Before Avicii’s headlining set at Sweetgreen’s Sweetlife Food & Music Festival on Saturday, part of the crowd at Columbia, MD’s Merriweather Post Pavilion inexplicably started chanting: “USA! USA!” Clearly, though, the Swedish DJ, who will kick off his all-arena tour on May 17 in Houston, knows that America doesn’t matter so much when it comes to his rousing genre of radio-friendly house music.
Besides his own hits and remixes, highlights of the set included Swedish House Mafia’s “Save the World” and fellow Swede Alesso and SHM member Sebastian Ingrosso’s “Calling (Lose My Mind),” featuring Ryan Tedder (an American!). And, of course, Frenchy David Guetta and Aussie Sia’s “Titanium” never fails. Predictable, no doubt, but it worked. And starting “Levels” with the chorus of Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know” is just cheating at this point. That’s like serving bitter chocolate cake before dinner. But all those teenagers with the glowsticks didn’t seem to mind at all.
It’s worth noting that second headliner Kid Cudi was in great form before Avicii, closing with a mad burst of energy — three songs, no pauses — taking “Erase Me” into the climax of “Day ‘n Nite” and then quickly moving on. We laughed earlier when Cudi noted that he was playing music from way back in 2008. Oh, he’s such a kid, we thought. But then again, he’s 28 and Avicii’s just 22. Ah, youth.