EDM, electronic dance music, is and has been one of the biggest music genres of the decade. A style of music that is about escapism, exuberance and strong emotions. Sometimes funny, playful and a little superficial. But the one with prejudice about the genre saw another side of the beefy houseboys on Thursday night, both on and in front of the stage.
Not only was the stadium full of people who wanted to pay tribute to an artist, it was also full of artists who wanted to pay tribute to a missing friend and colleague. Sandro Cavazza started the live concert, noticeably taken. The hit Without you, which was previously a nice but little unique song about being left, got a new meaning in the context. Cavazza got something in his eye, but managed to channel the grief of the music, use it as a fuel and send his voice to the top of the arena. The effect was total.
Avicii was one of the biggest stars of the EDM genre. His mega hit Levels from 2011 was very much in the making and created the EDM wave that has been rinsing us ever since, with Summerburst festivals and wine curated by Swedish House Mafia. So how could his music be transferred to analog instruments, played by middle-aged aunts and uncles, without losing any of his soul?
To everyone's great relief, things went well. Really excellent indeed. Chaplain Stefan Olsson managed to create a worthy concert which was at the same time entirely in Avicii's spirit. He kept it pompous and a little porky, often with the help of the blow section. As in Hey Brother, one of Avici's biggest hits, which has a characteristic "drop" for the genre - that is, when the bass is released after a longer evocative build. A song whose core could easily have disappeared in the live format. But to everyone's surprise, the "live drop" at the Friends arena became almost even stronger than the original as the bass and the wind thundered out with full force - real brass has a sound all its own after all.
Duon Vargas & Lagola, ie Salem Al Fakir and Vincent Pontare, have written a lot of music together with Avicii and acted as a kind of informal hosts during the live concert in their stylish white jackets and beautiful silver flies. Tough Love, which they wrote together for the posthumous album, is made to be played live, with its swirling, enchanting ethno-flutes. It was Avicii himself who proposed that it should be sung by a true love couple, and the tour pigeons Vincent Pontare and Agnes Carlsson really succeed in giving flesh and blood to the lyrics. Carlsson, who by the way is a kind of Swedish Beyoncé from Vänersborg - cool and warm at the same time, the voice safe and strong.
Of course, the minus account contains the almost six hours of playing time, the schedule could have been tightened. But with that said, there were few songs that actually felt superfluous, which says something about how many hits Avicii has managed to create in his 28 years. And that someone on stage sometimes loses the beat or whose voice is broken, yes it belongs when singing for a friend who has passed away.
During the evening, Avicii's dad Tim Bergling told in an emotional speech that it had been Avicii's dream that his music should be played by a live band, and that all the DJs and artists of the evening performed absolutely free. Something that does not want to say a little because it is partly about artists who usually do not move out of the spot for less than an ordinary person's entire annual salary.
It glittered in Klas Bergling's eyes and for a moment it looked as if the pride of the son was stronger than the grief. When the trombonist in the band raised his fist and fist-pumped with the trombone in the highest chop, the circle might not be closed, but close. The only thing missing was, of course, Tim Avicii Bergling himself, that he had seen himself acclaimed by the absolute EDM elite to the sound of pyro, confetti and a record audience. And, not least, the strength of his family who, in a terrible situation, managed to create something beautiful in memory of his son.