Customer Reviews

Coldplay - Live 2003 (DVD & CD)

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you saw Coldplay on Pay Per View, you gotta get this one. Coldplay is awesome, especially live. Live performances taken from the last 2 years on the road. DVD also includes unrealeased songs MOSES and ONE I LOVE, Plus an Audio CD.

tracklisting:
Politik
God Put A Smile Upon My Face
A Rush of Blood To The Head
Daylight
Trouble
One I Love
Don't Panic
Shiver
See You Soon
Everything's Not Lost
Moses
Yellow
The Scientist
Clocks
In My Place
Amsterdam
Life Is For Living
AUDIO CD:
Politik
God Put A Smile Upon My Face
A Rush Of Blood To The Head
One I Love
See You Soon
Shiver
Everything's Not Lost
Moses
Yellow
Clocks
In My Place
Amsterdam

The first thing you should know about Live 2003 is that it is not a conventional concert film. You don't have many wide shots or long shots where you can figure out exactly what a guitarist or drummer is doing. If you like how most concerts are filmed, this is probably not the disc for you.
Live 2003 is edited more like a feature-length music video. So many shots are just fleeting glimpses of hands, of instruments, of heads bobbing. Lights cut through the frame at odd angles and are broken up by heads, hands, and instruments. Several shots have effects put on them (frame shake, etc.) -- or at least look like it.
But if you take it more as an artistic complement to the music, it's great. If all you want is a "you are there" experience, you will not like this. But for me, the unconventionality of the approach really worked. It was entertaining and more visually interesting than the usual shots of four guys on stage with the occasional sweeping shot thrown in for variety.
The sound is OK -- not awful, not the best I've heard either. The performance is pretty solid. But the visuals really make this disc interesting.
Also fun is the road diary showing footage from all over, with a decent stretch in LA showing the Hollywood Bowl concert and the bassist poring through 45s at Amoeba.
The visual approach won't work for everyone, but I really like it. And if you like Coldplay's previous albums, you'll like this one -- there's no real surprises in terms of sound or performance.

This DVD is next best to having attended the 2003 concert in person. The concert shown was played in Sydney, Australia, including 2 sets of encores (the playlist was identical to what I saw during a concert in North America on the same tour). I felt like I was experiencing the concert all over again.

During the concert, there are lots of close ups, meaning you'll even see the beads of sweat on the bandmembers' faces. There are several seemingly 'private moments' caught on tape, when the members of the band look particularly thoughtful or serene during songs. The audio is 100% authentic to the point that a few minor musical/sound glitches remain. (You want to feel like you were really at the concert, right?!)

Visually, I found the film really well done, artistic even. Some parts of the concert are shown in black & white, others in color. There are some scenes that are shown in a kind of hybrid, with most of the shot appearing in black and white and highlights brought out in colour. It's quite stunning to the eye.

Another feature of the DVD that I really enjoyed was the tour diary which is a behind the scenes look at the band's travels. This gave me a chance to see a side of Coldplay I didn't know at all. The bandmembers seem to still be really close friends in spite of their rapid rise to fame. Some of the candid moments caught in the tour diary include a super-fast impromptu version of Trouble (it's funny!), the guys doing radio interviews, rescuing a kitten from the ceiling of their backstage dressing room (!) and much more. I had a smile plastered on my face for the entire tour diary. I enjoyed it at least as much as the concert portion of the DVD itself.

All together, the DVD (which includes a live concert CD) is a wise investment for any Coldplay fan. You'll be enjoying this one for years to come.

I'll be the first to admit, I'm nothing more than a casual fan of Coldplay. But I am in the process of building a collection of Concert DVD's, so when this came out I figured, "Why Not ?"

Let me tell you, this package ROCKS ! From the first track of the DVD I was hooked. Chris Martin's presence onstage is impressive to behold, and the passion with which he & his bandmates rip thru their material is stunning. The crowd is amazing as well, and the feeling of excitement is heightened by the quick cuts between cameras. As I said, this is my first exposure to Coldplay outside of what's on the Radio, so the only material I really knew was "Politik","The Scientist", and "Clocks." All were represented well, especially the latter.

Add to this the fact that you get nearly the entire concert on a companion Audio CD, all for around $15 and you have a set that you cannot beat for the price. I'm thoroughly impressed & look forward to Coldplay's future releases. So if you're even the slightest bit curious about this band, pick up this DVD ASAP.

Great energy. Probably a great live concert. However, the production quality both audio and video make this DVD a watch once and sell candidate for me.

I own over 30+ concert DVD's by a large variety of artists and styles. In addition I have spent a great deal of time and money tweaking a pretty sweet home theater setup. In addition I've been a musician for 20+ years. I love music...get it?

Unfortunately the audio (even the DTS track) is rather MID-HEAVY with tons of vocal and guitar in an exaggerated mid-band frequency. When you really crank it up (90+ dB) it become really annoying sounding. The bass guitar starts to come through, but the drums can barely be heard even at these levels. Just a poor mix. Someone with the right skills could take the same source and make it sound awesome...like the mix on Eric Clapton's "One More Car, One More Rider" for example. Now that's a nice sounding concert DVD! One of the best!

