Coldplay & Grandaddy

Lead singer Chris Martin told a secret on Wednesday night. It's one that people across the world, young or old, male or female, have wondered since attending their first big show. "We're going to play one more song, and then we're going to walk down the stairs for a minute and when you make enough noise, we'll come back and play one or two more songs." He also let us in on the fact that a rock band is supposed to play their token ten songs including their hit single. He went on to demystify the idea of the encore, saying that when any band gets together for their first gig, or more importantly, a British band, they get a little book from Sir Paul McCartney that tells them about things like that.
The show was amazing. Starting off with opener Granddaddy, who prove that Modesto, CA can rock and will rock at any given opportunity. Standing at the front of the stage, with a Budweiser in hand, Jason Lytle played the keyboards and sang those gorgeous lo-fi songs, backed by bassist Kevin Garcia, drummer Aaron Burtch, guitarist Jim Fairchild and keyboardist Tim Dryden. The music, strangely English sounding, blends all that is good of electronica and rock 'n' roll. Their songs are layered, luxuriant and introspective. All the while you are just dumbfounded that a band like this is from the Central Valley. They should be headlining, but then we wouldn't have had as much time with Coldplay and that would be wrong.
The stage was set with a disco ball, a lit-up globe and the walls were plastered in a material making the audience feel like you were in a big, dark cave — just you and Coldplay.
They started the set out right, opening with "Shiver," and Martin drew the crowd in and serenaded to the best of his and the band's ability. The layered sound was almost too much to bear, as I thought of how I could never really enjoy the CD anymore after seeing such greatness live.
Not only was the album well represented, but three new songs were debuted, including the song "Animal," which stuck out with Martin crooning from the piano bench and then telling the audience why he loves San Francisco — because he got a new electric guitar, which soon became the theme of the evening, especially when he was straddled up with his acoustic and finished "We Never Change" with "but, I just want to play my electric guitar."
The band left the stage and a computerized voice warned the crowd that the show wasn't over and if they made enough noise the band would come back. Well, they did. Martin walked front and center, explaining he was going to cover a few songs and played Hank Williams "Lost Highway," and again, began extolling greatest onto the city of San Francisco. The next song was a given, Martin pranced over to the keys and started the infamous standard, "I Left My Heart In San Francisco," and then left the stage. The audience was left hoping for that computerized to voice to come back and tell us the show wasn't over, but I don't think that was in the rock 'n' roller's handbook.

– Laney Erokan

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