Re: Setlist from last night (12 April)

"Going Up" – Echo & the Bunnymen (for Will Sergeant's birthday)
"Mystery" – Wipers
"Ataraxia"/"Normal Like You" – Everclear (for Art Alexakis' birthday)
"Be Careful What You Ask For" – Everclear (likewise)

"Mars to Liverpool" – Liam Gallagher & John Squire
"Kiss Me Deadly" – Generation X (for Tony James' birthday)
"Moral Kiosk" – R.E.M.
"The Mad Daddy" – The Cramps

"Fools" – Soft Kill
"Move Over" – Steppenwolf (for John Kay's birthday)
"Pinktop"– The Volunteers
"Natural's Not in It" – Gang of Four (by request)

"I Have a Friend" – The Libertines
"Nothing Can Stop Us" – Saint Etienne (for Sarah Cracknell's birthday)
"Beauty and the Beast" – David Bowie
"Hi-Tops" – Girlfriends and Boyfriends

"Parallels" – Yes
"Eyelids" – Kindsight
"Electricity" – Spiritualized

"Dry Ice" – The Empty Page
"Useless" – Depeche Mode (R.I.P. Keith LeBlanc)
"Crash and Burn" – Pat Travers Band (for Pat's birthday)

"White Shadows" – Coldplay (for bassist Guy Berryman's birthday)
"My Own God" – You Said Strange
"Are You Gonna Move It for Me" – The Donnas
"Sonic Reducer" – Dead Boys (by request)

"She Sheila" – The Producers (thanks Rhett!)
"Chaos Girls" – Soup Activists
"The End of Things" – Bob Mould

"White Shadows" – Coldplay (for bassist Guy Berryman's birthday)

Up through the X&Y album (and possibly the next, but not further), I was totally on board with Coldplay. I could overlook the cringe-inducing lyrics because I thought the music was so good, especially the guitar playing. I can't even tell you the guy's name, but he had a style that reminded me of Charlie Burchill in the heyday of Simple Minds. I loved it. Very little of what I've heard since the Viva La Vida album is very good, IMO.

Yeah, I agree about Coldplay, Zoo. We thoroughly enjoyed their first four albums, for a lot of reasons. It's true, as Reno said, that "release and surprise are not on the menu," but we enjoyed what the menu did have to offer. (Those albums are especially satisfying on long winter road trips.) After Viva la Vida, though, their albums became more & more manufactured, as they seemed increasingly desperate to remain relevant in the modern mainstream music scene -- bringing on guest singers and rappers, from Rihanna and Beyonce to BTS, and piling on more and more producers per album (including the loathsome Max Martin). Their Super Bowl halftime appearance in 2016 was the last straw for us. Chris Martin looked ultra-desperate to generate enthusiasm for his band, clearly fearing that a medley of their own hits wouldn't do the job. His movements on the big stage made him look like a Sid & Marty Krofft character. And when Beyonce and Bruno Mars showed up, coolly taking charge of the audience while Martin broke even more of a sweat to keep up, they made it look as though they knew, plain as day, that Martin needed the help.

Ha - love it! "She Sheila" still holds up, doesn't it?

It sure does, Rhett. Thanks for tweaking my memory.