Bellahouston Park, Glasgow
Five stars
A Swedish house DJ selling out the middle gig of the Glasgow Summer Sessions says a lot about mainstream music just now (tickets were still available for Kings Of Leon last week and are still on sale for Eminem on Tuesday). With Avicii it's all about the showmanship: with confetti cannons, smoke geysers and some pretty impressive pyrotechnics culminating in a firework finale, the 23-year-old youngster knows how to take a crowd on an orbital trip with him.
Similarly to Calvin Harris, Avicii (Tim Bergling) was a bedroom DJ whose talent was spotted on the internet by Tiesto, before he also gained support from Pete Tong. By summer 2011, he was playing top nights at Pacha in Ibiza (supporting David Guetta's overgrown house and moneymaking machine), but his breakthrough single Levels made him a global phenomenon going on to play Miami, Las Vegas and headlining the Tomorrowland festival for the past two years.
Back to Bellahouston, Folktronica track Wake Me Up was the anthemic highlight for most of the crowd, unsurprisingly as this is now the fastest selling single of 2013 (knocking Robin Thicke and his controversial music video off the top spot). The final half-hour was a masterclass in crowd control, featuring his endearing mannerism of lip-synching along - even including the more ballad-type tracks - while his boundless energy swept the neon-clad ravers (and a few Glasgow casualties) along with the high productions values, digital and video imagery and super-smart lighting.
For a DJ to command such attention and create such euphoria that revellers took to dancing on make-shift podiums (city council black bins) was quite incredible; only if there had been a full moon would a higher virtual altitude have been possible. Support came from Tinie Tempah and Clyde 1's George Bowie warmed up the crowd.
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