Live Review: Coldplay, The Temper Trap, The Pierces

An entire day's worth of lining up did not go to waste for ticketholders when Coldplay took to Allianz Stadium.

It might just be that they're style is suited to a much smaller venue, but The Pierces were just dull to watch and lacked the presence needed to gain attention from early comers.

The Temper Trap are a well-oiled machine. Their panoramic melodies and saintly vocals suited the atmosphere perfectly, kicking off with London's Burning and continuing with a string of high-energy tracks that concluded with Sweet Disposition. Midway through, lead singer Dougy Mandagi brought out a floor tom and cymbal for an instrumental jam, throwing water all over the mini-kit for the band's own small-scale special effects.

A Coldplay concert is a dazzling visual spectacle and they outdid themselves this tour. Fireworks lit up the sky while multi-coloured light-up bracelets given to concertgoers turned the entire stadium into thousands of Christmas lights. The opening In My Place guitar riff cued an explosion of confetti that continued to float in the breeze and fall onto the crowd for the rest of the song. The paper butterflies continued during Lovers In Japan while beach ball-sized balloons bounced around the crowd. The display was then stripped back for The Scientist, getting the entire crowd into the chorus.

Coldplay's setlist was the perfect combination of recent tracks and hits spanning back to the beginning of their career. A solid amount of 2002 album A Rush Of Blood To The Head was played throughout the night, a pleasure for both frequent Coldplay crowd members and the large young following present, who were probably seeing them for the first time. Lead singer Chris Martin was as affable as ever, with the unique ability of being able to connect with every single person in a 50,000-strong audience as he darted about the stage and catwalk. Coldplay left the stage for the expected first encore but, like the gentlemen that they are, made a surprise return on a small platform amongst the crowd to personally entertain those towards the back with a few tracks before returning to the main walkway for the conclusion. The many repeat Coldplay concert attendees present witnessed the effectiveness of this large-scale production combined with the band's obvious pleasure taken from playing for their fans.