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As far as I could tell, no marriages were ruined on Saturday night at Camp Randall Stadium.
Instead, what is currently the world’s most viral band (for reasons other than music) took the stage as only the second headlining performer in nearly three decades at the Wisconsin Badgers’ home field. The “Music of the Spheres” world tour promised a spectacle, and it certainly provided one at every chance available.
With a stage that was barely contained by the seating bowl of Camp Randall, as well as a catwalk that would take Chris Martin and the band approximately just past the 50 yard line, the production alone felt larger than life on Saturday night. Add in approximately 80,000 fans with glowing wristbands that were issued at the door, and lights over every section entrance, and the football stadium was transformed into a glowing, pulsating beacon of energy.
Coldplay’s set certainly felt that way, too, coming out to greet the Madison crowd after a video explaining that every measure to ensure sustainability had been met. By the time the band kicked into that album’s opener, “Higher Power” you could already sense that the night was going to be about much more than music; it would be a full fledged experience for everyone from the floor to the back of the upper deck.
While the tour is named for the 2021 album, the band are less than a year removed from “Moon Music,” their most recent full-length album, and they announced this tour around the time of the album’s release. Only four songs from the new album would make their way into the 135-minute show, with “All My Love” first appearing about halfway through the show. The show also broke from the tried-and-true method of saving the band’s biggest songs for last, instead dispersing them through the night, as a gentle reminder that Coldplay have a lengthy string of hits to pull from. That became especially apparent when singles “Paradise” and “The Scientist” rang out early in the night. Even if you were only a casual Coldplay fan, you likely weren’t too many songs removed from one that you knew.
The sheer size of the set also meant that Martin and the band would have plenty of ground to cover throughout the course of the night, and they would do just that. Beyond the opening phase of the show, the band would collectively make their way to the middle of the stadium for “Viva La Vida,” the first of many times that they would all take up more real estate than the wide stage at the end zone. They would also bring up four fans with cheeseheads (and one dressed as an alien) for “Us Against The World,” with Martin adorning one of the cheeseheads to a big roar from the crowd.
“It’s not every day that you have fans coming to the show dressed as cheese,” Martin quipped before bringing them on stage. “We in Coldplay have never shied away from being cheesy.”
In fact, the night would be filled with local hat tips. An “kinetic floor” area was powered by fans jumping on platforms, that supposedly provides power to the next tour stop. It was a fitting time to play House of Pain’s “Jump Around” in between opening sets from Arab-pop singer Elaynna and Nigerian singer Ayra Starr. Martin would also casually mention a Badger-friendly “U Rah Rah” at one point in the night, and also mentioned that he walked down State Street on Friday evening, meeting students and handing out a couple of tickets along the way.
“I went to visit Bucky, the mascot last night," said Martin. “Then I saw the Capitol, so I said I’ll walk over there. I walked down State Street, and I don’t drink or smoke, but by the time I got down there I was high as a kite.”
When he wasn’t commenting on Madison’s party culture or cheeseheads, Martin would make his way back and forth on the catwalk, taking in his perspective of thousands of fans glowing and sparkling around him. He would also change shirts several times, each to some variation of the “Music of the Spheres” graphics, and at one point, a shirt reading “everyone is an alien somewhere.” It was a message that they would drive home throughout the night, especially during unity-inspiring anthem “We Pray,” which brought Elaynna and opener Shone on stage as well. They would also play with the alien concept for their collab with The Chainsmokers, “Something Just Like This,” which featured the band putting on alien heads, and a plant in the crowd dressed as a security guard, which Martin would drag on stage, only for him to ultimately start busting a move and letting loose once he was wearing the alien head. The band would keep those on for “My Universe,” but they’d be ditched by “A Sky Full of Stars,” which Martin stopped just before the hook kicked in to have the fans put all of their phones away, asking for just a moment free of digital distractions.
The band wouldn’t make their way to the third stage until the end of the night, for a stripped down version of “Sparks” and “In My Place,” citing that the small stage was about the size of the flat that the band had when they were first starting out. The third stage was the only one free of massive production elements, effectively an island unto itself in the crowd. It was a nice way to denote that, while yes, the band is one of the biggest in the world, at the end of the day they’re just four guys playing music together. Martin had originally noted that those humble beginnings somehow made them the biggest band in the world, then quickly walked that back.
“I mean, we’re not the Beatles. We’re doing okay.” he noted. It was a good save.
After those two intimate-feeling songs, it was time for a custom song for fans that appeared on the big screens on either side of the stage’s production, which was thankfully affair-free on Saturday (that we know of.) While he was charismatic, thankful, and quick-witted all night, Martin was surprisingly mum when it came to the biggest viral affair on the planet right now happening at one of their shows. Better to just leave that be, it appears.
With no viral moments in tow, the band made their way back to the main stages for an amped up version of “Fix You,” “Good Feelings,” and “feelslikeimfallinginlove,” complete with a massive firework finale. The wristbands would light up in the seating bowl to read “believe in love,” as one final parting message from the band. There were no shortage of messages throughout the night, but each felt poignant with their placement in the show.
For more than two hours, Coldplay lit up Camp Randall Stadium in more ways than one on Saturday night. It felt like the band pulled out all of the stops when it came to production, but they also have a set full of big songs that were undeniably smashes. It truly did feel otherworldly at times, which is what you want for one of the biggest shows to come to Madison in nearly three decades.
