One of the main reasons I think I have ended up at so many Coldplay shows over the years is that my life and the band seem to intersect on so many occasions when I am not even actively planning it.
Back in September, Oz called me and mentioned he was working on a few projects in Los Angeles for the next few months. He invited me to head out to visit him while he was in the States. That trip quickly turned into an extended stay, and before I knew it, I was living in Calabasas for a while. We had zero Coldplay plans on the radar and were both just focused on separate projects on the West Coast.
That all changed when, seemingly out of nowhere, the band started rolling out information about their new album, A Head Full of Dreams. I distinctly remember driving around LA with Oz, listening to Adventure of a Lifetime for the very first time. We both knew it was an immediate hit from the first listen.
Along with the single release and album announcement, the band scheduled a few intimate promotional events. First up was a special show on November 13 at the Belasco Theatre. What made that venue so interesting was that it sits right next door to The Mayan in Downtown LA, which was the very first place I had ever watched Coldplay perform. It felt like a total full-circle moment.
As we were trying to figure out how to get tickets for the Belasco, a taping for The Late Late Show with James Corden was announced for the day before. Suddenly, we had multiple events to navigate.
A Cinematic Meeting at Sunset
While we were making zero headway trying to secure tickets, a friend reached out and said he had a friend named Ian who had spare tickets for us. He asked if he could connect Ian with Oz and me. I said of course, though I was still pretty skeptical about whether it was legitimate.
Ian texted Oz and me, asking to meet him at the Griffith Observatory at sunset. Oz and I looked at each other like we were in the middle of a movie plot, jokingly asking if we were about to get kidnapped.
It turned out to be completely real, and the location made total sense. Ian was visiting from overseas on holiday with his brother, and we were simply meeting up while they were out sightseeing. They were some of the nicest people we had ever met. Looking back on it now, Ian has become one of my absolute closest friends both in and out of the Coldplay community. That random meeting at the Griffith Observatory brought lifelong friends into our lives, and I am still so grateful for it.
With the Belasco tickets sorted, we still had to figure out the James Corden taping. To this day, I am still not entirely sure how we managed to get into that one. We did not have official tickets, but somehow the staff just let us through. The taping took place on November 12, the day before the Belasco show, and we got to hear the band perform Adventure of a Lifetime multiple times as they recorded the segment.
The Belasco and the Smiley Face Hats
The next morning, we got up early to queue outside the Belasco. It was a long day on the sidewalk, but we had a great time making new friends in line.
While we were waiting, representatives from Tidal, who were co-hosting the event, came down the line doing interviews. They ended up giving me a ticket, which we immediately passed along to someone else in line who did not have one. By the end of the day, we had somehow managed to source so many extra tickets that we got a huge group of empty-handed fans inside.
However, as we were waiting, terrible news started breaking from Paris about the tragic attack at the Bataclan concert hall. We naturally assumed the show would be canceled, which everyone completely understood. But knowing that fans had been waiting outside all day, the band decided to still perform a stripped-down acoustic set instead of the original full-production show.
The mood inside was heavy and somber. It was easily the quietest room I have ever experienced at a Coldplay show, with an eerie silence between songs. But everyone in the venue was doing their best to stay positive given what was happening in the world.
At one point, Chris started riffing and chatting with the crowd to break the tension.
A few weeks prior to this, Oz and I had been stuck in LA traffic. While stopped at a red light, I happened to look to my left and saw a store logo that looked familiar. It suddenly hit me: I had seen Chris wearing these specific blue smiley face hats that I had been trying to track down. I told Oz to hold on because we were taking a quick detour. We walked inside and asked for the blue smiley face hats, but the staff told us they were completely sold out because someone had recently bought their entire stock. Seeing our disappointment, they went into the back storage room and pulled out a box to check. After digging through it, we somehow found the very last two hats in existence and bought them on the spot.
Because we were sitting out in the LA sun all day at the Belasco, both Oz and I were wearing the hats. During his banter with the crowd, Chris noticed them and brought up the hats. I shouted back that we had bought the last two, which led to a funny back-and-forth between us that managed to lighten the heavy room for a moment.
It was a strange, emotional night, but the band did an incredible job honoring the situation while keeping the energy uplifting.
Because they could not play the full production set, the band announced they would reschedule the main show for eight days later. That unexpected change threw a massive wrench into everyone’s schedules, including mine. I had a meeting back in Austin that I absolutely could not miss, so I had to fly back home to Texas and return to LA eight days later.
Coming back felt like complete déjà vu, but this time, everyone waiting in line felt so much closer, turning the long wait outside into an absolute blast.
