Sunday, July 12, 2009

"Look at the stars..."

One of the best birthday presents I may have ever received was four tickets to see Coldplay at the Gorge, which I, my sister and two friends did last night.
It. Was. Amazing. Whether they’re aware of it or not, I really think these British guys are doing God's work. The whole concert (and the general experience with their music, especially the newer stuff) was/is a celebration of beauty, it seemed to me. Their music is so positive, but not in a saccharine or forced way. Their performance was so opulent, visceral, beautiful…yes, I would definitely say transcendent. While other contemporary musicians are whining about breakups or bragging about their sexual conquests or just making angry noise, Coldplay is (are?) making music that is genuinely uplifting in a performance whose passion and beauty really smacks of the divine. I realize this is flowery, melodramatic language on my part, and this may be due somewhat to how exhausted I still am. But I honestly believe it to be true. And it’s just one other reason why I think God is most definitely at work in today’s pop culture; even though there is a great deal of ugly, insincere, wasteful garbage out there, there is also a great deal of stuff that is charged with creativity, beauty and energy that can only come from God, because it is from God that these things flow.
Coldplay, obviously, seem(s?) to form one such conduit.