Someone must have told Coldplay frontman Chris Martin Ottawa was 100% French, because bless his heart, that's what he spoke, haltingly and briefly, throughout last night's show. The hip Brit foursome drew a fashionable crowd of 8,000 out to the Corel Centre despite another frigid and snowy Ottawa night. "C'est froid ici," Martin paused to croon during Trouble, off the band's 2000 debut Parachutes. The band opened the show with the hypnotic, pounding Politik off their critical and commercial successful followup A Rush of Blood to the Head. Minus the New York Philharmonic Orchestra who backed them on the same tune at the Grammy awards in New York Sunday -- where they also won twice -- the song still managed to produce chills, the good kind. And in keeping with their habit of nodding to a local artist at each tour stop, Martin inserted a few boyish-sounding bars of Avril Lavigne's Sk8er Boi in the middle of Everything's Not Lost. Coldplay, and this is coming from someone who is currently deeply in love with their second CD, is not an exciting band in concert. This is mellow with a capital M. Anyone who has watched a few of their low-key videos would expect the show to lag slightly, and fans of their music have to acknowledge their songs do start to sound the same when played in succession. LUSH ARRANGEMENTS But one cannot help but be astonished by the lush arrangements, delicate lyrics of heartbreak and triumph, sympathy and hope, and impressed at the band's passionate delivery amid much piano pounding and heavy guitar strumming. Coldplay is known for their over-the-top light shows, perhaps a best attempt to rachet up the energy level, and while they can prove irritating in strobe mode a half-dozen nice yellow-and-red beams did provide a warm accompaniment to Daylight. They were there again course, for the band's breakthrough single Yellow, one of the only songs which lifted a content crowd to their feet during the 90-minute show. SITTING DANCE Martin, backed by guitarist Jon Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, and Will Champion, jumped between acoustic and electric guitar and piano throughout the 90-minute show. The frenetic instrument-smith has perfected a manic sort of sitting dance while he's pounding away at the keys, making one wish there was a way he could strap the thing on to his slight frame and spring free of its major limitation. The band played one new song, Moses, which Martin explained was about "amour" and saved two of the most recently popular, Clocks and In My Place, for the encore. Female fans clearly appreciate Martin for more than his music, flashing "Mmmm, Coldplay" and "Chris is Hot" signs. American actress Gywneth Paltrow is another female whose been appreciating Martin these days. Though it was rumoured Paltrow might join her boyfriend last night (Ottawa? February?) there was no sign of the actress. Martin did manage to spit out a few words of English during the show, remarking at the outset "it's not bad, having the best job in the world." And if he needed to practise his French for tonight's Montreal show on Ottawa fans, well, no one really seemed to mind. (More on Coldplay)