French electronic duo Justice whips Showbox with awesome show

by Albert Rodriguez - SGN A&E Writer MySpace Music Tour w/ Justice, Diplo March 24 The Showbox (SoDo) I was a sweaty, stinking, exhausted mess when I left The Showbox (SoDo) on Monday night, following Justice's super-high energy performance. Not surprisingly, others were in worse shape. The three-time Grammy nominees marched onstage at 10:30 sharp to the screams of a sardine-packed house. An illuminated cross at the center and a platform with two turntable stations were the only things visible. The drumroll and sampled horns of "Genesis" began to blare. Then, as if whipped by a crisp leather belt, the music began pouring through the speakers, stacked three layers high on both sides, and there stood Xavier de Rosnay and Gaspard Auge at the dance altar. The party started. A 90-minute bash that was loud, hot, pulsating, and nothing short of exciting. Imagine the dance floor at Neighbours jammed on a weekend night with equal portions of guys and girls. Everyone is sweating, pods of people bouncing, and the music is at an intense volume. Now, quadruple that image. Triple it again. That was Monday night at The Showbox. For this show, there were no stage props excluding the lighted cross - a Justice trademark incorporated from their symbol-titled album - and de Rosnay and Auge never addressed the audience. Not with words, at least. They did, however, deliver an outright spectacle of a performance. Whatever anyone expected, it went beyond that. Strobe lights twisted in every direction and a sea of dancing concertgoers filled the venue from the main floor pit to the backend, where the 21-plus crowd got busy with drinks in hand. I started on the cusp of the pit, then snaked my way to the adults-only section midway through the concert - and both areas were out of control. From their stateside debut, Justice played a riveting mix of "DVNO" and a slick, quicker-paced version of "D.A.N.C.E." (SGN's Single/Track of the Year, 2007). Around me, college-aged boys bobbed their heads during both numbers and taught me some new moves. I sent them home with a lesson, too, after pulling out a few tricks from my old Chemical Brothers days. The chorus of "We Are Your Friends" bubbled up, a single initially released by fellow Euro-electronic artists Simian, and the audience began chanting, "We are your friends! / You'll never be alone again! / Come on! / Come on!" The chanting continued, and then an audio swirl of sirens, R&B hooks and funk-house beats seeped throughout - all the while, the crowd chanting the chorus over and over, pumping their fists in the air simultaneously. At a concert like this, which reminds me of the Basement Jaxx show in 2001, it gets so heated in the pit that a candy bar would probably melt in your back pocket. Surrounded by the smell of fresh and old sweat, combined with bad breath and cheap vodka, isn't how I'd normally choose to spend a midweek evening. But when the music is this excellent and the energy is off the chart, you simply go with the flow. A penetrating rendition of "Stress" took the night into overdrive. At this point, I knew a phone call to my chiropractor and massage therapist the following morning was unavoidable. At the backend bar, a cluster of presumably hetero and not-so-straight hipsters took advantage of the additional space to get their dance on. Elsewhere, it was shoulder to shoulder. Hands clapped in unison. The lights, in blues and whites and reds, rippled throughout. Two encores would finally cap the performance, and yet everyone wanted more. They stood there, sweaty and undeniably tired, yet they yelled, "more, more, more!" But that would do it. Justice had left the building. The inaugural MySpace Music Tour features the Parisian-based duo as headliners for the entire 18-city itinerary. Diplo and Fancy were slated as opening acts for the Seattle date, but the latter encountered visa problems that prevented them from performing on Monday night.