Club Report: The Vanguard

By in Club Reports

The sign now says The Vanguard but most of us know it simply as Firestone.
Gutted and completely renovated, we arrived shortly after the 10PM opening to find a crowd already growing and the best we could do was standing in row 2.
The opener was DJ Butler (USA) and we really enjoyed his set. He would combine both old and new EDM songs with Dubstep and DnB vibes.
Which had the overall young crowd “head-banging” to DnB as if we were back at last’s week’s Forbidden Kingdom music festival.
Still a little bit of capacity in there but it was filling quickly on this sold-out show.
There was already a shift change taking place at 10:45PM. Sad to see Butler leave.
Up next, DJ Shinobi (USA).
His set was rather odd. We know openers are not supposed to step on any of the headliner’s toes but his set was all over the place and rarely gave a hint that this was supposed to be a night of Drum & Bass.
A lot of people but overall kind of quiet. He had ask the audience more than once, “Orlando, let me hear some fuckin’ noise!”
Was hoping there would be only two openers but we got a third at 11:45PM.
DJ Pocket. (GB)
His set was better than the last guy, IMO, but not by a whole lot. At least some of his tunes were DnB with a pre-recorded MC providing narration.
Wall-to-wall as the magic hour approached.
Speaking of MC’s, we had earlier run into one of the nation’s best: MC Collaborator (USA) spotted here with Stephanie. They should have had him up there on stage to liven things up.
And then at 1AM, there they he were was: DJ duo Chase & Status (GB).
We didn’t get a DJ duo, we got one of them. I think we got Chase but as is typical at The Vanguard, they keep it so dark it was hard to tell. This was the best pic we could get, lol. But he delivered a Jungle sound that most everyone came to hear.
Looking at their tour schedule, we see that Chase & Status plays tonight at a music festival in Italy and at a club in Dallas. Apparently, if you can play in two places thousands of miles apart on the same date, you can double your income.
Packed to the rafters.
The lasers began flying.
From the mumbling around me on the floor to reading Facebook this morning, there was disappointment that we did not get Chase & Status in full.