![Coldplay's Chris Martin.](/web/20161212132558im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/5/g/i/7/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gt7z83.png/1481375815983.jpg)
COLDPLAY
Etihad Stadium, Melbourne, December 9
![Martin conducted the crowd like his own choir.](/web/20161212132558im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/5/g/i/5/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gt7z83.png/1481375815983.jpg)
★★★★☆
Stadium gigs are a fraught pursuit for musicians.
Cavernous spaces don't offer the best acoustic experience at the best of times and ensuring even the warmest crowd of 50,000-plus gets an intimate concert vibe is nigh on impossible.
Some artists rely on whizz-bang spectaculars (U2), some artists rely on being a solid entertainer (Taylor Swift), some artists rely on being an extraordinary songwriter - and just hearing them live, even if you are in the nose-bleed seats, is good enough (Ed Sheeran).
Some artists are Coldplay and do all three.
Chris Martin and his gang of delinquents, and you will know they are delinquents if you have ever watched them perform, are hands down, the best stadium performers of this generation.
They are there for the fans, evidenced by the enormous production values in their shows; light up wrist bands, inflatable balls that bounce around the stadium and fireworks that wouldn't look out of place on Sydney Harbour around midnight on December 31.
If you went to a Coldplay gig and didn't have fun, you should urgently check the hole in your soul because these guys know how to have fun and they know how to make sure their audience has fun.
If you went to a Coldplay gig and didn't come away with certainty that they are among this generation's best songwriters and musicians, you should check your lack of musical literacy because they are.
The well-curated show, which offered their biggest hits for die-hard fans who have been with them since Yellow and their newer tracks from A Head Full of Dreams, was a fun adventure through the last 16 years of Coldplay's music and if, as Chris Martin seems to be suggesting from time to time, this is their swansong it is a worthy one.
The show began with a literal bang; fireworks to signal the arrival of the band on A Head Full of Dreams before seamlessly transitioning into their breakout hit Yellow. From there the show rollicked through Every Teardrop, The Scientist, Birds, Paradise, Always in My Head, Magic, Everglow then crowd favourite Clocks.
Yes, those who forked out for tickets were definitely fans, but the whole first half of the show was as much a pub sing-a-long as rocking stadium show.
Martin, who is an entertaining showman, conducted the crowd like his own choir; when he says jump, you jump, when he says put up your hands, you put up your hands and are rewarded by a dazzling light show as the complimentary wrist bands turn the stadium into the world's largest Christmas tree.
The show continues to rollick along from there through Viva La Vida (hearing 55,000 people in Etihad Stadium join Martin for the vocal in that song is spine tingling) until the last spray of confetti and burst of pyrotechnics brings in A Sky Full of Stars and the end of the show.
If Coldplay doesn't release any new music their tours may become even more irregular, so with just three shows left, don't be that person who can't join in the conversations about the amazing stadium shows of the mid 2000s.
Coldplay perform at Etihad Stadium, Melbourne, December 10 and Allianz Stadium, Sydney, December 13 and 14; livenation.com.au.
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