11/29/24, Chase and Status, Mission Ballroom
I don't think there could have been a better time to move back to Colorado. The 3rd week of November greeted me with a roadtrip through Palm Springs, Santa Fe, and Thanksgiving.
Scheduling a trip in November is one of the best ways to skip the labor day crowds, but still being able to take time off to celebrate a time of year that often gets overlooked by the Holidays.
The Venue: Mission Ballroom, RiNo, Denver, Colorado
Thanksgiving was celebrated thoroughly on Thursday. Friday was Chase and Status. Mission Ballroom. Ravers in Colorado have no idea how good they’ve had it for the last couple years. Location wise it's in North Denver and away from any sort of dense populated area. The Palladium in Hollywood could be a good comparison but the location is even better. After a show at the Palladium you could be on some Psychedelic Vibrations that could easily create problems for you once those start to blend with the harsh vibrations of Hollywood Boulevard. Mission is in a quiet area away from any busy streets, tucked away like it's any other building. Left Hand Brewery has what looks like a tasting room right across from the entrance. That is so unbelievably dangerous. Left hand makes a mean nitro milk stout that is way too easy to delete on the slopes or at a show. When I go to Greensky Bluegrass at the end of this month I'm sure going to make a pit stop there and get some of that Longmont Water in my system. A review of the finest ales produced by Left Hand should also be appropriate as well.
Enough about beer and the vibes from the outside… The venue as a whole is an architectural masterpiece on the inside. Reminds me of how a Roman Emperor would have designed a modern music venue. It looks so deceiving when you walk in. It feels like the size of your average movie theater, not a concert venue. As soon as you get down the hall you're met by this vast open floor that sucks all your attention towards the big stage. The LED screen behind the stage fills the space behind the booth perfectly. Dimensionally, it takes up enough room so that even when I was in the upper deck sitting right on the furthest apex away from the stage, it looked perfect. It wasn’t too big, wasn't too small, and the lasers were stellar. The budget for the production added so much to the nearly perfect acoustics that allowed you to resonate with so many different types of Binral sensations that were amplified by the venue.
The Performance: Chase and Status
The Set that they performed was different from any of the other sets that I saw them perform this year. Their set at the Palladium in March was a very traditional DnB set. Extremely high tempo, lots of HiHat, and lots and lots of Baddadans dropped on us in the crowd. Chase and Status when I first saw them were able to really break me out of my shell in terms of the genres that I found unique. DnB has grown so much in the United States in 2024 because of how aggressively Chase and Status have conquered the US with their intense touring schedule. Artists that deserve a heaping load of credit in developing Gen Z’s interest in DnB this year as well are Dimension and Sub Focus. Sub Focus was playing DnB on one of the biggest Stages at EDC Las Vegas! Who would have thought that would've happened at EDC Las Vegas this year? Not me! Deamau5 catching a drone with a net was another random moment that grabbed the internet by the balls…EDC Vegas is not real.
Anyway… I got sucked into a tangent there. The highlight from the Set at Mission Ballroom was not only how great the production was but how they decided to play some brand new music that has yet to be ID’d. I can't even explain with words how cool it was to hear 2 legends absolutely tear up some experimental bass DnB that sounded even better because of the cocoon of Bass that is Mission Ballroom. Remembering as much of that inspiration as possible is going to be tough… thankfully I have a decent enough memory that can store vibrations for as long as I need them too.
The crowd in the Upper Deck was one of the best i've been apart of in Colorado at an EDM Show. Average age was 25 and people were polite, chill, but still able to rage as much as they want without disturbing anybody's peace. The Floor was filled with some of the most Wooked out teenagers i've ever seen. I was one of them… but I wasn’t able to frequent a venue like the mission ballroom on a daily basis. That felt just like a crowd at Hulaween or Electric forest. A Goose crowd compares but it's slightly older but still filled with that youthful glow. The youthful glow that heals your soul and reverses your age. One of the most beautiful and oldest magic tricks that's performed on a daily basis.