Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Coldplay kid


A guitar teacher friend of mine handed me a CD one day and said, “Check out this band. They’re going to be big.” As it turns out, the band was Coldplay and the album was "Parachutes." The production was sparse and the music had an intimate quality to it. I also heard it described as “Radiohead before they went off the deep end.”

When I heard they were going to be on PBS’ Austin City Limits, I figured it may be my best chance to see them live considering I’m a parent whose biggest social dilemma is which Redbox movie to rent. Austin City Limits has always been very hip in my book. I remember seeing Stevie Ray Vaughn for the first time on the show about 20 years ago, and 80s retro band The Killers about a year ago.

I Tivo’d Coldplay’s performance on Austin City Limits a while back and played it back one afternoon while I was working around the house. My three-year-old son Matthew—who is, of course, a destructive, short-attention-spanned little boy that was just learning to walk at the time—stood transfixed in front of the TV during the show. I had never seen anything stop him in his tracks like this concert did. (Luckily, I taped it. You can watch the video right here on the blog.)

Being a musician myself, I could only hope it was some sort of defining moment where he discovered how cool music really is and was fascinated by seeing made in front of his eyes. (Either that or it was just really loud. Anyway you look at it, it was a very cool show, much cheaper then a ticket, plus you could pause it for a potty break.) The best part about Austin City Limits is when they pan around the audience to show the applause. I swear these are the same people on those Billy Mays infomercials. Check it out yourself, though. You’ll never watch the show the same way again.

Working at MPT, I’m lucky to work in an environment that fosters creativity in every aspect. There are tons of musicians in the building from sr. VPs to the security guard and I’m lucky enough to play in a band with two of them (actually, one present, one former). Interested? Come check out MPT’s own Poseable Action Figures at a bar near you. MPT…no commercials….no mercy.


Aaron Harris
Associate Producer (& guitarist/vocalist for Poseable Action Figures)


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Snaps to you, cool Daddy! Very sweet video.

You rock, Matthew! PAF rocks too! So does MPT!

Unknown said...

That was pure!