I was in Florida, enjoying the sand and sun when I got a text message from one of those friends you immediately become close to after the first encounter: Lola. She asked me if I was a fan of Justice, and I replied yes, even though their indie-rock-leaning often makes me hesitate confessing my love for them in public. Minutes later, we had tickets to attend the third leg of their new world tour in Boston.
The venue, House of Blues, is across the street from the historic Fenway Park, home to the Boston Red Sox and the first and only place I’ll ever watch the most boring game on Earth: baseball. It’s outside facade is misleading, you’d think the place was just another bar or restaurant. On the inside though, it’s a massive warehouse-like area with a main arena and two smaller upper levels.
We were of course in the main arena, where all the cool people who want to enjoy themselves and dance are. I’d estimate somewhere between 4000 and 5000 people attended, and we all came early. We were there by 7:00PM and the show started at 8:00PM sharp with Busy P, a French DJ who impressed us deeply with his analog-feel mastery of electro music. I kept my dancing at a minimum during his set though, I was saving myself for the main act!
Then, as I had foretold, they opened with “Genesis” and followed it up with a very extended version of “Civilization”. The trademark stage with the huge illuminated Justice Cross then opened up, revealing a keyboard which each half of the French duo played at one point during the concert. Another delightful surprise was when the music stopped for a few minutes, and Justice froze on stage, till someone finally caught on and began singing “We are your friends” which brought the duo back to life and the speakers blazing “you’ll never have to be alone again”
Other tracks like their remix of D.A.N.C.E and On’n'On made the night complete, with song after song making every single hand fly up into the air and every pair of shoes stomp with the bass. The energy of the crowd was beautiful, everyone was happy and polite, no shoving and angry faces like you see in Beirut events. What was awesome was the punctuality too. It was a Monday and most of us had work or university the next day, so the concert began 7 and was wrapping up before midnight, allowing you both a healthy dose of partying, but enough hours to recover for the next day!
All in all, it was an amazing night and the cherry on top of my USA tour. I can now cross off Justice Live from my bucket list and say I made a very good friend in the process, so, thanks Lola! And you can all be jealous of us now =P
