Hello there!
I see you liked my post about the
Daft Punk Pyramid...but what about that new Paris duo everybody is talking about...they're still far from what Daft Punk did although they're on their way to become the new electro legends:
Justice.
All together, and including the show at Rock Werchter a few weeks ago, this was the 10th time I saw the chou-chous of Pedro Winter and cash cows of Ed Banger Records perform.
An overview...
Early 2006: I received a vinyl..."Waters of Nazareth"...and was immediately blown away. "What is this? How do you call this kind of music?" Damn, this sounded like hard rock, metal but with a beat and a lot of distortion. A new world order! (afterwards I discovered that Justice already had that club hit remix of Simian Mobile Disco "We are you're friends")
The white Justice sampler ends up in my cd player...it's a collector's item now. Damn good productions with remixes from Death From Above, Franz Ferdinand, Mr. Oizo, Daft Punk,etc.!
2006 Pukkelpop, Kiewit: the first show...Justice plays the Dancehall (if I'm not mistaken), anyway...check the videos! It is still an unforgettable moment. The hall was half empty in the beginning and packed by the end of the set. Ed Banger takes over the (big) Belgian festivals...and it started here.
http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=3FvxVisxb5k ("We are your friends")
2006 I Love Techno, Gent: Again Justice, invited by Soulwax/2 Many DJs, joining Boys Noize, Tiga, Ellen Allien & Apparat, ...great night, but not the very best DJ set by Justice. (they were spinning vinyl)
Or at least Xavier was. I never understood what Gaspard was doing during the sets. :-)
http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=eBVW_PqJCvI
2007 Body to Body, Culture Club, Gent: Justice spins the Pioneer decks (3 of them) together with Ed & Kim, Dr. Lektroluv & Cajuan. Un-fu-***-ing be-lie-ve-ble night. Ok, just for the fun of it, we dressed up...or something. No comment. You were not there, so shut up, and stop laughing ;-)
2007 Les Nuits Botaniques, Brussels: Justice, flanked by Goose & Joakim. First time I saw Goose live...damn they are good too. And Justice plays a party set like Busy P woud do. The popular tunes, ending with RATM...and Meet her at the love parade - Da Hool (jeezes). I was quite dissappointed 'cause I didn't hear a lot of their own remixes and too much commercial crap.
http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=TwfAX862l3Y (We are Your Friends vs Klaxons)
2007 Dour, Eastpak Core Stage: It's Erol teaching Xavier some tricks, and I have the impression that the China Man doesn't even understand what Erol is doing or saying. But it's a bomb! Mehdi, Feadz, Uffie, Sebastian, Busy P, yes, it's Ed Banger Label night! Only that damn smell at Dour...I'm sure they do it on purpose!
2007 Pukkelpop, Kiewit: another Justice party, this time the place is on fire, Justice starts to get a grip on all young kids, including the little bit older Peter Pan boys, like me. Oh, important...Justice now plays "(LIVE)" these days and says goodbye to the party DJ-sets. They have the Marshall amp wall, the huge Cross, and an impressive monster computer + lightshow...(but we'll get back to those things in my next post - grin). It's a good show, a bit slow, too many breaks, but all by all worth the money. It's certainly the commercial breakthrough. Justice goes mainstream with uncatholic music, it's a fact, some people still tell me their music is so 'underground', 'uncommercial', 'hard to reach', blahblahblah...
Stupid excuses. Go listen to 50 Cent then, and please get lost, will ya.
But I rest my case. I'm a fan and I love it. I admit.
2007 I Love Techno, Gent: Again Justice with the live show, they improved a lot since Pukkelpop, and we still can't see what they are doing behind that dark wall of theirs. But it's damn loud and surprisingly good. Some promo flyers + Cross stickers I had were grabbed, almost ripped out of my hands in a few minutes. Amazing!
(Yes, I missed out SoulwaxMas in December...but check my "Colombia" posts and you'll see I had a good time as well. Even without Justice...)
2008 Ancienne Belgique, Brussels. This hall is known for its incredible sound quality, good atmosphere, so this must be good. No mass hysteria, but a qualitative show...and yes...that's what it is. You've read all about it. They have an act now, holding their breath 30 sec after the we are you friends acapella, cool idea. Some nice mix-tricks & metal mash-ups. The rest can be found in previous posts.
http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=-S-o0GmU42s
2008 Pinkpop, NL: The same gimmicks as during the AB show, but they are here to stay. Even on the big festivals in Holland they seem to succeed. And Dutchies don't speak that much French, so it's rather new for them. "It only gets better!", is what I write down. Every time. And the people love Justice.
2008 Rock Werchter, Pyramid Marquee (not yet on mainstage :-)
Great show, I was bouncing, and raving with the other kids - although they seem to be younger? :-). Had to recover for 2 days, cramps in my legs everywhere. It was top-notch.
But some say it was soo-oo loud.
Well, "If it's too loud, you're too old" (thx So Me, nice quote).
And then there is that special 1 time. That's somewhere when we had diner and a conversation together: Justice, Kavinsky & So Me; we drank wine, talked about a Prodigy remix, smoked something and exchanged Justice remix ringtones. I gave them my ringtone remix, Gas & So Me should still have it...somewhere.
Next time, I'll post some info on their live show.