Under normal circumstances, Coldplay’s second night at OAKA last night shouldn’t have been as spectacular as it turned out to be. But few of the 65,000 spectators with cellphones in hand — and they hardly ever let go — had a strong enough signal to know that a specter was hovering over Europe at the same time: the specter of the Far Right. They probably would have found out about it after 11:30 p.m., when they were leaving the stadium and pouring into the surrounding streets, where they had left their cars (even on the other side of Kifisia).
It was two hours of “everyone likes” songs – let’s not laugh, this is Coldplay’s best recipe – the right mood for a huge party with photorhythms, artificial flames, flashing bracelets, fireworks and “juggling” tricks of the soloist. Chris Martin. Between “Viva la vida”, “Hymn for the weekend” and “Yellow”, the 47-year-old star spoke in broken Greek – “thank you for taking the trouble to come with so much warmth, so much movement” – as he always does, as his band star quality, trying to break the bridges between the field and the stands. It would not be an exaggeration to claim that he was able to do this using certain tricks, as he himself was inclined to do.
First, he brought on stage two fans, Christina and Sophia from Kos and Paros, holding a cardboard with the title “Up and Up”. It was this song that invited them to be silent with him. And then came the second surprise of the night, which was not on Saturday’s program: he invited the young artist ZAF (née Yiannis Zafiriou) to the stage, who played “Say” accompanied by Martin himself on the piano: You know how I would die for you / I’m looking for every way to find you / Wanting only me/ Two bodies united/ I don’t want to think/ I don’t want foreign hands”.
In almost every work of the group, the impressive images inside the stadium, heard in a total of 23 pieces, did not miss a moment in the eyes of the audience watching the perfectly organized performance, singing and dancing. Since Coldplay’s songs appeal to a wide age range, comfortable with pleasant sound and more or less like a “carpet” of the brain, the complement of the experience came from the colorful scenery, the flying balls. Photorhythms reaching above the heads of the audience referred to a disco.
However, it was the moment when Chris Martin asked the audience to stop taking pictures and videos, put their phones in their pockets and all “live” the next song: “A Sky Full of Stars”, which lifted the mood. .
Five tracks in, and as the band moved from the main stage to the smaller C stage, Louis Armstrong’s soulful voice came over the speakers and explained what “What a Wonderful World” meant to him.That everything goes with everything, that the world is more optimistic than we think, that “otherwise” the world is worth fighting for (If Martin knew the result of the election in France, he should adjust his optimism anyway) Another proof of Coldplay …). As a farewell trick, moreover, he asked the cameras to zoom in on some of the faces of the audience he was “talking to”. A highlight is little Ori, who at one point closes her eyes at Martin’s suggestion. “Would that the glitters within you would be thrown into the sky,” he said.
In the penultimate track ‘Biutyful’, the band’s frontman suddenly interrupted by shouting ‘stop’. Then he bent down to see what was going on under the tent. As he explained to the audience, he saw a young man climbing, but suddenly lost his balance and fell. He interrupted to ask if everything was okay and if he needed to be given food or fluids to help him recover. As Martin said, the unexpected changed the course of the final.”Give us ten seconds and we’ll think of something,” he told viewers. And they thought. The third surprise of the night also received great applause. At the world premiere, he performed live “All my love” from Coldplay’s upcoming September album. Premeditated or not, the premi
ere was recorded in Athens. Where 130,000 people relive the “stadium complex” experience. After the Rolling Stones and U2, Coldplay took over.