Saturday August 1st 2009 at Parc Jean-Drapeau (Montreal)
All the conditions were met for the first day of the Osheaga festival to be
perfect: a rare beautiful summer day with a big & enthusiastic crowd. After a full day of good concerts, it only remained to Coldplay to close the evening with a magical performance, and the British group did not miss his chance.
The four companions lost no time to get the party going.
Violet Hill started the show on wheel, followed by Clocks and In My Place.
The first major success of the group, Yellow, would follow with the arrival of huge yellow balloons filled with confetti, which launched into the crowd inflated to the max.
And the party kept going, the group played their success (including Fix You, Hardest Part and Viva La Vida) to the delight of the crowd.
Even the la Ronde fireworks took part in the celebrations! With the moon alone in a cloudless sky, the flashy firecrackers were as background.
The singer of the band Chris Martin was also stunned when he saw them. It was then on a mini-stage set in the midst of the crowd, with his three accomplices, to interpret some acoustic versions, just like Patrick Watson had tried to do at his outdoor show at the Festival de Jazz.
After the beautiful Green Eyes, it was the turn of the drummer Will Champion (transformed into a guitarist for the acoustic portion of the show) to interpret us his famous song Death Will Never Conquer, the group almost always adds it to the grid of songs which also appears on the live album LeftRightLeftRightLeft, free to download.
It had to be expected: almost a month after the death of Michael Jackson, someone had to make a wink to the "king of pop" by interpreting one of his songs. Coldplay poured out their heart interpreting the acoustic version of Billie Jean. The originality of the idea was questionable, but still we must admit that this version was very honest and well conducted. The crowd were also very pleased.
The group then returned to the main stage to interpret a strong version of Politik, another of the very catchy Lovers in Japan (with an impressive shower of paper butterflies), Death And All His Friends and The Scientist in the recall.
In all, Coldplay has offered us over 90 minutes of performance.
In a great shape and in full possession of their means, the four English musicians would have fulfilled the task of concluding the first day of Osheaga as close to perfection as it is possible.
