Ryan Rimmer here, aka Silascopathic (SoundCloud – winner of the Theophilus London remix contest), with my takeaways from Monday night’s Justice show at the House of Blues Boston. You can read my previous post about Dada Life in Providence as part of the Winter White Tour HERE.
I had never seen Justice before and thus did not know what to expect. When I arrived to the show Pedro Winter, aka Busy P, was on. I learned this guy used to manage Daft Punk about four years ago. Up until this point in my life I had never heard so much French Electro at one time. I must say this was a sound I had been missing for a while. It was refreshing to not know any of the tracks he was playing and it was even more refreshing to hear new sounds that weren’t the same recycled styles we seem to be hearing in the US. If you have never heard of Busy P, check him out – I would even travel significant distances to go groove with him.
Busy P left the stage and within a few minutes a glowing cross was all the crowd could see. Soon after Justice’s booth started to blink and twinkle with multi-colored LED lights. Once the lights came on we could see Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay on stage. The first thing I noticed was their booth was made to look like a bunch of audio gear, which explains all the blinking lights. They were surrounded by 18 Marshall half stacks (amplifiers, pictured above). I had no idea what they were planning on using those for but I accepted the fact that they were pretty bad ass as I danced out to “Civilization”, which Justice chose as an opening song (after they played the Star Spangled Banner).
As the set went on I felt like I was at an electronic rock opera rather than a rave, which again was very refreshing. As the show progressed, the stage backdrop came alive with bright led lights which would create patterns and strobe (it was literally a wall of LED lights) along with the spot lights shining brightly on the crowd. Eventually the Marshall stacks proved useful as they were each lined with an LED panel – but the stacks were merely props and not actual amplifiers. I seriously half-expected to see pyrotechnics and if that had happened I wouldn’t have been surprised at all.
Although the show was amazing, it didn’t have the flow of an EDM show where the music is continuous and there’s always a beat going. Justice would stop the music every now and then, or let the beat stop to allow some synths or strings play alone. Some of the sounds were a bit much on my ears and at times I wish I had sunglasses to deflect the bright lights coming into my eyes. I enjoyed hearing some of the classics like “D.A.N.C.E.” (they actually went into “On To The Next One” by Jay-Z which the “D.A.N.C.E.” sample is used on) and “Genesis”.
I snuck upstairs into the Foundation Room (the House of Blues’ Feng Shui lounge) for the official after party to watch as Mike Vincent and DJ Spiezio traded 30-minute sets in what turned out to be a great party! (I guess that is what happens when the House of Blues has an all-ages show with a 10:45pm curfew). I also heard that after I left Gaspard and Xavier actually came up and hung out for a bit. I would definitely see Justice again, but if I had a choice I would see Busy P over Justice any day of the week. I guess ultimately I was going there looking to see a DJ spinning and having a good time. Busy P definitely delivered the sounds, but Justice delivered the show.
