It’s been less than 48 hours since I came back from this concert and I still can’t get over the way Avicii tore down this historic venue!
Well for starters, we knew that history would be made on September 26th-27th, 2012 when our man from Sweden became the first DJ to headline this iconic venue in the heart of New York City. What we didn’t know was that he was planning to bring a whole new level of music and a production set (something we get rarely these days) that would blow our minds away.
To be honest, I have seen Avicii play live in the past and music aside; his new production was one of the most captivating things I was looking forward to see.
First premiered at the Coachella festival this year in April, our man brought his now famous 3-D projected head (in other words his DJ booth) that has three unique faces to it. His team had carefully covered the projections of these faces and blended them in a way that you see a single continuous image. The best part about all of this was that Avicii controlled the video content that came on the stage as per the track that was being played by him. The reaction to this set up was massive and makes you realize that apart from the music, the crowd can always look forward to something else as well.
Speaking of music and boy did Avicii absolutely kill it big time at this concert. Not only did he give us so many ID (new/unreleased) tracks but he also managed to bring back the memories of all of his smash hits!
He started his set by giving us a taste of old school by playing Baba O’Riley’s “Teenage Wasteland” and slowly giving the beats of “Fade Into Darkness” on the side. Just as the crowd was settling in, there was this huge pause in the middle of the track and all of a sudden he dropped Deniz Koyu‘s “Bong”. This was followed by the sweet tunes of the track “Stay With Me” which has the vocals of Mike Posner. By now the New York crowd was going nuts and Avicii kept the level flowing by giving us some of his smash hits like “Sunshine”, “Bromance” and “Superlove”.
He showed his love for his schoolmate Otto Knows by playing his remix of “Burns” and then mixing it up with the newly released Syn Cole‘s Creamfields remix of his track “Silhouettes”. Avicii also brought on one of my favorite mashup’s of this year by using the intro beats of Jupiter Ace’s “Glowing In The Dark” and then bringing the 2012 summer anthem “Atom” out of nowhere! For some reason every time “Atom” is played you can feel the crowd jumping up and down.
He continued to keep the tempo up by throwing on a massive mash up of “Rushin” with his new ID track “All You Need Is Love/Summerburst” from earlier this year. Avicii did give the crowd “Levels” and finished the set by playing “Zombie Nation”. The latter being one of the biggest hits with the college crowd here in the States.
My pick of the night was when he gave his respect to the Swedish House Mafia crew by playing two tracks that will surely dominate the sets of their One Last Tour (PS: India Watch Out For This!). He played Sebastian Ingrosso and Tommy Trash’s “Reload” all through the way and then before the crowd could get the drop, he brought on “Don’t You Worry Child”. The sound of six thousand people screaming out the vocals was one hell of a sight!
This was his last show for 2012 in New York and considering the magnitude of the occasion; Avicii didn’t disappoint his fans at all. The set may have lasted for just two hours but the overall experience of this concert at this historic venue will never be forgotten!
