Chase & Status

It’s not often that I attend parties in old underground railway type car parks with a view to enjoying myself, scrap that, it’s not often that I attend parties in car parks, but as it went, this was the location for Spectrum’s Summer Warehouse Party and I was intrigued. More so when I arrived to a queue of what looked like fifty or so A Level students after college hours. A peculiar mixture of fresh faces and boys sporting the ‘stoner look’ (or so I was told by a rather chipper 20-something in what can only be described as Pyjamas), had I taken the wrong road and ended up at a filming location for Skins?
After a few enquiries I was dazzled to find out that most of the impending party goers were older than me, “f*** I’ve forgotten my I.D” tutted one 27 year old “I know I look about 12, I can’t help it, good genes I guess”. So after the achingly long wait to enter the venue and hundreds of I.D checks, bag searches and over zealous pat downs later, the sounds of DJ Baratone and Dan Neon swelled through the concrete arches of rooms one and two.

Baratone played an altogether good, though audibly nervous set, sometimes failing to make the smooth transitions between songs and at one point, having to be rescued by a member of the technical staff when the music came to a complete halt mid set. However, what he lacked in his prowess for seamless mixing, he made up for in vigour and song choice. The crowd were moving and that was all that mattered.

Moving on to room one (you start at the back you see), Pete Jordan completely blew away. If ever there were a set to completely turn me into a car park partying, Dubstep queen, this was it. An infectious amalgamation of Dubstep, House-esque beats and more mainstream electronica, Jordan stole the crowd, the energy spreading through the party goers like wildfire, leaving Hot City, in the room parallel, playing to a handful of people in comparison. With mixing effects used lavishly and transitions made to beat perfection, Jordan’s set was a highlight of the evening and the perfect prelude to headliners, Chase & Status.

By this point, feet and thighs were aching, sweat was dripping and the high arched ceilings were retaining the heat like the walls of steam room, yet the party went on and when Chase & Status finally took to the stage, only hours after a huge set at this year’s Wireless Festival, the energy was high, the crowd were buzzing and the roaring beats and bone shaking basslines continued in truly inventive manner. When you are as big as Chase & Status it could be easy to just churn out your hits and a few remixes, but the fan favourites were not only creative with their mix choices, they were astoundingly good.

Their set consisted of fan favourites from seemingly all of their albums, including chart topping Let You Go, Time and Hypest Hype, also managing to throw in new single Hitz, featuring Tinie Tempah, he wasn’t there, however, not that anybody cared. With Mc Rage along for the ride, Chase & Status stomped through a set of well crafted Dubstep, breakbeat and catchy dance mixes, making their session a standout melting pot of genres.

Samples ingeniously crafted into the groups own creations included Damien Marley’s reggae hit Welcome To Jamrock and they even transformed funky 80s pop hit Crush On You by The Jets into an electronic classic.

Encouraging sets from Nero, Red Light and Tomba later, into the early hours of the morning, were good, but it came as no surprise that Chase & Status, rightfully, stole the show. With the sun firmly up, ears ringing and heads buzzing, over the course of the next hour or so bodies slowly filtered out of the rooms, past the high arches and found their way home. Despite my exhaustion (it is exhausting being pounded from every direction by excitable dancing bodies), never has more fun been had in an abandoned warehouse, though by the looks of what could be next years answer to Skins, I doubt most of the nights crowd could have said the same.
www.LondonWarehouseEvents.co.uk