Been a semi busy week for me. Worked on Wednesday at Blarney and man was it busy. And it was fight night. Apparently one of them involved Shane at the front door and some kid sucker punched him. needless to say he proceeded to pummel the kid into the pavement, from what I heard, and then there's Dave Brown, who apparently kicked some kid out (why he was is beyond me seeing as he's not a bouncer or doorman) and at the end of the night, the kid was back in. So instead of asking the kid to leave, he reached from behind and grabbed the kid by the throat and started dragging him out. *sigh*

Thursday was a good day. Got my rental vehicle from Enterprise and was on the road by 12:00 which is what I wanted. Drove up to Edmonton to see Coldplay. Got to E-town in about 4.5 hrs which was great time. Missed one turn off in town to get to Rexall Place but quickly recovered and pulled into the parking lot 30 minutes prior to the doors opening. Got my ticket from the Will Call booth with 10 min to the doors opening. Finally 6 PM rolls around and the doors are open. I make my way to the merchandise stand and get myself a shirt. Seeing as I didn't eat anything before I left, I grabbed some food at the concession stand and made my way to my seat. Found it and anxiously awaited the opening acts.

7:00 - 7:30 PM 1st band was a band from Australia called Howling Bells. A female vocalist fronted band, the had a very soothing, and a nice rich sound with echoing (<----- love that word !!) guitar riffs. For an opening act, I'd give it a solid 8.5 out of 10. A break until 8:00 PM for the 2nd band.

8:00 - 8:40 PM Snow Patrol came on and performed. I'm not a big fan of their music but they played well and thanked the crowd a lot. Overall I'd give them an 8 out of 10. They almost seemed to try too hard. But they, along with Howling Bells, knew that everyone was there for Coldplay. The transition from each opening act to the headliner was good though. Each bringing slightly more of that stadium sound.

Just before Coldplay cam on, the intermission music got really loud for 3 songs. Probably were checking the limits of the frequency ranges for when Coldplay was to play. 1st song was a U2 track off the new album, 2nd was Jay-Z - I'm a Hustler and 3rd was the Blue Danube waltz. 3 very different styles. At the playing of the last note of the waltz, the lights went out, and the crowd roared. Showtime !!

9:00 PM Coldplay did their intro song off the Viva La Vida album, Life in Technicolor, and came out waving sparklers and twirling fire batons or something of that nature. Then they kicked it into high gear playing 2 very recognizable songs, Clocks and Yellow right off the hop ! For Yellow, giant balloons came down and the lighting was all in yellow. Then the intermixed new tracks from their most recent album with others off their older ones. They performed a couple sort of acoustic tracks just off stage but the best was yet to come. Nearly 2/3 of the way through their night, they left the main stage, walked all the way to the back of the arena, and performed on a set stage IN the stands. Amazing ! Just enough room for the 4 of them, and a few guitars and such. 3 song acoustic jam. The last being a Monkees cover of I'm A Believer. Then when they finished, the audio tech, played a dance remix of Viva La Vida as the band made their way back to the main stage to finish off the night. The last song had the confetti machines blowing confetti, in the shape of butterflies, all over the place. Of course there was an encore of 2 songs which concluded a phenomenal evening. To wrap it all off they handed out a special 9 song Live EP of some of their favorites. Truly an honor to attend this show. I can't wait until the next one, where I will get a better seat. Got back in my vehicle and left Edmonton to drive all the way back to Lethbridge. At one point, I was tailing a guy, and was doing 160 KM/hr. Fastest I have ever driven. I did see 3 RCMP over the course of the drive home, but made sure to be cautious.

Going to Green Day in about 2 weeks, followed by No Doubt, 2 weeks from then. Best to get some rest. :)