Life’s checklist:

Go see Coldplay in concert: check.

It was just as great as I had thought it would be. Meghan Mc (she blogged about it too, and she has the pictures!) and I headed out at 4 to be at Nissan by 7 or 8 to pick up our tickets and were pleasantly surprised to see that the usually glutted 66 was relatively clear. We even had time to grab some Qdoba and Starbucks. (side note: so I grabbed somebody else’s drink in Starbucks and promptly took a sip before anybody could stop me. So like that wasn’t embarrassing enough, when I asked the barrista to make another drink for the girl whose drink I had mistakenly claimed she gave me a look that could have frozen hell. I got outta there pretty quick- luckily this did not detract from the overall awesome-ness of the rest of the night).

Meghan and I went to the box-office to pick up our FREE tickets that she could get us because of her internship last summer with Live Nation. We didn’t know our seats beforehand and we were expecting lawn seats. We got our tickets and found out we were in section 101- just 11 rows back!!!! Incredible. We weren’t too far off from the center so we had a clear view of the stage, plus we were next to the huge screen on one side. Perfect.

We waited in line for about 45 minutes, got in and went to find our seats, and just sat in them in complete awe for a bit. We got over it enough to go up to the lawn and see our friends (back there- I’m not gloating or anything :) There was a small stage set up in the lawn and we had heard that the band would be up there at one point to play a couple of songs-which they did which was great. We had one of our quotes of the night from Ellen: when we told Ellen we thought they might “sneak” up there she misheard it and said, completely seriously, “Oh my gosh, they’re going to sing their way up?” and I think we all got the same mental picture of Chris Martin doing a jig up the stairs and to the stage which was hilarious to all of us in a you-had-to-be-there way.

After saying hey to everyone Meghan and I decided we needed one of those obscenely overpriced souvenir margheritas. So we made our way up to the station where they told us that they would cost us $16 each. Meghan and I looked at each other, promptly reminded ourselves that we were getting to see Coldplay for FREE, and bought 2.  We lamented with some people who bought beers (which cost $13 each, come on Nissan) about feeling like we had accidentally stepped into Disneyworld instead of a show. Anywayyyyyy- we drank them without guilt and they were fruity and delicious and a good conversation starter and we made friends. Very good.

Fast forward about a half an hour- anticipation starts to build, pre-concert music starts to play, all of a sudden the lights shut out- and Meghan and I start screaming like little girls at an N’Sync concert. I just couldn’t help myself. It was a wet-yourself worthy moment. Then the lights flashed back on and there they were- in the flesh, playing Life in Technicolor. Words cannot even describe. So I won’t even try.

Some highlights included Death and All His Friends and Fix You (2 of my faves- oh gosh, the instrumental part of Fix You gets me every time so it was incredible to see live. Another side-note: I was hoping to see a proposal during Death and All His Friends because that would be SO perfect but I was disappointed. Someone has GOT to take that idea- you don’t even have to tell her it wasn’t yours and that you got it off a blog). Chris Martin was so fun to watch b/c he jumps around like a maniac, but my favorite songs were when he’d get up and play piano- that boy can PLAY. Yellow was another awesome one for me, mostly because I remember hearing in the 9th grade about how when they play that song live they release all of these yellow balloons up into the ceiling. I’d always thought that sounded like the coolest thing ever- thus making Coldplay a concert I would have to see before I die. So they get to Yellow and the crew drops these huge yellow balloons from above and people knock them around like beach balls at graduation. To be honest I barely heard the song because I was waiting for my chance to hit one of these yellow balloons. I heard myself say multiple times, “I’ve been waiting almost 10 years for that balloon, I’m going to hit one!” So about 4 times a balloon would come right to me and I’d think “this is it. I’m gonna hit it!” I felt like that kid at a baseball game who just desperately wants to catch the fly ball- and I kept getting SO close. So every time it’d come near me, I would jump up to get it- but so would all of the men standing around me who were all at least 5′8”. I think Meghan and I started getting a little tense (read “neurotic”) about it because at one point this guy behind us hit one out of our reach for like the 3rd time and Meghan turned around and yelled “Are you KIDDING me?!” to which he got a dumb, wide eyed wide mouthed guilty look. Good. Finally, balloon number 5 started coming right toward us, and it was a WHOPPER. Again I thought, this is IT! So it floated down, closer, closer, closer- I stood up on my toes and stretched up my fingers-and at the last possible second the guy next to me reaches up and POPS it right over Meghan and I- BUT it was filled with yellow confetti! So we’re standing underneath this awesome shower of yellow confetti paper for a few second, smiling at each other, “Yellow” playing live in the background, and life was good.

I forget which song it was but at one point they popped out tons of butterfly confetti all over everyone- Meghan and I managed to get a perfect picture of us in it with the stage in the back (below). Lovers in Japan was also a great one b/c they had all this sweet video footage playing behind the stage- very multi-sensory aesthetic awesome. We even had a cell-phone wave- that’s always fun.  The band did make its way up to a couple of stages in the audience- so if anyone is reading this who has lawn seats at a future show, be sure to sit near those random little black box stages. Maybe you’ll get lucky and Chris Martin will sweat on you or something.

In every way possible, great show. I can’t beleive it’s taken me this long to get myself to see them, but this one was situationally perfect.

PS- if anyone hasn’t yet, download their free CD off of their website. Do it do it do it!

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