Avicii, Superstar DJ, Hits Sundance
Swedish DJ Avicii spun at the XS pop-up club at Park City Live during Sundance—but it almost didn’t happen.
The night got off to a pretty rocky start.
Park City Live, a concert venue located smack in the middle of bustling Main Street in Park City, Utah, is playing host to a pop-up of the famed XS nightclub at Vegas’s Wynn Hotel during the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. Without the sprawling space of the Vegas outpost at its disposal, the Wasatch Mountain version was cramped, caliginous, and peppered with everyone from dudes with headbands and modish dance music trollops to that rare breed of train wreck that’s thoroughly convinced herself she’s Samantha from Sex and the City but more closely resembles an overserved Real Housewives reject. And there were busty, half-naked dancers being ogled by creeps with widow’s peaks. And Paris Hilton was there. Why she continues to violate Sundance is anyone’s guess.
Around 11:15 p.m., the time superstar DJ Avicii was supposed to take the stage, the music suddenly stopped. But the well-coiffed Swede was nowhere to be found. Instead, the venue’s manager took to the mic informing everyone that the lights would have to go up for five minutes at the fire marshal’s request. As the lights went up, an inebriated gentleman in a cardigan clutching a Monster energy drink shouted, “Now we can see how ugly the chicks are!” I wish I could deck this stupid asshole.
After five minutes of mulling about, the opening act, C.C. Sheffield, resumed her duties behind the decks, screaming, “What the fuck was that all about?” To her credit, she did a helluva job—even premiering an unreleased Deadmau5 song. Then, two tables of homely fellows engaged in a champagne fight of sorts, spraying bottles of Moët at one another, and soaking several unfortunate bystanders in the process. ’Cause, you know, to waste several bottles of champagne at a Utah nightclub means you’re a pretty big deal.
Just past midnight, Tim Bergling—better known as Avicii—finally took over. And it was, surprisingly, worth the wait. The 23-year-old, who’s been nominated for a Grammy, was named the world’s No. 3 mix master by DJ Magazine, and recently became the first DJ to headline Radio City Music Hall in New York City, launched into an animated set, replete with seizure-inducing lights, that ran the gamut from Swedish House Mafia and Rihanna remixes to his hits “Silhouettes” and “Levels.”
Music, it seems, heals even the ugliest of wounds.