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Coldplay at the Verizon Center

Though the band has its share of haters, critic Dave McKenna said that Sunday’s show was anything but boring.

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July 9, 2012

Coldplay performs the first of two shows at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. The band's 2011 album, “Mylo Xyloto,” reached No. 1 in 30 countries. In her review of the album for The Post, Allison Stewart wrote that “the new album is sometimes dull but is mostly just fine.” Dave McKenna responded differently to their performance this weekend, however, writing, “nobody who saw Coldplay on Sunday at the sold-out Verizon Center came away bored.”

Kyle Gustafson / The Washington Post

Coldplay frontman Chris Martin plays a psychedelic-patterned piano. The performance featured LED-laden wristbands, smashed guitars and day-go-colored paper cutouts of animals and stars. In his review of the show, Dave McKenna writes: “The first 15 minutes of the performance were bombastic and breathless enough to leave an underprepped Coldplay concertgoer wondering: Have I died and gone to a U2 show? Yet the band kept up the pace for nearly two hours.”

July 9, 2012

Coldplay frontman Chris Martin plays a psychedelic-patterned piano. The performance featured LED-laden wristbands, smashed guitars and day-go-colored paper cutouts of animals and stars. In his review of the show, Dave McKenna writes: “The first 15 minutes of the performance were bombastic and breathless enough to leave an underprepped Coldplay concertgoer wondering: Have I died and gone to a U2 show? Yet the band kept up the pace for nearly two hours.”

Kyle Gustafson / The Washington Post

“Oh, what a wonderful time everybody had,” Dave McKenna writes in his review of the first of two Coldplay concerts at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. “On the soccer-anthemesque pop song ‘Viva La Vida,’ the crowd provided utterly glorious ‘whoa-oh-ohhh-oh-oh’s over which Martin sang his pop smash about a guy who ruled the world.” With their LED wristbands illuminated, “some couples danced and sweated in the aisles while the rest of the crowd just pogoed to the beat.”

July 9, 2012

“Oh, what a wonderful time everybody had,” Dave McKenna writes in his review of the first of two Coldplay concerts at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. “On the soccer-anthemesque pop song ‘Viva La Vida,’ the crowd provided utterly glorious ‘whoa-oh-ohhh-oh-oh’s over which Martin sang his pop smash about a guy who ruled the world.” With their LED wristbands illuminated, “some couples danced and sweated in the aisles while the rest of the crowd just pogoed to the beat.”

Kyle Gustafson / The Washington Post

In his review of the first of two Coldplay performances in Washington, D.C., Dave McKenna writes, “Martin spent some of his last moments on stage performing some sort of free-form dance, kicking up leftover confetti and twirling his arms toward the upper decks of an arena filled yet again with all those blinking lights.”

July 9, 2012

In his review of the first of two Coldplay performances in Washington, D.C., Dave McKenna writes, “Martin spent some of his last moments on stage performing some sort of free-form dance, kicking up leftover confetti and twirling his arms toward the upper decks of an arena filled yet again with all those blinking lights.”

Kyle Gustafson / The Washington Post

Confetti cannons were only one of the stunts in Coldplay’s bag of tricks during their performance at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., on Sunday. Dave McKenna writes in his review of the performance: “The music occasionally seemed no match for the theatricality. But how many tunes by anybody can compete with a rainbow-lit confetti blizzard amid balloon droppings?”

July 9, 2012

Confetti cannons were only one of the stunts in Coldplay’s bag of tricks during their performance at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., on Sunday. Dave McKenna writes in his review of the performance: “The music occasionally seemed no match for the theatricality. But how many tunes by anybody can compete with a rainbow-lit confetti blizzard amid balloon droppings?”

Kyle Gustafson / The Washington Post

“Coldplay’s current tour takes arena rock production to new levels,” writes Dave McKenna in his review of Coldplay’s performance at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., on Sunday.

July 9, 2012

“Coldplay’s current tour takes arena rock production to new levels,” writes Dave McKenna in his review of Coldplay’s performance at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., on Sunday.

Kyle Gustafson / The Washington Post

Coldplay guitarist Jonny Buckland performs during the first of the band’s two shows at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.

July 9, 2012

Coldplay guitarist Jonny Buckland performs during the first of the band’s two shows at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.

Kyle Gustafson / The Washington Post

Of Coldplay’s performance at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., Dave McKenna writes: “The band was loving it.<span>. . .</span> Should Martin ever actually get to rule the world like the guy he sang about earlier in the set, there’s no way that’ll be as much fun as ruling a band as big as his is right now.”

July 9, 2012

Of Coldplay’s performance at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., Dave McKenna writes: “The band was loving it.. . . Should Martin ever actually get to rule the world like the guy he sang about earlier in the set, there’s no way that’ll be as much fun as ruling a band as big as his is right now.”

Kyle Gustafson / The Washington Post

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