- In Chicago, it's increasingly rare for an electronic act to sell out a large venue, especially the 1,100 capacity Metro. But for the French duo Justice, a group whose hard and funky aesthetic easily straddles the boundaries of both rock and electronic music, this was just another stop on the path to a solid position in America's musical consciousness. Their widely-praised debut album, †, still sits in Billboard's top five electronic albums after fourteen weeks (having peaked at number one), while their distortion-dredged bass licks continue to reach into the wallets of consumers who would never think to buy an electronic album otherwise. And while their Chicago show wasn't all about money, having deep pockets certainly helped: tickets for the long sold out show were being sold for $100 a pop.
I had to miss the first half of Melbourne trio Midnight Juggernauts' set because of a protracted guestlist situation ("It's really busy in here, man," a Metro employee admitted, "I don't know anything about new lists."), but walked in to find the already packed-in audience enthusiastically bopping along with their synth-heavy dance rock. The bassist was plucking mightily to get a popping bass sound which helped draw comparisons to their touring partners, while vocalist/keyboardist Vince alternated between a pained howl and David Byrne-ian utterances. The Juggs draw as much on Klaxons' and The Presets' synthetic nu-rave stylings as from the dance-punk revival of the first half of this decade, which helped connect the audience's rock receptors to their behinds. I couldn't get into their jaunty tunes, but they proved a good warm up for the genre-spanning headliners.
Still buzzing from the MJs and under the influence of death metal blasted from the PA, the cramped audience whipped themselves into a into a frenzy of chants and clap campaigns. Soon Justice's impressive live rig was revealed - a small booth flanked by two walls of nine Marshall amplifiers - much to the audience's delight. When the lights went off, the crowd lost its marbles in a flurry of digital camera flashes and mobile phone snaps and cheered as Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay manned the decks. From the opening bars of its 'Genesis' intro it was apparent the pair was taking a bit of their DJ skills and a page or two from Daft Punk's playbook for the construction of their set. Rather than playing tunes straight through, Augé and de Rosnay spliced together bits from the full breadth of their back catalog, including remixes. And the times when they did let their deafening riffs ring out in full, they were stretched longer and to even more piercing timbres, much to the delight of the completely bonkers audience (who, despite being a bit baffled by the format, lapped up every note).
'D.A.N.C.E.' began completely a cappella and surrounded by crowd vocals, before erupting into the best remix of a tune not committed to wax. The digitized vocals of Mr. Oizo's 'Nazis' added even more menace to the brutally noisy 'Stress'. 'Phantom' and 'Waters of Nazareth' got fists pumping as much as asses shaking. And what Justice performance would be complete without an over the top version of 'We Are Your Friends' with which to scream along? Augé and de Rosnay seemed to enjoy themselves between moments of intense concentration - the former was more likely to directly engage the audience as one of his main duties was to simply turn on and off the iconic cross at the front of their rig.
Their set ended rather abruptly, which had fans drooling for more and chanting for their heroes' return. And in Chicago, you don't deny your audience an encore, so the two ambled back to their rig for their rendition of Soulwax's hit 'NY Excuse'. What followed was truly unexpected: Metallica's 'Master of Puppets' chopped to include only the seminal intro for a full-fledged metal assault. If there was any doubt that Augé and de Rosnay knew how to read their audience, it was banished by the crowd's roar of approval. Soon we were being herded out of the club, a bit sweaty and with ringing ears. Justice have hit a sweet spot in music fan's taste which lends itself extremely well to live shows. If more electronic acts knew how to harness rock fans' zeal and dance fan's penchant for booty-shaking there would be a lot more sold out shows in Chicago.