It was not water but confetti that fell from the sky this Wednesday at the Estadi OlÃmpic de Montjuïc, thousands of pieces of paper accompanied by fireworks and strobe lights that bathed the 55,000 attendees in color at the first of the four sound and light shows with which Coldplay has taken the world by storm on his Music of the spheres tour. A stellar journey started with the music of E.T. the extra-terrestrial (How many of the attendees saw the film as children?) and which certifies Coldplay’s evolution towards a pop sound with which to reach the widest possible public, the one necessary to fill stadiums four by four as it has done in Barcelona and in so many other cities.
Gone are the days when the British quartet collaborated with Brian Eno following in the footsteps of U2, the band has placed itself in the hands of Max Martin, producer of artists such as Britney Spears and Justin Bieber, and has embraced new sounds with collaborations with Selena Gómez. or the Koreans BTS who bring them closer to a universal sound, in which the electronic is becoming increasingly important at the service of the catchy rhythms of the house, a formula that seems to work according to the intergenerational public that they gathered last night in Montjuïc. Renewed or die.
Proof of this is Higher Power, the song that gives its name to the new album and with which they jumped onto the spectacular stage of the OlÃmpic, built with all possible considerations for the environment. A wide, light-filled dais, connected to a catwalk that led to a small stage in the middle of the dance floor, was Chris Martin’s enormous playground on which he danced happily, wrapped in a sea of ​​arms illuminated by xyloband bracelets. . Behind him two huge circular screens accurately relayed every last detail, and he starred his fellow guitarists Jonny Buckland, bass Guy Barryman and drummer Will Champion, in a technological orgy of these big kids playing with everything they could. they have at hand, with the desire to please the whole world.
Martin greeted with the smile of the magician who hides hundreds of unbeatable tricks in his top hat, as he demonstrated with Adventure of a lifetime, making thousands of beating hearts sing to the rhythm of music and light before holeing up Paradise, chanted by the stadium , and the intimate The Scientist, performed on the piano by Martin and his sweet voice, to match some songs always written positively. “Bona nit and good night, I’m embarrassed to speak Spanish,” Chris said with a British accent in the middle of the song to thank “for the effort to be here with all the traffic problems.” “We are going to play the best show of our lives,” he continued to applause, to dedicate the performance to Tina Turner, who died last night at the age of 83.
After lowering the pulsation, they rose to the limit again with Viva la vida, performed with the quartet on the small central stage, a theme that is a sweet memory for all the culés, and irresistible for anyone as soon as the choirs that ask to be sung on stages like this one, just like Something just like this, which turned the Olympian upside down while strobe lights illuminated the stadium and confetti flew through the air, in a hypnotic show to the rhythm of the music. Moments of ecstasy that were restrained with melancholic songs like Fly on, played on the piano together with a girl from the audience whom he invited to come up to dedicate the song to her sick mother.
It was then Charlie Brown’s turn before traveling to the past with Yellow –with a strangely British sound among the most current songs– and traveling to the future of the spheres through Human heart or People of the pride, with eighties synthesized rhythms that, mixed with the band’s lighting apparatus, they gave the impression of being in Encounters of the Third Phase.
Clocks and Hymn for the weekend followed, as well as Aeterna, a new song that they are testing on tour, the latter two performed wearing alien masks that were removed to sing My universe, one of the hits from the new album with part of the lyrics in Korean. And the audience continued to dance to the orders of the Pied Piper, who orders them to jump in unison as soon as they turn off their mobile phones before performing A sky full of stars.
There were also encores, which started on a small stage at the back of the track where they performed Rolling on the river as a tribute to Tina Turner, and accompanied by none other than the Gipsy Kings, with whom they then performed Bamboleo and Volare between the joy of the public. One more joy before facing the end with Fix you, the ballad with a high finale that once again chanted the entire stadium before facing, this time, the finale with Biutyful and its psychedelias and reminding the Barcelona public that “when I you want, I’m at the top of the world.
