When I was in college, my best friend was a huge Coldplay fan. I had liked their music, but equally became a big fan of theirs after being friends with him. This was right around the time they released their album Mylo Xyloto, which obviously is still be their greatest full album. I remember we would listen to “Paradise” on repeat for days.
About a year after that, when Coldplay went on tour, my friend found tickets to go see them in Washington. He was dating a girl from there so he had a reason to go and a place to stay. He invited me, and I wanted to go so bad but I was a college kid with hardly any money and I remember thinking it would cost me a couple hundred dollars for the entire trip. I definitely had enough money to make the trip but it felt extreme to spend that much money for a concert. So I declined. He went and had a freaking blast. He ended up bringing me their tour concert shirt as a gift when he returned. I still have that shirt and it is still one of the best gifts I’ve been given. I remember hearing him talk about it and in that moment I decided I had to go to a Coldplay concert. No matter what. This was even before I had my Live 100 list, but I didn’t need a list for this item because it was burned in my brain, “Go to a Coldplay concert. No matter what”.
I thought, no problem there will be tons of chances to go to another concert. Maybe next time they release an album will be my chance. So a couple of years later the “head full of dreams” album was released. Perfect! I’ll get on their email list and when the tour dates come, I’ll get tickets. Finally I got the email, but they decided not to tour in the US. What the?? I also kinda felt like this might be their last album. When interviewed they had said that they put everything they had into it and it felt like a good stopping point. So I was a little devastated, how could they not tour in the US?? Are they really done??
Well after a few years, they did announce a new album, “Everyday Life”. It was not my favorite album but that didn’t matter, it was my ticket to going to their concert soon. I kept an eye on my email and finally got the tour announcement email… They weren’t going to tour. Something about airplane emissions and junk. I still remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I read the email. I was in my basement on the exercise bike. This time I was totally devastated. This felt like the last time they would release an album for sure, and they would never go on tour again. Truthfully I’m not sure why I thought this, I mean U2 and Van Halen and all these old bands still go on tour, so I’m not sure why I thought Coldplay would just ride off into the sunset and never play in front of a crowd again. If hundreds of thousands of people paid me millions of dollars to occasionally do my day job in a stadium, you better believe I would continue doing my job into my 80s. Maybe even 90s. But that’s beside the point, I had made up my mind that my chance was lost and I would just have to live without the experience.
That is until 2021.
Oh sweet relief from the hypnosis of COVID, Coldplay announced another album. Music of the Spheres. And this time, thanks to carbon offsets, they had the whole airplane emissions thing figured out.. they were going on tour! Finally my time had come, almost 9 years after I branded my brain with this goal.
I found out they were going to be at the Cotton bowl in Dallas, Texas, which was about 7 hours from where I lived and happens to be where my in-laws live. It also happened to be their first stop in the US on this particular tour. I couldn’t wait. I signed up for every presale thing I could find, put 12 reminders on my phone and blocked my work calendar for the ticket sale day. When the day arrived, I was so nervous about missing out on getting tickets. I remember trying to look like I was busy at work but was checking my phone every 5 seconds during those 30 minutes of waiting. Luckily, I got in and bought 2 tickets for my wife and I right in front of the stage in the lower bowl. They were surprisingly inexpensive and I have since come to find out, I must have had good timing because those seats were really popular.
May rolled around and it was time for the concert. We drove to Texas and dropped ours kids off at their grandparents and then went to downtown Dallas to our hotel which was only 2 miles from the stadium. I wanted to make sure we didn’t miss anything so we left at 6 to get to the concert that started at 7. I thought an hour was plenty of time to drive 2 miles, park, shop around at the stadium and then sit down. But turns out the Cotton bowl has the worst access possible and terrible traffic. We waited in traffic for over 2 hours (shoulda walked!!) and the whole time I thought I was missing the concert. I felt like my one opportunity to see Coldplay was done. Thankfully we finally got into the parking lot and into the stadium and realized that the opening acts were still playing.
We had tickets in the lower bowl so we made our way to section D. Outside the entrance there was a sign that said anybody entering section d needs to have a wristband as well as their ticket. So we got in line to get one of the wristbands but when we got up there they said “oh no these aren’t for your tickets”. I was like, well how else am I supposed to get into section D if your sign says I need this wrist band?? I popped over to one of the other tents and this time they gave us the wristbands. More on that later.
Oh heck if you haven’t been to the Cotton bowl it is amazing. Looking at the whole concert setup was incredible! The opening act was still going so we settled into our seats and waited for that act to finish. Once it was all done it was pretty much dark outside and the stadium was playing this epic music that just kept building and building for like an hour. We all kept wondering when they were going to come out on stage and it just felt like the stadium was going to explode once they came out on stage. And right at the climax of all this building they stopped the music and these two moms came out on stage and made some sort of introduction that was just ultra not epic and then said “without further ado let us introduce Coldplay!!!” haha like what the?? And then Coldplay walked out from the side of the stage and walked up onto the stage.
From the moment the concert started it was the best party/concert I have ever, or will ever go to. Before entering the stadium, every ticket holder got a white wristband/watch looking thing that lit up while Coldplay played. Somehow they synced to each other and so the whole stadium was like these blinking lights of color and sometimes shapes and waves of color, it was the most awesome experience ever.
Part way through the concert we realized that no one else around us had that section D wristband we had gotten earlier. I kept looking around to see why and I saw people on the stadium floor standing area with those types of bands. So we had also gotten floor access bands. So I told my wife let’s go down to the floor level and just see what’s up. We went down, flashed our wristbands to the security person and walked onto the field. Right as we are going down Coldplay went off stage. So we didn’t try and get any closer to the stage, we just hung out in an open area to avoid being crunched by people. About 5 minutes later, the band popped out on a separate smaller stage right next to us for their encore! We could hear Chris Martin actually singing, not just the projection in the stadium. I thought my face was going to melt. This was the highlight of the concert for me to be that close to my favorite band.
I told myself I wouldn’t take too many videos or pictures because I wanted to just remember the concert and the feeling of seeing 70,000 people all light up and sing together. My wife took a handful of videos and things and when I watch them it just doesn’t do the concert any justice for how awesome it was.
This concert was definitely worth the wait and I’m glad I put it on my list and made the effort to go down to Texas just to see them perform. And since then I’ve flown to San Diego and driven to Tennessee just to see them perform two more times, it’s that good of a concert!
