Justice Served at the Commodore

The Parisian pair known as Justice rocked out with their socks out Tuesday night, performing in front of an impressively enthused crowd at the Commodore. I had the pleasure of attending a show I consider one of the most powerful performances I've seen come from that stage... powerful considering the French duo of Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay were flanked by 18 massive Marshall cabinet speakers arranged in two symmetrical squares. This epic show was sold out months beforehand, and in retrospect I can clearly see why.

Wearing their classic black punk-rock uniforms accented with shiny white Oxfords, Justice opened somewhat predictably with the opening track "Genesis", from their only album-to-date, Cross. But from then on in, they were anything but predictable. They quickly started the remix action, doing what they do best with their mash up of electro-funk-rock-disco-new rave-dance-soul beats in Daft Punkian fashion. Their seven-million-hit YouTube anthem "D.A.N.C.E." was unleashed early on, followed by some groovy funk on "Newjack" and a barrage of other songs from their album. My favourite moment came when they teased the crowd with the song that put them on the map, "We Are Your Friends", causing everyone to jump the gun and belt out the lyrics en masse. Following the sing-a-long, the pre-encore portion of the show was concluded, with my personal pick, "Phantom Part Deux". After a small retreat, the duo returned for a short-but-sweet finish of mind-blowing punk rock with some hard-as-hell metal guitar.

This crowd was certainly not typical of Vancouver's normally lethargic and reserved fans. The massive marijuana cloud that hovered above did nothing to calm the gyrating bodies, and only added to the psychedelic effect of the colourful light spectacle bouncing to the computer-generated tunes. Surprisingly there wasn't a sea of toight denim and horizontal stripage, but there were a token few that were donning the quintessential hipster get-up. It was like a scene out of Jesus Camp, where you had people paying homage to the massive lighted cross at the front of the stage. But instead of a dull, old pastor, you had de Rosnay pumping his solitary fist in the air, and Augé iconically raising his arms in the fashion of cross. Call it church, or call it a DJ show... I'm sure many people in attendance Tuesday night agree that it was akin to a religious experience.

Justice played to a capacity crowd on Tuesday, March 25, 2008 at the Commodore.