'Altar'native Rock

They all waited with baited breath with eyes pealed on the giant altar. Some of them restless by the long wait and tedious distractions that made minutes seem like months. Some of them up on their feet ready to herald the arrival of their demigods. Some jostling among the early birds to get ahead of the crowd and get a priceless glimpse of the demigods. This could easily have been a scene at a popular Indian temple, except that instead of prasadam there was pizza, instead of agarbattis there were ciggies, instead of teertham there was beer and instead of the devotees rising to their feet chanting mantrams at the unveiling of the idol, the fans rose to their feet singing the leitmotif of 'Viva La Vida' at the arrival of Coldplay. Blasphemous? Maybe. The euphoria surrounds when you are standing in the middle of a rock concert, just as the beating of the drums and the cymbals do when you are in a temple during the Aarti. Of course, one cannot begin to equate the madness of rock music fans with the devotion of Hindu followers.

I have always been a great admirer of the Coldplay's compositions and lyrics and hoped to see them perform live some day. And Voila! They landed right here in Cincinnati. While it was anticipated that they would jump start their performance with the most popular Viva La Vida, they started with an instrumental 'Life in Technicolor' instead, which although not entirely disappointing didn't seem as quite appropriate for the start. While the crowd in the pit and the benches seemed to have a great direct view of the band and their shenanigans, back in the lawn, we were trying to use our psychic powers to request for our favorite numbers. Just as I was screaming 'Fix you' Chris Martin dedicated the number to all of us 'lesser' souls out on the lawn. Somehow the lyrics of that song strike a chord with a lot of what one goes through in life and the fact that the 'lights will guide you home', while being awfully cliched, is perhaps one of the most reassuring thoughts one could hope.

Violet Hill soon became Cincinnati Hill and huge yellow balloons descended during their rendition of Yellow. The whole band then decided to tour the Riverbend Amphitheater and they even made a pit stop at the lawns, where they regaled us with a cover of Neil Diamond's 'I'm a believer'. We were just a few feet away from their stage and couldn't believe our eyes and actually couldn't stop screaming our lungs out. Chris Martin looked positively stoned and yet incredibly charismatic and attractive. N and I were pinching each other to make sure we were actually seeing Chris Martin from such proximity. N had a good mind to jump across the crowd and try to shake his hand but decided she didn't want to be arrested for hooliganism.

The band then pretended it was over and time to go home, when we were wondering why they didn't play the hugely popular 'Scientist' yet and screaming out the leitmotif of Viva La Vida. They returned on stage and obliged us with 'Scientist', an encore of 'Death and his Friends' and 'Escape'. The cherry on the top was the free CD of their most popular compositions that we received at the end of their concert.

I am certainly not one of those maniacal fans who follows the band, star-struck, around the world and worships even their sweat. I am not even one of those devoted fans who shells out 400 bucks for a front row seat at a concert, buys every CD that comes out into the market and remembers all the lyrics of all their songs like nursery rhymes. I am just a curious fan who paid 50 bucks for a good time in the lawn with friends and aquaintances, got my money's worth seeing them as close as the front benchers and came home with memories of having screamed like a teenager till I nearly lost my voice.