Monday, August 13, 2012

I wanna be a groupie....

Specifically a Coldplay groupie!!!!!  So it's been almost a week, and I say something about last weeks concert almost daily to someone.  I'm still slightly abuzz about my experience at that amazing Coldplay concert at the United Center in Chicago last Tuesday. 

I MEAN SERIOUSLY DOES IT GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS?
So lets back up a bit to maybe like 5 years ago, maybe even 6 years ago.  My friend Connie and I would debate on who loved Chris Martin more.  Clearly it was me.  We both agreed, he wasn't all that attractive, it was his amazing talent that made him so damn SEXY.....however now that we've been 6 inches from each other, he is a nice looking fellow, and way better looking in person.  But I digress, I'll get to that in a minute.  Connie and I discussed going to a Coldplay concert 6 years ago, but when we started investigating there was a tour going on, but when that was over they weren't going to tour anymore......WHAAAAAT?  We had missed our chance.  So we gave up......then last year Connie and I went to Nashville, TN to see U2.  It's clear we had now hit the big time, we were rich enough we didn't have to wait for our favorite bands to come to us, we could travel to them.  That's when we realized....Hey Coldplay is touring again, we must go to them.  So we made plans to see them in Chicago. 
We threw down a big wad of cash on some stub hub tickets and booked a hotel.  It's nearly impossible these days to get decent tickets if you don't get them the day they go on sale....crazy ticket scalpers.  So Connie was in charge of tickets, she got 5 rows from the floor on the right side of the stage....sounded impressive.  Then she got them in the mail and they were for the Wednesday, not Tuesday.  We are grown ass women with tight schedules, she has 3 girls who play soccer, girl scouts, I have boys scouts....our schedules are very tight.  So she contacted Stub Hub, and they agreed to replace the tickets with Tuesday tickets, the seats would be as good if not better.  So when we got them, they were 9 rows up from the floor, and said obstructed view??  How are these better?  Plus we were kind of nervous as these were some random person's tickets who sold them to Stub Hub, and they were e-tickets...what if they were printed more than once.  So we were all kinds of nervous before we got to the United Center.  Once our tickets were scanned we were able to relax.  When we arrived at the United Center we were handed a wristband....no idea what that was....I put mine on after all it was pink, Connie was skeptical, so she put hers in her pocket.  It soon became clear what this was.  After I texted someone who had already been to the concert the week before.  So soon our super cool bracelets turned into awesome led lights that blinked in sync with the music.....WHAAAT?  How flipping sweet is that?  Coldplay you are genius!!  So already I was super excited about what was about to go down. 
                                                                                    
So we suffered through really bad opening acts.  And waited anxiously for Coldplay to take the stage.  Just before they turned the lights off and our magical bracelets lit up, I glance to my left.  I had noticed the section of seats shrouded in black drapery.  I initially thought this as some sort of sound board or something but no one had shown to run said sound board.  Then we noticed a security dude on one side, and a few mic stands tucked under this shrouded flat surface.....hummmmm....puzzling....thank you technology, I texted my friend Shane again with a photo of what was next to me.....


I think he was as excited for me as I was for myself.  They would be playing 4 songs from that stage....as an encore....I'm sorry what did you just say????  Did I read that correctly?  I immediately jumped up, and ran to the bathroom, because clearly I needed to empty my bladder because otherwise I was certain, the moment Mr. Chris Martin took that tiny little stage I would have wet myself for sure.  We could barely contain ourselves during the first part of the concert.  Thank God for instagram, and pictures and videos.....Before we knew what was going to happen Connie had offered to switch seats with me as she was closer to the main stage and we had to look to the right, and she's taller than me, so she was being thoughtful as she can see over me.  Then when we found out what was about to go down RIGHT NEXT TO ME, she asked...."wanna switch seats now???"  Ha Ha....NO!  Now before they took the itty bitty stage I had plans to be polite and thoughtful and after they did 2 songs I was going to switch so she could be close too...all of that did not happen because as soon as they were that close we lost leave of what was right and wrong, and normal and polite.   We couldn't even take decent pictures we were so starstruck.   

We weren't sure how anyone could ever top U2, the 360 tour was unbelievable.  Their budget was huge, and they put on an amazingly visual performance.  Coldplay, came very close to topping that.  They were able to make a very large venue, become very intimate.  The fact they were feet than inches away was a huge surprise, and a sweet hook up. 

It is again going to be super hard to top this one.  We seem to pick super awesome concert venues.  It's clear we have excellent taste in music.  And men since we both love Bono, Chris Martin and most of all our lovingly supportive husband that put up with our crazy roadtrips.  Wait till we decide to spend a whole summer traveling around following Coldplay with random stops at Rubber Stamp conventions.  OMG.....how awesome would that be? 
Theres a video as an example of how cool our bracelets were.  I could upload a bunch of photo's but I'll psot a few more videos.  At the start of the concert during "Hurts Like Heaven" they started shooting off confetti cannon's, and the confetti rained down all over everyone. 
The pictures of this are amazing.  Many of which I stole from strangers on Instagram.  I'll post just one, but thank you strangers for all your great pictures.  Feel free to steal mine. 
I seriously haven't stopped listening to Coldplay since last week.  I'd talk about it nonstop if people would let me, but I was quickly losing friends.  Connie needs to live nextdoor so we can just chill over coffee.....no wait wine, Oliver Soft Red, each night and listen to coldplay. 
Thanks everyone for putting up with my super Geeked self over the past week.  Now that the story is blogged sufficently I'll shut up already.....maybe. 
Sigh......
I love COLDPLAY!!!!!



1 comment:

Unknown said...

You perfectly described out experience.

Brilliant idea of touring with Coldplay AND doing the rubber stamp convention circuit. Genius, I say. Genius.