Chase & Status @ The Sphere

Chase & Status: Live at The Sphere

Over the years, whenever a new venue opens—whether it’s the next club in Fremont East, a modern lounge in The Arts District, or even a seedy dive bar on the east side—Vegas Junglists are always surrounded by the excitement. The first and favorite go-to statement that collectively comes to the table is, “We should try to get a DnB night in there! (and we’ll call it church)”

So naturally, when the news of the Sphere opening hit social media, we all wondered how long it would take for them to “put some MF DnB in there?!” The answer is two years, and with the excitement building from the announcement of UNITY and Chase & Status, the dopamine rush was so powerful we all paid festival pricing to see the iconic DJ duo.

Now, this event marks the third time I’ve seen them in just over a year. The first of the three times was at Electric Castle in Transylvania. I had the opportunity to catch their LIVE set with full band and features (and TWO bitchin’ drummers); the second time was a free DJ set inside a skate park by the ocean, the day after the Apocalypse bass music festival in Long Beach,CA. Both experiences were aesthetically magical in their own way.

I saw them once near a forest surrounded by historical architecture and another time adjacent to the briny sea; however, both experiences would be hard to compete with since The Sphere has its own brilliance and reputation. Even though I don’t care for techno, I found the visuals of the Anyma show this last January to be captivating AF. So I figure if there was any way to top the prior, it would be this show. Since The Rabbit Hole bass music crew invited me out, I swooped up their extra ticket, and tagged along for the ride.

Las Vegas is the home of price gouging, and this is “The Sphere,” so the idea of paying for parking was inevitable. It’s something we locals learned to “charge to the game” from time to time on a fancy night out. I dropped $30 and still had to walk a quarter mile through The Palazzo feeling financially abused until hearing the homies paid $50 for their space, so I guess comparatively I saved $20 and got some steps in (I’ll count it as a draw). We met at the “West Sphere Entrance” (an entrance that faces north) and headed to the concession stand. I don’t drink, so I’m not sure how high those prices were, but I got a snack and water for somewhere around $10, which isn’t the worst hand a Vegas venue dealt me, so points on that!

The opening of the show was “UNITY,” an Alice in Wonderland-themed spectacle featuring a full-chair orchestra playing over what seemed like Avicii’s greatest hits… it was a lot of early 2010s Big Room, which I would have detested normally, but the graphics running up the walls were so super entertaining that I took it in as a carnival ride with synchronized dancers and a strings section, not so much a music performance. They also played Badadan during their set, which I’m sure the headliner loved; I chuckled.

One thing that didn’t make sense was that the opening act had more visual focus in their set than the headliner did. This disappointed a lot of us because we all thought at some point during the Chase & Status set, the visual graphics engineer just packed it up and went home because they essentially left it on the desktop wallpaper background of a tree for the rest of the performance (don’t get me wrong, it was a friggin’ sweet tree), but if you’re paying the venue expense for the sphere, they could at least pop in a copy of The Goonies and let that roll, or you know, ANYTHING else that’s consistently changing and engaging. All Sphere Cliff Notes aside, let’s get into the main event.

Obviously there’s not much I can do in attempts to describe the absolute madness of a set that ensued other than a whole crowd of positive vibes dancing in their zones to timeless releases and newer tracks turned instant classics like their banger Disconnect ft. Becky Hill, and I don’t care what the salty memes say; Badadan never gets old to me. The room could have been bassier, but I don’t think the sphere really “GETS DnB,” Not many venues do. They invested a lot of time on half-assed visual focus and neglected to remember that we came for BASS, and the sound could have been pushed up for the occasion, but it wasn’t. I’m hoping some of these notes will get to them.

All production and venue aside, our boys from the UK ABSOLUTELY killed it and gave us an energizing set we won’t soon forget. Now check out the sweet footage and follow me on IG [@The_6h057] for more reckless insights!

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