Justice
Quick note on the Justice concert: do not go to a Justice concert in the summertime, because you'll probably die. It'll be way too hot, and you just might have to cash in your chips, so to speak, if you try to endure it. Of course, then you'll be playing right into the postmodern concept piece that is each and every Justice concert.
We all know that there's a dark theme running through Justice's apocalyptic dance music. On the album, you can hear it best on the track "The Party", which itemizes in great detail one woman's routine for getting ready to go out and have a good time against the most somber, reflective music on the album. In concert, the concept becomes much clearer, although I personally still wasn't able to piece together exactly what Justice is trying to say. Maybe it's the ringing in my ears.
Carlos, who was wearing earplugs, was able to capture the basic idea of it succinctly: here you have a DJ booth, set up on a giant heavy metal stage (symbolized by the stacks of Marshall speakers on either side), and a giant cross in the center, providing the most tangible imagery associeated with the group. They are asking the question, "How will the world end?", and the answer is "More or less just as this concert is playing out right now."
That's the genius of Justice - by doing what you are expected to when you go out to something like a dance concert, you are part of their exhibition. You get dressed up, you do the drugs that will give you the experience you seek, you rub bodies, kiss, spread germs, listen to music that's so loud that it permanently damages your hearing systems, and throw yourself about in ways that reveal how deficient your ability to preserve yourself really is. You're all facing the stage, like an altar, with the big cross in the middle, but the ubiquitous symbol in this context feels empty and soulless. In this rapturous scenario, self-destruction seems to be a new form of salvation.
Justice is truly a product of the 21st century. Music has always been visceral, ephemeral, and as a result, a perfect medium for posing those important existential questions that have always been with us: namely, how do we handle the fleeting nature of our existence and make the most of our lives given this truth? Justice is among the first music acts I've heard that are not necessarily interested in the brevity of a human life, but in the inevitable passing of the human race. If you view the behavior of the few humans gathered on the dance floor and extrapolate it to the tendencies of humanity as a whole, you have painted one of the most vivid and engaging apocalyptic scenarios that has yet been explored.
