Slope Media Group

Cornell Meets Avicii

Avicii was not a concert for the epileptic. My sober brain could barely handle the lights, colors, and sounds; but all I took in was out of this world. The show offered something for everyone in every state of mind, while the crowd itself created confusion, echoed euphoria, and out performed match dot com.

I have nothing to say regarding the opening act as the line to enter Barton Hall was as long as it was pressured. I arrived at about 7:45, the opener was scheduled to go on at 8:00. When I entered the line I was around the corner from the entrance side about halfway across Barton. For maybe ten or fifteen minutes the line was calm other than little blatant cutting. Upon reaching the entrance side the thickness of the line increased substantially as later spectators joined the line at that point in massive groups.

Pushing in the line became a problem as the crown was funneled into the barricades approaching the entrance. Luckily no one appears to have been injured, but being trampled by the surrounding crowd was a legitimate concern for anyone in the line at that point. Unfortunately these crowded conditions still made incidents such as forcible touching possible. Some felt uncomfortable enough to leave the line. Pockets developed around nooks in Barton’s walls that became impromptu restrooms.

As someone in the line, the security presence was not apparent. Personnel were stationed around the line and near the entrance, asking people to stay back. At one point the doors were closed to all guests until the line calmed down. During my time at Cornell I have never seen an event demand this level of security and doubt this crowd activity could have been anticipated. Additionally, I have not seen an event generate such widespread revelry both beforehand, throughout, and afterwards.

After slowly losing all my friends in an effort to remain vertical, I entered the concert. One benefit (or curse) of a sold-out 5,000-person show in Ithaca is the inevitable presence of some people that you know. Avicii had already started his sets and in moments I was dancing like no one was watching with no one who could actually see anything. Though I got in around 9:30, Avicii remained onstage till 11:30. Two hours of stage time seems unprecedented for any act we have had at Cornell.

This show raised my opinion of Avicii. I like and have always liked “Levels” as much as everyone else, and jumped for joy when he finally played it, but I had never before thought about Avicii himself as a performer. As a disclaimer, I have limited knowledge of what being a DJ entails. I have never created a remix or composed an electronic beat. Hearing about concerts like Avicii, I wondered why DJ’s perform. I am sure they mix sounds and songs live to varying degrees, but it is not like a band that may sounds completely different (for better or worse) than their album. Last night I realized that such a show is about the experience of electronic music and I give Avicii, a.k.a. Tim Bergling, credit for standing up there working the crowd the entire time. I personally had to sit for a good half-hour.

During the afternoon before the show I studied for my prelim in class literally called “Human Perception Applied to Computer Graphics and Visual Display,” and now have a great respect for whoever created the concert’s lightshow and video art. The manipulation of Avicii’s logo and unexpected morphing of images was especially impressive. The show was clearly designed to appeal from any point in the venue and succeeded on that count. As far as I could tell it managed to amaze everyone, and I have not heard of any seizures yet.

Photo Gallery Here

Faces In The Crowd, interviews with concertgoers waiting in line, here