Calvin Harris and Tiësto, Earls Court - music review

The Drinking from the Bottle DJ and headliner Tiësto transformed Earls Court into a gigantic, spectacularly lit rave
Dutch DJ Tiesto from Scotland performs in the ZiggoDome in Amsterdam on October 19, 2013 at the Amsterdam Dance Event.
PAUL BERGEN/AFP/Getty Images
2 January 2014

For all that DJ culture quickly dated and now has the nostalgic hue of 21st century Teddy Boys, it still has the power to transform Earls Court into a gigantic, spectacularly lit rave. Some men charging some people to watch them play some records may suggest money entwined with old rope but, as we all know, it ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it.

A 2013 Ivor Novello Award-winner (for songwriting, no less), Calvin Harris now makes records with Florence Welch and Rihanna but he rose via DJ-ing and, like a herdsman transplanted to the city, he remembers the old ways. Hidden in darkness (he may have merely pushed a “play” button and waved his arms around for an hour), Harris leavened his own hits (most thrillingly Drinking from the Bottle) with remixes, not least his reworking of The Killers’s When You Were Young.

Tiësto may be the last superstar DJ but the former Tijs Verwest elevated proceedings to another level. The headliner Hollander’s sound was brutal, with barely a nod to the mainstream bar the relatively poppy Footprints (All Over the World), but merging stadium house’s trademark euphoric keyboard rush with foundations-rattling electro, he rode the crowd’s moods like a rodeo star.

The 44-year-old had little to say beyond “you guys are amazing” during the encore but as he understood so well, his audience had come to move, not to chat.

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