I can't remember the last time I went through a day without listening to music. It's just always been there, through code, commutes, and everything in between, so much so that I have a whole page on this site dedicated to my diverse taste in music.
We were into EDM back in the 2010s and obsessed with Tomorrowland. Every season we used to look forward to the official aftermovie, and with our limited BSNL broadband we used to take turns to find the tracklist, discover more artists, and hunt down the songs on torrents.
I can't seem to recall which Tomorrowland aftermovie or similar it was, but there was a mix of Swedish House Mafia's Antidote and Coldplay's Paradise (Tiësto Mix) in one of them, and that's when I found out who Coldplay was.
Like I always do, I found the original song and started to discover more of their music. Then I researched and listened to more Coldplay songs. The Sky Full of Stars video, where Chris wears the instruments and walks around a street in Sydney, was one of the videos that sold me on Coldplay, since it was so unique at the time.
Sometime in 2018, Coldplay released the concert video of Viva la Vida (Live In São Paulo), and that's when I knew how celebratory their actual concerts are. We had always seen how grand Tomorrowland was, but this being a dedicated Coldplay concert and the experience it showed, it sure gave us goosebumps.
Even though Coldplay was in India in 2016, we weren't even in a financial state to think about going to a concert. But in 2024, they announced that they would be coming back to India for a tour in early 2025, and this time around we were financially capable of thinking about attending. But thanks to reels and herd mentality, we knew that people who wouldn't have heard of Coldplay would line up for tickets, and our probability of getting them was really thin.
So we planned. On the day of tickets going live, we all got into a call, eight or nine of us, with the expectation that at least one of us would get in to buy tickets, and that one person could buy 8 of them. But surprise surprise, that 8 count became 4 when we logged in. And by the time we were in, we were half a million behind in the queue.
We did end up getting 4 of them, but not all of us could go.
With this trauma, we didn't even make an attempt at the Ahmedabad rounds that opened in November.
Cut to May 2025, we had plans to travel to San Francisco in June 2025 for the AI Engineer World's Fair. Coincidentally we got to know Coldplay was on tour at Stanford Stadium the same week we'd be there, so without thinking twice, we went ahead and booked the tickets on viagogo. Three of us this time, me, Raalzz, and Prashanth.
On the day of the concert, we leave for Stanford early, do the campus tour, and reach the venue way before time, excited for the concert. I had been to EDM concerts in India before, but this was the first one outside the country, and the first Coldplay show after fifteen years of listening to them on bad internet.
But when we scan our tickets at the entry, it shows invalid, and we were like WTF. We scan again. Invalid. We were told to meet support at the counter.
Already carrying the trauma of not getting the tickets, we walked to support with no hopes of getting into the concert. Having given up, Prashanth was already looking for nearby places to spend the evening. With still some hope left, Raalzz and I were committed to making something work.
Two of the counters said we need to check with Ticketmaster support. With the last hope, we proceed to the first counter, where the person sitting had some kind of positive energy. Patiently, the person explains to us why our tickets were invalid, that they were transferred tickets and the transfer never went through properly, so as far as the system was concerned they had never become ours. Then he starts explaining how we can get a refund for it.
Not bothered about any of that, we just asked him, "Is there anything you can do to get us in?"
After going back to hitting his keyboard a couple of times, he goes, "I think there's a few seats left," and proceeds to show us better seats than the ones we had before. Three rows ahead.
We call Prashanth, who was sitting and looking at the distance to the nearby Walmart. All we said was that tickets were available, and without even asking anything he proceeds to give his card to pay, since our cards had a limit and we didn't want it to fail at the counter.
Now, still questioning reality, we go in and sit at our seats hungry and thirsty. BUT, we still don't believe ourselves enough, so we don't even feel like leaving the seat, wondering if we will be asked to move by someone who has the same tickets.
Even though there was an opening act from Willow playing, we paid the least attention to it, and we were only counting down to Coldplay arriving and us having enough confidence to believe that the seat is ours. And when the montage of them walking to the stage started playing, and they came on, the feeling that passed through our hearts is unexplainable. We three looked at each other, completely in tears. That turned out to be the best concert experience we will ever get to feel.
So, now that you've reached this point, you might be wondering what story this was. Was this a story about us finding tickets to Coldplay? Was this a story about nostalgia and memories associated with certain songs and types of music?
Not really. When I retrospect now while writing this, this is a story about perseverance and patience. More often than not, we find ourselves in situations trying to get somewhere or something. It could be as small as buying something, or something monumentally life-changing. In those situations, life will obviously test your patience and everything else around it. And more often than not, we end up in the dilemma of deciding when to stop trying and when not to.
Hope is a really funny thing. We, at that point in time in front of the counters, hoped with our best luck that we could get into the concert no matter what, and kept trying. Two people had already told us no, and there was no real reason left to walk up to a third counter. We just did.
Does that mean we should always keep trying until we get to the bottom of things?
Will we know when to give up or when not to?
Or will we only know to stop when it's too late? THERE'S PROBABLY NO WAY TO KNOW.
As the great poet Marshall Bruce Mathers III once said,
You better lose yourself in the music
The moment, you own it, you better never let it go
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime
Godspeed.