Coldplay Concert, Hong Kong

The name may be Coldplay, but the playing was anything but cold Damn that was a friggin' corny sentence, but I'm using it anyway. Anyway, I was at the Asia Expo Arena at 7pm, an hour before the starting time. Met a couple of my NUS orientation camp friends there, and sat down for a drink. Hmmmm... Totally forgot to take a picture with them. Darn...

Anyway, after the drink, we took out our tickets and I realised that, my ticket was missing! D'oh! Worst nightmare situation. OK, wasn't much of a nightmare, I ended going to the box office, told them about my missing tickets and they replaced my ticket after verifying my handphone number. Minor hiccup, but I'm not missing my Coldplay concert.

I bought the most expensive tickets, while Shichao and Sharon bought the slightly cheaper ones, so I was alone for the concert. Being the kiasu Singaporean, we headed into the concert hall before 8pm even though we know that concerts never start on time. As expected, the hall was still pretty empty. One interesting to note, there is a very high percentage of ang mohs at the concert. Kinda figures, Coldplay doesn't sing in Cantonese, so I guess not as many locals will be interested. Besides, S.H.E. are having a concert on the same day at a different venue. S.H. who? Ya, exactly, I've never heard of them either.

Before the concert began, I made some small talk with the ang moh beside me. He also came to the concert alone, works for the regional office, travels to China and Taiwan for business, has a relatively large apartment at Discovery Bay facing the mountains, comes from a town between London and Oxford, feels that the current Hong Kong weather is hotter than the Singapore weather. And in reply I told him I'm also at the concert alone, colleagues more into the chinese music scene, got sent to HK by Singapore company to build baggage handling system, travelled to Panama recently for work, shares a pathetically small apartment with 3 colleagues at Tung Chung, comes from Singapore, feels that London's weather is bad most of the time (I was being polite).

Thats quite an amount of talk we had there, and apparently he was told by somebody that Coldplay won't be on till 9pm. And I told him that I have half the mind to charge to the stage the moment the lights went off. He probably thought I was kidding. I was not.

Anyway, the moment the lights went out, sure enough, everyone rushed towards the stage. And like a man possessed, I stepped over the chairs in front of me, ran towards the barrier that separated me from the first block of seats and the stage (I was on the second block), and leapt over the barrier. I was home free! Or so I thought. I felt a hand grab me by the back of my shoulder and shoving me through a gap in the barrier and wham, I'm back in the second block. Damn. So near yet so far, literally.

And so Coldplay began their set, here's some of the pictures I took. Well at least I was close enough to the stage, better off than some of the people at the back of the concert hall. To quote Chris Martin,"How's the people doing back there? This must be the first time I played a concert in 2 different time zones."

Countdown clock at the beginning of 'Square One' song.

Yellow Balloons during the first hit single, erm, 'Yellow'.

Chris Martin being amused with himself on the giant screen.

Obawe Owasume, the goon that shoved me back into block 2 and away from the stage.

Fireworks on the stage. Digital Fireworks, not the real thing.

Explosion of white lights.

Sea of People. Note the ang moh count.

Kids enjoying the day out with their dads, Obawe Owasume looking goon-like for the crowd.

Band of Four

The End.

Certainly had a hell of a good time at the concert. After 5 years, alot have changed, there are more glitzy lights and even a digital screen, but the band is still pretty much the same. But I must say, I prefer their first 2 albums more than the 3rd one. Think Coldplay is one of the few things that can make me go amok. Haha... I feel like a freaking 16 year old girl who just saw NoWestlife now.

P.S. There are more photos on my flikr album if you're interested.