The video (other than being kinda washed out) is just a bit over-produced for my tastes. Too many quick paced camera angle changes. Not a vivid concert, but that was probably just how the live show was...muted and monochromatic.

Unfortunately, the energy and performance are really great. Only the average/poor production can be blamed for this "listen once and sell" product. I guess the rabid fans may keep it, but not someone who is an audiophile and sincerely appreciates music when it is well performed and recorded.

Oh, well. Maybe next time.

I didn't know any of Coldplay's music until I watched this DVD, which a friend recommended. I am very grateful to him for making me aware of this band that I thought was just another bunch of young guys churning out 21st century formulaic pop. How wrong I was!!!
You know, I appreciate people's criticisms of this DVD--it does jump around in the editing a lot, but in my opinion it underscores the pace of the music throughout the performance. And what a performance--what a frontman. Such charisma. Contrary to what many people have commented about Coldplay lacking talent--they may not be vertuosic on thier instruments, but they play within themselves. Other bands that do this: U2 and Pink Floyd. Enough said.
Certain songs made me well up--Trouble is achingly beautiful, and Moses is one of the best songs on the DVD. It's such a wonderful song, with great chord progressions and very Edge-like lead guitar work. Many of the songs are indeed formulaic brit-pop (I think of other "Manchester-sound" bands like Oasis and The Verve) but they are crafted so brilliantly as to make you forget that they have the verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus-end structure. They write such clever songs that stay with you long after you've heard them. They get under your skin and you're happy they bounce around your head instead of some other crap that makes you crazy. 5 stars easily.

Coldplay is one of the best bands out on the scene today, however the director of this concert should never be allowed to film another live performance again.

The video editting of the concert is really bad. The director does not allow one camera to hold a shot for more than 4 seconds; it quickly blasts from camera-shot to camera-shot. You can't even focus on a particular member of the band for more than 4 seconds because of the quick camera changes, odd zoom and camera angles, and the constant "arty" out-of-focus shots. I want to be able to peacefully watch Chris Martin play the piano, but I barely can because of the weird camera angles and constant switch of cameras.

Coldplay is a great band, but I would have loved to have a concert that was filmed as a basic/ordinary production and not having the director trying to be all "arty" and do neat camera tricks, it's annoying.

In any case, the band is great, they played great.

Coldplay's albums were both great, but honestly, their songs really come to life live. The rock songs rock harder, and the ballads are more emotional live. You can see the track list above, it has all of their hits, including 'See You Soon' which was a b-side, but is included on both the CD and DVD, and is a really good song. The quality of the audio is great on the cd and dvd, and the video gives you a good feeling that you are actually at the concert. I didn't get the chance to see Coldplay live, but after seeing this DVD, I definately will the next time they are on tour. I highly recommend this DVD/CD!

The shots are awesome. The music is blood-pumping fancy, blasting you into eternal bliss. The band is energetic and on top of their game. The crowd is crazy. The. editing. goes. like. this. The DVD is shot well, but the edits are just TOO MUCH! I nearly had a headache trying to watch this! Just when you barely get a look of a fantastic scene, the image is cut into another jostling cut, and so on and so forth! Definitely rent this DVD before you buy it... my fiancee and I both had a problem with the horrendous editing job. Only on a couple songs are you allowed to take in a breather and SEE the band perform a full act (like in "Politik" you can't even see Chris Martin finish a jump in the air - you see him jump up, but it cuts before he falls down!) It's like watching a fast MTV video for two hours. You know how THAT can be! But besides this, the music is awesome, and that is what really counts if you are interested in the band.

The behind the scenes documentary is very cool, with full interviews with the band, like you're riding along for the tour (which is very cool if you didn't get a chance to go to one of their concerts), and you see some of the stages being put together and what the different crowds were like. The packed crowds are breathtaking!

All in all, a good DVD. Skimpy on extras, horrible editing, but quality music and surround sound. A bonus CD that comes with the DVD is pretty cool, but offers nothing new if you have the DVD as background music. All in all, the music saves this disk.

This band is one of enormous potential but just as worthy of winces as of emotional outpouring. Chris Martin is as capable of transcendent moments as he is of head-scratching ponderousness. But when these guys hit the mark, they are pretty much untouchable. If See you Soon doesn't convince you of Martins raw songwriting talent than I don't know what to tell you, it goes for a feeling of emptiness and actually conveys it, its a remarkably coherent beautiful song, and probably the best song on here, one of the first songs they released, don't know what that says. The rest is a mixed bag to me, Shiver was always a song that you remember being better than it is, Yellow is a song that hasn't aged well to me, but Clocks, Politik, and God Put a Smile Upon your Face all benefit from muscular arrangements live, and really dare I say rock out. I never got the Radiohead comparisons myself, Radiohead were never this literal, this bare, instead opting for the cryptic and abstract save a few songs like TLW and Creep, not a criticism by any means, but just an observation. In all, this is a solid release, because these songs do grow on you, and the musical and songwriting skill on display when it works is really something to behold in mainstream music today...