" freak storm of lightning show & at times torrentual rain, intensified the experience.

Glad to have had seats, although a bit far back, we had a great view, & we sat gleaming in joy huddled under my painting drop sheet which I quickly grabbed on the way out the door....being a desert & usually full of heatwave days, we were not prepared for rain in the usual getup! But with rain pouring down our sides, we "soaked"up the experience, the crowd loved it all, we danced & sang along, all snug under our bit of plastic to the songs that we have journeyed with over the years.

Loved it, brilliant concert..just wanted it to keep going! With a few setbacks due to the rain, some intimate performances out amongst the crowd took place... a little side concert with Chris on piano seated next to the luckiest girl in the audience..., later all the band out amongst the "mid priced ticket holders" for an up close performance....

With a real life lightening show in the background courtesy of the storm, we were treated to a great laser & light show....up front as well.

The drama continued as the 15,000 fans tried to drive out of the desert sand surrounds. We found ourselves following a bunch of sturdy4 wheel drives cross country to try beat the hours of waiting to get out...more followed & their was a convoy of go get em cars racing across the bumpy sand.....we all nearly made it.... a few metres from the tar mac, with the heavy rain earlier... there was a domino effect of cars ofall shapes & sizes heavily bogged in the sand! All were good humoured & enjoyed the challenge of trying to "unbog" a traffic jam of cars!

Paul & I down on our hands & knees trying to dig our car out, attempting to shift/push anyway we could.... the young groovy Emirate lads, in their dish dash's, thongs & baseball caps were most obliging to try & help. Most were teamng up to try move heavy oversized 4 wheel drives, & jumped at the chance to help get our little car out of the deep sandy bog! In the end it was an Emirate who took our wheel & after we had dug it out, zig zagged his way fastly between all the other bogged cars, much to our laughter & applause he made it to the tarmac.....ah what a night!

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Comments

[Rick March]

Viva Coldplay!
Coldplay had not originally planned the Abu Dhabi concert, & Singapore was to have been the last gig of this leg of their 2009 tour to date. However, thousands of fans were grateful to get the chamce to see one of the biggest bands on the planet today play at the Emirates Palace hotel.... Travelling down from Dubai, we were greeted with sheet rain & lightening as we inched our way along the Corniche to the parking area. Thankfully the rain stopped before we got out of the car, but there was more to come.... The band started with Life in Technicolour - the opening track to Viva - & to raptuous applause from the crowd. The lights show was fantastic, eclipsed only by the incredible sound system which was exceptionally crisp and clear. However, three songs in it started to rain... and rain... and rain! Despite the downpour the crowd remained enthusiastic, & after fifteen minutes or so Chris Martin's pleas to the elements obviously worked, as it stopped! Further hits from Parachutes, A Rush of Blood to the Head, and X&Y followed - each played flawlessly. The atmosphere was brilliant & most people around me were tansfixed by Buckland's full guitar sound & Martin's haunting vocals. It would have been hard to pick a favourite song, but Lost would take some beating. The spine tingling sound of the organ itself was enough to give me goosebumps.... Coldplay are of course used to playing in front of audiences up to six or seven times larger than we were, but perhaps the "smaller" numbers helped create a more friendly & intimate atmosphere, which is why Martin warmed to us. Indeed playing the Monkees original hit "I'm a Believer" in the middle of the crowd bore testament to the fact.... After the final song of the encore (The Scientist), Coldplay left the stage to the "whoa's" from Viva La Vida, which the crowd sang all the way back to the car park! What a band, what a performance, what a great night!

[govinda Trazo]

thank you!
lovely pictures! thank you for your blog entry! I just had a clear vision of how they rocked! I only had the chance of hearing them perform through my husband on my cellphone. but that's ok, it still made me gleam! crazy night huh? thanks again :)