GARDAI and Ticketmaster don’t often release a specific press release offering amnesty for any under-age ticket-holders to get a refund to avoid being turned away. The refund offer was only one aspect of the Garda release last week about the Avicii gig in Marlay Park, which also warned against public drunkenness, boozing on public transport and general dickhead behaviour.
The cops have a suspicion that the pesky kids are having their first big blowout since school finished for the summer, and sure that oul’ dance music turns them all crazy. In fairness, they have a point. If you’re a long while out of your teens, you could well feel like an old fart at Marlay Park tonight for the biggest outdoor Dublin dance gig of the summer.
EDM has just about hit tipping point, and it’s set to jump the shark when the mortifying Zac Efron clubbing lifestyle movie We Are Your Friends comes out at the end of August — in the comedown after a summer of ramped-up festivals turned up to 11.
But when it all comes crashing down and the tide rolls out, Avicii is one of the acts that’ll be left while the other detritus is floundering. The Swede crept up on the inside lane in the last few years to become one of this generation’s superstar DJs, first with generic EDM like Seek Bromance, then the top 10 festival air cannon fodder of Fade Into Darkness, Levels and I Could Be The One.
Avicii — real name Tim Bergling — really did secure his pension in 2013 with chart-toppers Wake Me Up, You Make Me and Hey Brother. Wake Me Up even had a hook so catchy, or annoying if you wish, that it was co-opted as Gaeilge by Colaiste Lurgan and got beamed into middle-aged Ireland’s homes on the Late Late Show.
His live show also blows the production budget on billion-pixel hi-def screens, multilayered lasers, smoke and fireworks, so every build-up and drop is set up like a spoon-fed encore. It sure isn’t subtle — but we’re talking about a guy with residencies in Vegas.
He also takes one or two slight sidesteps. He’s worked with Antony Hegarty and metal guitarists on his debut album True, and he’s known for dropping Primal Scream, Underworld and the Arctic Monkeys in his sets. Still, these indie interludes aside, the 35,000 in Marlay Park will be listening out while he cues up his big stadium EDM bangers and fires another smoke bomb.
Compared with Avicii razing your nervous system, support act Rudimental’s live drum & bass may seem laid-back, but the foursome are bound to come out snapping from the off, with a bag full of raucous chart hits and plenty of outdoor action already behind them this summer. With their Brit nominations and chart-topping album Home, they may have upset the D&B purists, but purists don’t have any say in tonight’s proceedings.
Original version in Irish Daily Star
Moo Kid 