Sonny Moore, AKA Skrillex, has built up a colossal following in the past 12 months thanks to the internet and airwave plays from stations such as Radio 1 – and how fitting it was to have Zane Lowe as main warm up act on his sold-out Birmingham show.
Playing a mix of tracks, including Dizzee Rascal, Knife Party and even throwing some heavy metal to the mix, Zane Lowe was a perfect tonic for a show which he described as “the hottest show of the year.” And right he was, in more ways than one.
Shortly after, the lights dimmed and Skrillex appeared out of the darkness with ‘Rock N’Roll [Will Take You to the Mountain] getting louder and louder by the second. The infamous ‘Breakn a Sweat’ was next up – and indeed the crowd was. As Zane Lowe mentioned, this was shaping up to be the hottest show of the year, in terms of both heat and performance level.
Skrillex, who later went on to describe this as “the hottest show he’s ever played” regularly interacted with the 3000-plus crowd who, despite it being a Sunday night, ate out the palm of his hand – jumping, clapping and screaming when instructed to.
It wasn’t just his own material that got the crowd going though. Fatman Scoop, La Roux, Avicii & Nero remixes all made their way into the 42-song continuous set, to massive reactions. Over an hour in and the atmosphere was still going strong, with the entire floor bouncing from the front to the back – there was even a mosh pit on the seated balcony.
The loudest feedback of the night revolved around tracks such as ‘Bangarang’ and ‘Cinema’ where, on the latter, Skrillex instructed everyone to sing along and put lighters in the air, to which everyone did, with aplomb.
But that was nothing compared to the noise levels for set closers ‘First of the Year (Equinox)‘ & ‘Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites’, with the “Call 911 now!” and “Oh my god!” soundbites in both tracks respectively the loudest hollers of the night.
Say what you like about Skrillex, but he sure does know how to work a crowd. Every single person in that audience seemed to have went home happy, apart from a bored dad on the front row of the balcony who spent the whole night yawning!
I guess I can now finally forgive him for cancelling all those From First To Last shows in Birmingham down the years.
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