After almost 7 years, I am back at Singapore SportsHub watching this international-renowned British rock band Coldplay perform their Music of the Spheres world tour. I was a hardcore fan for a good four to five years in my pre-teens years, listening to almost every single track and memorising their lyrics, before I ventured into other genres in my teens and till today. Coming back to Singapore SportsHub for Coldplay truly is a trip back to my teens.
I was seated at a CAT2 spot Section 138 which offered stunning views of both the main stage and B-stage. For sure I could not see Chris, Guy, Will and Jonny upfront but overall, that seat was really decent. It was raining very heavily that night but very fortunately, we were seated indoors and not affected by it. Was a bit disappointed we ended up having the virtual fireworks instead of the real fireworks instead.
The opening act was by a Singaporean female singer Jasmine Sokko for about 30 mins. While the concert was supposed to start at 8pm, the band was delayed half an hour for unexplained reasons (probably the heavy rain?) and show kicked off at around 8.30PM.
The first song was Music Of The Spheres — classic of Coldplay to start their nights with an instrumental piece. Nothing can beat the piano, bass, electric guitar and xylophone intro for their Mylo Xyloto world tour, which unfortunately skipped Singapore, though.
I have to admit that I went to this concert 100% unprepared for what is to come. For their 2017 A Head Full of Dreams show in Singapore, I did looked up the common setlists to figure out what the band would play. But not this time, I have got better things to do. So hearing classic hits like “In My Place” (I love that guitar riff so much), “Clocks” and “The Scientist” being performed was a huge surprise for me. Then again, will there be a day where Coldplay stopped playing “Clocks”, “Fix You”, “Yellow” or “Viva la Vida” in their gigs?
I was not expecting the band to play “Viva la Vida” so early on though as that song is typically played near the end of their gigs. I was quite disappointed and low-key eagerly waiting for the band to play “Every Teardrop is a Waterfall” as their closing piece, and was hoping they would play “Charlie Brown” since they did it for the first show in Singapore, but oh well.
Chris Martin sang quite a few popular hits, the ones that probably propelled their fame globally, such as “My Universe”, “A Sky Full of Stars”, “Something Just like This”. They do sound catchy but I personally do not like them as much as their classic good-old-guitars tunes. In fact, those songs lean towards pop than rock. This was quite different from their 2017’s A Head Full of Dreams tour probably because that album sounded better for me and featured less electronic / pop songs as Ghost Stories and “Something Just like This” were only released afterwards.
Throughout the entire concert, Coldplay was surely serious in their commitment to be sustainable in their operations. Before the opening act, fans were greeted with various promotional clips by global non-profit organisations such as The Ocean Cleanup and of course, DHL. For the general standing fans, they had the option of literally bouncing on trampolines and bicycles that power the electricity for the show (though I am unsure how much that actually contributes and whether it is significant enough). It is worth mentioning though that there were many foreigners who flew in to Singapore just for Coldplay so whether the tour can truly be sustainable is questionable.
After the concert ended, the first thing that came to my head was how Coldplay or rather Chris Martin was an entertainer first then a musician. Do not get me wrong on this. Chris does not lip-sync and Guy, Will and Jonny put their hearts and souls into each beat they are playing. The band does a terrific job performing and entertaining the audience.
While most bands and their A Head Full of Dreams tour lean towards just playing, Music of the Spheres was actually engaging. Frontman Chris Martin frequently interacting with audiences, using jumbotron camera to select fans before singing a line or two specially for them live, reminding audiences to soak in the atmosphere and live in the moment than capturing the moment (thankfully Chris was not as nasty as Suede’s Brett Anderson when they last performed here in November 2023), and even asked fans whether they are ok since he was sweating profusely. This is the level of interaction I hardly see in other artists’ performances and it is not out of the ordinary since Coldplay has always given me the impression that they care about their fans.
Despite the pouring rain, it was twas a biutyful night in SportsHub Singapore on 24 January 2024.
Cinematic Frame of Mind 