A good friend invited me to go see COLDPLAY at The Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas back in 2022. I had only heard a handful of their songs over the years and they were good, but I really enjoyed their latest album “The Music of the Spheres” that had just come out. The song “Coloratura” is very progressive and trippy with headphones. The whole album is a fun listen, takes you places and makes you think.
They have quite a back catalog, so I had to work my way from the very beginning to the present, eventually absorbing every single release to get ready for this show. What I love about them is that they have a very uplifting sound, interesting melodic hooks, keyboard driven, great vocals, drums, melodic bass and they sound like Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel & U2, which I love.
“When I go to a concert, I want to soak up the entire experience. I don’t want to know the setlist in advance, I want it to be a surprise. And I take only a few pictures and little to no video, because I know that others are doing all of that for me and they will look way better. That way, I don’t have to ruin my experience by being distracted and distracting others from the mutually shared musical experience.”
One you entered the stadium, everyone was given an LED wristband. This would eventually help to make you part of the show.
With 80,000 people in attendance and my first time at The Cotton Bowl, the vibe in the air was incredible.
So much positivity, love, and high vibes going on, which is always awesome.
When they opened up with the flying theme from “ET The Extra Terrestrial”, I knew this was going to be a special concert. The show was so amazing, I wanted to see how many people filmed it and to what extent of complete songs and interesting angles, let alone, the quality of the overall sound.
I was able to find EVERY song they played in Dallas, extract each clip and edit all of the multiple angles of footage together into a seamless concert viewing experience of the same concert that I was at.
I treat each of these projects as if I am seeing the band for the first time and want to make it interesting based on what footage I have and cut to at any point to match what is going musically in any given song. Some songs had more people filming, which gives me more options to edit from and make it visually captivating. And other times, there’s barely even one person filming and that’s all you have to work with.
These are the visual equivalent of the 1,000+ live concerts that I have on CD-R and digital lossless file formats in my audio archive.
So far, I have recreated concerts for Peter Gabriel, Tears for Fears, Jean-Michel Jarre, Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard (Hollywood Bowl – 3 hour marathon set).
My tastes run from Electronica, Classical, Progressive Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Jazz, Funk, Blues, Classic Rock and Roll, Experimental, Some Metal, Singer Songwriters, Crossover Country and World Music.
