Issue date: 11/21/08 Section: OPINION

DALLAS - The world-famous British band Coldplay rocked the American Airlines Center to a sold-out audience Wednesday.

The band is on a world tour promoting its latest chart-topping album, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends."

Coldplay began the concert with the opening track on its recent album, "Life in Technicolor." As the members walked out toward the stage and grabbed their respective instruments, the music began to get louder, and the crowd went into a frenzy.

The band played all its hits, such as "Clocks," "In My Place" and "Speed of Sound."

Before lead singer Chris Martin began to perform "Cemeteries of London," he told the crowd, "If you are here to see the Jonas Brothers, then you are at the wrong show." The remark was met with laughter from the audience and Martin himself.

The show had many highlights that included the band walking to the back of the arena and up to the audience to perform "The Scientist." Martin told the crowd, "We can't come up to Dallas without visiting the back of the room."

Before performing the song, Martin mentioned that a Rolling Stone journalist had reminded him earlier that if he bought the new Gun N' Roses album "Chinese Democracy," he would receive a free Dr Pepper.

Martin then suggested that maybe the band perform "Paradise City" but laughed off the thought and stated that they should move on "to something more serious." However, at the end of performing "The Scientist" Martin sang, "Take me down to Paradise City, where the grass is green and the girls are pretty."

While still performing within the audience, Martin gave up the mic to drummer Will Champion to perform "Death Will Never Conquer Me." I was quite impressed because I had no idea that Champion could sing and sing well.

Even though the show was Coldplay at its best, I didn't like their somewhat techno version of "God Put A Smile On Your Face" and "Talk." The songs didn't sound like they should have and were hard to recognize until Martin began to sing. The beat was techno-based, and the guitar riffs were overshadowed by overuse of the whammy bar.

What surprised me the most about the concert was that Martin was more vocal with the audience than last time the band was in Dallas promoting "X&Y."

He was talkative and told many jokes. Before one song, while sitting at the piano, he told the audience, "I wish I were like Bruce Springsteen with stories for the songs, but I don't have any." Before performing "The Hardest Part," he joked that the song was written by Joe the Plumber before he became a plumber. Martin called him "Joe the Songwriter." All of his anecdotes were met with giggles from the audience and himself.

Since Coldplay's rise to fame, the ticket prices for the band's concerts have risen dramatically. However, I believe that the ticket was worth the price, and I plan on seeing the group again next time it comes back.

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