Coldplay put on a very entertaining, but slightly brief, show on Friday night at the Wachovia Center here in Philadelphia. We arrived in time for Philly’s own Santogold, whose outstanding album sounded fun in a live setting, but would have played much better at the TLA or Troc instead of the arena-sized acoustics. But thus is the way of the opening act.

Coldplay have mastered the concept of playing arenas, as the band has a mini side stage, catwalks for Chris Martin to prance around, magical spheres featuring state-of-the-art projection technology and even popped up in the middle of the crowd at one of the concourse entrances for a two-song acoustic set. The band was in fine form, their set was a mix of crowd pleasers and the best of the new record, as expected. For a band that plays arenas and charges as much as they do for tickets, they should be able to play more than an hour and a half set at this point in their career though. The final encore was a nice, loose surprise though. And it must be said that with his silly jibes at Genesis and Fox News, Chris Martin is still one of the funniest frontmen around

Setlist:

Life In Technicolor
Violet Hill
Clocks
In My Place
Viva La Vida
Yes
42
Fix You
Strawberry Swing
Chinese Sleep Chant (side stage)
God Put A Smile Upon Your Face (side stage/techno version)
Speed Of Sound
Yellow
Lost!
The Scientist (Acoustic)
Death Will Never Conquer (Acoustic)
Politik
Lovers In Japan
Death And All His Friends
Green Eyes
The Dubliners (new song)

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