Live Review: Avicii, New World Sound

29 January 2014 | 1:24 pm | Staff Writer

The chants for an encore are responded to as Hey Brother breaks the silence, plumes of smoke shoot from the stage and with a bang from behind us a shower of white confetti coats the audience and fills the sky, ending the night on a high.

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Arriving at the Riverstage the funky electro house of New World Sound has the crowd in frenzy, the venue full to the brim. Joel Fletcher and New World Sound have the crowd warmed up, the mosh pit going nuts.

A quick trip to the merchandise takes us through a crowd of mixed ages, from young teens to parents keeping a watchful eye over excited teens. New World Sound finish with an appreciative roar from the crowd for what has been an energetic set.

Anticipation prompted chanting for Avicii, who takes to the turntables in a T-shirt instead of his signature plaid shirt, his cap backwards, to start the show with his current hit, Hey Brother. The crowd goes mental – the track clearly a favourite – singing along with the lyrics and exploding at the remixed chorus, which come with a heavy beat.

Smashing out his own hits one after the other, Long Road To Hell, followed by ID (I Wish I Could Turn Back Time), then Wake Me Up, Avicii has the crowd belting out the lyrics and loving it. Impressive visuals easily keep our attention to the massive screens on both sides of the stage, behind and in front of the turntables, showing trippy abstract colours, an epic 3D night skyline along with a 3D robot head.

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Avicii covers a number of genres throughout the show, the crowd particularly enjoying Smile (Galantis), Free (Ivan Gough & Jebu), The Tracks Of My Tears, Sweet Nothing (Calvin Harris'), This Is What It Feels Like, Don't You Worry Child, Liar Liar intermingled with Silhouettes, and New World Sound's track, Flute, intermixed with more intense, harder tracks like Fall Into The Sky (Zedd) – but it feels disjointed at times.

With 45 minutes to go and a tease of Levels, we are given Fade Into Darkness once again, filling the venue with a sing-along atmosphere. Having teased the intro to Levels throughout the show he finally delivers the much anticipated track with 15 minutes to go, the crowd jumping, hands in the air with renewed energy, only to be brought back down to earth with a thud and an abrupt mood change.

The chants for an encore are responded to as Hey Brother breaks the silence, plumes of smoke shoot from the stage and with a bang from behind us a shower of white confetti coats the audience and fills the sky, ending the night on a high.