Monday, October 22, 2007

MIA > JUSTICE (PART 1: JUSTICE)


This past week was a busy one for Toronto-area hipsters. Arguably the two most facebooked-about shows, Justice and M.I.A., stumbled to town with only two days rest in between; barely enough time for the kids to wash the sweat from their american apparel headbands in time for round two.

Thursday night, the infamous leather clad franco-duo justiiiiice (pronounced justiiiiice) took their mac books in front of a sold-out (twice) crowd of 3000+ish. The show was originally booked in at Republik, but sold out so fast that not moving it to a larger venue would have been a definite injustice. So instead, they took the show to Circa, the new $7 million night club/amusement park (live themed models in glass aquariums! bars in bathrooms! 3 story escalator!) that just opened its doors a week-ish ago. It, too, sold out ridiculously fast. And at $20/ticket, it comes as no surprise.

This is about the time that I go against every unwritten blogger rule, and likely against the opinions of the other writers on BTA, and and be the first person in the entire world to write that Justice wasn't really that good at all.

From the reviews that I had read previous to the show, including our own from the Vancouver gig, I was expecting an experience so surreal that even the most pleasurable brain hemmorage couldn't compete. What I got instead was a room full of over-enthused flourescent fashion victims dancing their hammerpants off to two dudes playing pre-programmed tunes from their iBooks. AKA the exact same thing I could catch at any DJ gig at any point, in any club. Even their remixes sounded like they could've been pulled straight from hype machine.

It got me thinking about starting a Justice "cover band", where I stand up and play their insanely popular debut record from my own computer, and people still lose their shit.

With that said - I'm glad I went. The buzz in the crowd was electric, but I just didn't see/hear anything to suggest that it was one for the record books, as most of the literature/hype surrounding this tour has led everyone to believe. No matter how stoked everyone got for the gig, there's only so much you can do as a couple of DJs and a halogen cross.

Despite my shit-talking, here are a couple tracks that you've all heard 1000000 times already. Oh, and thanks to the random dude whose (fucking rad!) photo i stole off facebook for his unbeknownst generosity.

Justice - Genesis
Justice - Phantom II (Soulwax Nite Remix)




- bbbykmbrly.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Okay, so Justice didn't impress you. My question is, were you all hepped up on goofballs, or were you not all hepped up on goofballs? Cause to really enjoy a Justice show being all hepped up on goofballs is likely a pre-requisite.
I wait in anticipation for Part 2.

Anonymous said...

I wasn't. I also wasn't with people who were that into losing their minds (and potentially their lives) deep in the dance floor. so i saw it a bit more of an observer than a participant. and when you're strictly observing, DJs just aren't that interesting.