Coldplay SXSW
Coldplay perform at the iTunes Festival during SXSW in Austin Texas. iTunes Festival at SXSW

Austin, Texas, a reinvigorated Coldplay invaded an already crowded South by Southwest calendar with new music as headliners of the city's inaugural iTunes Festival. The quick 11-song set unfolded at the 2,750-capacity ACL Live at Moody Theatre, small and intimate by Coldplay standards, but was also streamed live to fans around the world.

It was the first of a week of shows during SXSW hosted by iTunes, and the genre-neutral programming looked like a chart of popular download stars, with nights also headlined by Pitbull, Keith Urban, Kendrick Lamar and Soundgarden. Most intriguing to hardcore Coldplay fans had to be the debut of four new songs from the band's upcoming Ghost Stories album.

Coldplay eased into their first U.S. Show in 14 months with an atmospheric "Always in My Head," the new album's opening song. With "Paradise," it was back to the London quartet's soaring anthemic sing-alongs, as the crowd joined in without any prompting at all from the band. "Charlie Brown" was soon followed by "Clocks," as singer Chris Martin left the piano bench with outstretched hands, knees buckling dramatically as fans shouted along once more.

The ovation that followed prompted Martin to thank fans for reminding the band of the experience of having their songs sung loudly back at them, particularly since they've "been in the studio a long time" working on Ghost Stories. More from that album came in the form of "Another's Arms," and a brief instrumental section accented with wild sparks of guitar from Jonny Buckland.

"Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall" peaked with an explosion of confetti streams, burying the musicians under layers of paper strands. Martin still managed a mood-changing "Fix You," which he dedicated to passengers on the still-missing Malaysian airliner, opening to a solemn organ melody and teary vocal, before an emotional guitar climax and Will Champion's driving beat.


Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/coldplay-debut-atmospheric-new-tracks-as-itunes-fest-arrives-at-sxsw-20140312#ixzz43sMHoxQv
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