Back in January, when EDM superstar Illenium was putting the finishing touches on his new “Odyssey” residency at Sphere, he told the RJ to expect something “mental” when he played dubstep tonsil-shredder “Slave to the Rithm” on stage for the first time.
Now, if there’s one thing you don’t associate with Illenium — who’s fond of big moments, big budgets, big everything — it’s understatement.
But this was the rare instance in which his words would qualify as just that.
To wit: About 30 minutes into the opening night of “Odyssey” on Thursday, “Slave” begins with animated, sci-fi-worthy visuals of a cyborglike female DJ outfitted with devil horn headphones.
As the beat goes from bubbling to bulldozing, the bass drop hits — thwack! — and off goes her flesh in a burst of green goo, revealing a skeleton with glowing eyes who continues manning the decks, setting a new bar for gnarliness in Sphere’s 2½-year history.
“Mental”? Yeah.
Duel of darkness and light
“Keep on dancin’ ’round like nothing really matters,” Bring Me the Horizon frontman Oli Sykes enjoins on the song’s chorus, before offering listeners a little reassurance. “You are not alone.”
Those two sentiments underscore pretty much everything that Illenium does — including this wild-eyed 90-minute production, for which descriptors like “over-the-top” and “retina-scorching” feel almost quaint, what with all the fire, lasers and angels the size of skyscrapers soaring across a 160,000-square-foot screen.
The “Odyssey” storyline chronicles the journey of two female warriors in search of each other — one clad in black, the other in white, representing darkness and light, a frequent motif in Illenium’s catalog, which is posited on both sonic and thematic uplift.
After a sword fight or two, the pair eventually become one, symbolizing the yin and yang of benevolence and malevolence within humankind.
“Odyssey” inspired Illenium’s new album of the same name, which was written after he booked his Sphere residency and created the storyboards for the production. He mined that record heavily Thursday, from exultant opener “In My Arms” — accompanied by images Illenium’s trademark visual of a phoenix taking flight, wings raining flames— to the nü metal-tinged banger “War” to EDM mood-enhancer “Ur Alive.”
An EDM populist
At various points in the night, Illenium was joined by a female string quartet as well as pianist/vocalist Mako (Alexander Seaver), who doubles as the show’s music director.
“If you’re out there all on your own, when all of the lights start slowly fading,” Mako sang on a dusky, mesmeric “Into the Dark.” “That’s when I carry you home.”
Those words embody what Illenium is all about: ecstatic, anthemic EDM with emotions spelled out in all caps. This is big-tent electronic dance music, the kind meant to be played in stadiums. (And this guy has.)
Above all else, Illenium is an EDM populist, a DJ-producer of the people, to be sure — and you saw it in the crowd, a sizable portion of which came clad in his signature baseball jersey, rooting hard for the home team.
Toward the end of the night, Illenium aired “All That Really Matters,” his monster hit with Teddy Swims, which felt like an encapsulation of both the sh0w and the musician himself.
“Find someone who’ll be there for you,” Swims urges at the outset of the song. “ ’Cause that’s all that really matters in the end.”
By this point, Illenium had made his message clear: To those still looking for that someone, just turn to the dude in the DJ booth.
Odyssey continues on Friday and Saturday, with more shows March 12-14 and April 2-4.
Contact Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476. Follow @jasonbracelin76 on Instagram.
