After a couple of weeks escaping the damper side of outdoor touring, it was kinda inevitable we’d catch some rain sooner or later.
Gothenburg provides just that. It’s not constant – indeed the weather seems to swing from glorious sunshine to absolutely torrential downpours at regular intervals.
Come show-day afternoon it’s like a scene from a disaster-at-sea movie. Roadies scurry about yelling trying to cover equipment and doubtless questioning the wisdom of their career choice.
New openers Mew get not quite a baptism of fire on their first show – perhaps more of a welcome by monsoon.
In amongst all of this, though, it’s really the audience who are getting it the worst. They’ve been lining up all day in this, then standing on the field with no cover. It’s for precisely this reason that band decided on their ‘no roof’ policy, claiming that if the crowd were getting wet, then so should they.
From the first note of the intro, the crowd here is completely bananas. Perhaps it’s the excitement that after all that drenching, they’re finally getting what they came for. Perhaps they’re just happy it’s stopped raining? Or maybe the crowds here are just superb?
As the band burst into life, it’s clear they’re on a mission to reward everyone for sticking around through the downpours. The sky seems strangely to be co-operating and slowly things start to not just look up, but look better than they have all day.
A lot of Coldplay’s records follow an arc of sticking out hard times followed by a release of pure joy. For the show day to follow this arc is very Coldplay indeed.
Between the band and the audience, they kick this show into high gear and it just keeps accelerating.
There’s an improvised song about the rain on the C-Stage and there’s an unforgettable elephant costume cameo towards the end of A Sky Full Of Stars.
Truly an outstanding show.
R42
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