CHASE & STATUS | LIVE REVIEW
Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff, Thurs 7 Nov
Like many Glastonbury fans, whether watching on TV or at the festival itself, I saw the Rolling Stones rather than the act headlining the Other Stage. This was on account of figuring there was no way I’d ever see Mick and Keith, especially Keith, do their thing live again. I satisfied the nagging doubt that I missed having more fun watching the Stones’ competing headliners, East London duo Chase & Status, by seeing them bring their catalogue of hits to life at the Motorpoint Arena.
Chase & Status have helped to bring drum’n’bass firmly into the mainstream. Main support act Netsky, not far behind the headliners in the d’n’b underground/chart crossover stakes, did an excellent job building a rave-like atmosphere before the sheets were lifted and the words CHASE and STATUS were lit up on stage. It took until Blind Faith to get the crowd singing along and then Moko took to the mic with vocals for latest single Count On Me. For some reason the sample of 90s chart dance crew New Atlantic inspired a reprise of another craze from that decade – moshing. Little circles sporadically appeared in the crowd, with bare-chested teenage stewards providing access to these dance floors within dance floors.
Though fun, the moshing seemed wrong through the more chilled Lost And Not Found. Towards the end we started to understand what may have inspired the moshing when Chase – aka Saul Milton – came back on stage for the encore and unleashed a sample of Rage Against the Machine’s Killing In The Name. Quite a few more shirts came off and the crowd went crazier still.
words and photo ALED SINGLETON
