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Movie Review: A graffiti-strewn stage, an important audience in 'Coldplay Live 2012'


Coldplay's recently concluded Mylo Xyloto Tour was the kind of show that almost demanded documentation, as if the sheer magic of it was too much to be contained only in memory. There just had to be something to remember the show by. Which makes "Coldplay Live 2012", the tour's concert film, a necessity for Filipino fans who shed  bitter tears upon learning that the Philippines wasn't a stop on their tour. The CD and DVD of the film was launched last November 30.

A world grows from graffiti-strewn album art in the tour's concert film.
More than simply documenting the concert itself (in three different venues: the Stade de France in Paris, the Bell Center in Montreal, and the Glastonbury Festival), the film includes a lot of behind-the-scenes footage that map the trajectory of an idea and show the organic process behind the architecture of the Mylo Xyloto tour. It was as if a world had grown from the graffiti-strewn album art. The stage was resplendent in light and shadow, all silhouettes and neon graffiti and colorful confetti explosions and fireworks, at one wonderful point, the blinking of countless lights from the audience's LED wristbands--the band's effort to bring the album art to life in a more dynamic way. All of it together was a sight so intense it could have perhaps been able to induce a small seizure or hallucination. As in any concert film, there is the inclusion of testimonials that are in the vein of "it's a long way to the top if you wanna rock and roll" which could easily have become cheesy if not for the band's effortless cool. It was good that these parts were not drawn out or highlighted more than they should have been, serving well the purpose of segue from one performance or venue to the next. The performances themselves were as alive and as thrilling as you would expect any performance from Coldplay to be. On film, the band's energy is magnified by the soaring camera pans and slow-motion close-ups., The playlist was a great mix of their most unforgettable hits like "Yellow", "Fix You", and "Clocks", and their new, potentially unforgettable songs like "Hurts like Heaven", "Charlie Brown", and "Princess of China".  The latter featured Rihanna and turned out to be one of the most dramatic, and perhaps the sexiest performance on the tour and in the film. The film reaches a kind of climax when it shows a panorama of the audience in all its illuminated glory, the same view that the band sees with every performance. As it turns out, the view of Coldplay's stage is great, but the view from the stage is even better.,Even on film, the sight is breathtaking, but more than the esthetic value, it underlines a truth that is all too easy to forget--that in concerts such as this, the crowd is every bit as crucial as the band. As vocalist Chris Martin himself said, "[the Mylo Xyloto tour] has felt very uplifting right from the start; partly because we are proud of the music, the LED wristbands, the pyrotechnics, the lasers and all of that stuff, but mainly because of the amazing audiences that we've been playing for." "They're loud, diverse, full of soul, and make the songs sound much better than we can on our own. We wanted to try to bottle the incredible feeling that they give us, and hence our concert film," he added. True enough, the audience turned out to be a significant thread in the film. And while easy to miss especially when wedged in between footage of Chris Martin jumping across the kaleidoscopic stage, the ,intimate shots of the fans closing their eyes in the middle of the concert, or perfectly mouthing the words to one of the songs anchor the film in tenderness., That said, the fans who would've been part of the devoted audience had the band made a stop here might end up feeling more bitter after this show. Or else they can at least pretend that the backstage footage and soaring views more than make up for the real deal. — DVM, GMA News
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