Watch Coldplay Cover Chuck Berry’s “You Never Can Tell” In Charlottesville
The big surprise guest at Dave Matthews’ Concert For Charlottesville last night was Stevie Wonder, who came out during the Dave Matthews’ set to perform three songs with the band, including a pretty stunning version of John Lennon’s “Imagine.” But early in the show, there was another surprise: Coldplay — or, anyway, frontman Chris Martin and guitarist Jonny Buckland — who, after being introduced by Pharrell Williams, played a quick five-song acoustic set. One of those five songs was a cover of Chuck Berry’s 1964 song “You Never Can Tell,” the song that John Travolta and Uma Thurman famously twisted to in Pulp Fiction. Before playing it, Martin told the crowd, “This could be absolutely shit, and if it is, please don’t put it on YouTube.” You be the judge of that! In any case, they went straight from that song into “Viva La Vida,” and you can watch fan footage of them playing both songs below.
While we’re here, here’s fan footage of Stevie Wonder and the Dave Matthews band covering “Imagine,” immediately after taking the knee:
But neither of those was the best cover of the night. Instead, I’d give that to Alabama Shakes frontwoman Brittany Howard, backed by the Roots, singing the Temptations’ 1971 word-gone-wrong soul classic “Ball Of Confusion.” Here’s that:
I’ll have more to say about last night later today.