Highway Run Into the Midnight Sun

What does charisma look like? How do you know when someone or something has that certain something that keeps everyone's attention, even in a crowd? I don't think that it is something that you can necessarily quantify, but it's like former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart once said about obscenity, "It's hard to define, but I know it when I see it."

Coldplay, or more specifically, Chris Martin has "it." Just as Kurt Cobain, Bono, and other leading rock frontmen have the seemingly natural ability to hold our attention no matter what they are doing, Martin and Coldplay held the audience at the American Airlines Center last night rapt for their entire set.

It is often hard to avoid comparing concerts that I have attended, but this one ranks somewhere near the top. Ever since I heard "Yellow" on the radio during my junior year of high school, I have known that I was listening to music that would stand the test of time. I won't be surprised if one day I walk into my teenager's room while he or she is studying while "Swallowed in the Sea" plays in the background.
That's what music is really about isn't it? A soundtrack to our lives that allows us to connect moments and memories into some sort of understandable whole. Just hearing a certain song or band takes my mind back to a trip, an event, or a person. That is why music is so much more than sounds produced by instruments or voices. It's an irreplaceable part of the fabric of human memory.