Coldplay live is ‘A Head Full of Dreams’ come true

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Braden Lefevre

Chris Martin sings and plays piano at the AT&T Stadium.

As the band began a familiar tune, sound reverberated throughout the AT&T Stadium. Suddenly, 80,000 wristbands simultaneously blazed with a mesmerizing glow, while confetti and balloons began their glorious descent from above. A mirage of lasers and lights shined throughout the roaring crowd, and from this beautiful chaos, a single color emerged, which happened to be of the same name of the song that was sung so masterfully. The artists on stage were the world famous, British alternative rock band, Coldplay, and the song played was arguably one of their greatest musical achievements, “Yellow.”

Throughout the entirety of their performance, the members of Coldplay succeeded in completely transfixing their audience.

— Braden Lefevre

After the Dec. 4, 2015, release of the their seventh studio album, “A Head Full of Dreams,” the band Coldplay, fronted by lead singer Chris Martin, lead guitarist Jonny Buckland, acoustic guitarist Guy Berryman and drummer Will Champion received largely positive reviews on their newest musical achievement. Thus, on March 31, 2016, the quartet embarked upon their seventh concert tour, “A Head Full of Dreams Tour.” The tour consisted of three legs. The first took place in several locations across Latin America, and the second found the band traveling across Europe. The third leg allowed the band to perform in the greatest stadiums that the United States of America had to offer.

I had the privilege of attending the band’s 15th concert of the third leg of their tour on Aug. 27th. The performance took place in Arlington, Texas at the AT&T Stadium, affectionately known as the home of the Dallas Cowboys. Having witnessed this miracle of musicality first hand, the best way I know to describe this spectacle is with the title of Coldplay’s newest album, because this concert both musically and visually was the stuff from which dreams are made.

As the band prepared to take the stage, the first sound of musicality to boom throughout the stadium was opera. I found this fact to be remarkable and took it as a clear sign that the four men about to perform were honest to God lovers of music. Suddenly, in a surreal moment that I will never forget, the stage exploded with the colors of the flower of life (the band’s new logo), and as suddenly as a flash of lightning in the night, Coldplay had mounted the stage and were playing the title song of their new album.

Throughout the entirety of their performance, the members of Coldplay succeeded in completely transfixing their audience. This was due in large part to Chris Martin’s attentiveness to all parts of the stadium and his unyielding charismatic nature. Martin sprinted, played piano, conversed with the audience and even traveled to an entirely different stage in order to ensure that the audience never felt left out or disengaged. Martin clearly had the techniques of managing an inordinate number of fans down to a science.

What stunned me most about Coldplay’s performance was how they were able to instantaneously harness that raw energy of kinetic noise and exhilaration which they cultivated at the beginning of the concert and sustained it for three and a half hours. This was a task that felt impossible to me. However, with songs as profound as “Yellow,” “Clocks,” “Paradise,” “Fix You,” “Viva la Vida” and “Adventure of a Lifetime” that shook me to the core while the thrilling pulse of thousands upon thousands of lights engulfed the audience, one could simply not help but become elated at the realization that this audibly and visually beautiful experience existed in reality. This realization led me to the life lesson that anything done on that masterful of a level is a truly magnificent thing to behold.