Live
< CSS, Justice and Metronomy at Brixton Academy
words by Danny Canter
Wandering about the Brixton Academy stage, as if she’s been beamed into South London from ‘Planet Nonchalant’, is a young lady dressed as a Christmas tree. She shows know sign of giving a toss about the 5000 pairs of peepers staring her way as she mosies between Love Foxxx and the rest of CSS, dragging her heels, before kneeling stage left a bobbing gently to herself. Later a square gift box costume will replace the current leafy attire, sparking slightly more enthusiasm from this bizarre site. Who she is we’re never told, but it matters little as CSS play they biggest UK show to date and totally kill it. The whole of their debut album is heard tonight, along with ‘Holiday’ – a new song that is so sassy in its party mood that it alone proves Love Foxxx and her gang to certainly not be the ‘one album band’ that some have feared them to be. These concerns no doubt come from just how much the band have toured their breakthrough record. And how many singles they’ve lifted from it. And just how monstrous ‘Let’s Make Love And Listen To Death From Above’ turned out to be – it closes tonight, and rightly so as Brixton bops about with silly grins slapped on their chops.
But tonight doesn’t belong to the headliners, not the opening Metronomy, who, with the aid of dancing girls, their custom budget light show attached to their T-shirts and a reloaded arsenal of minimal, sometimes psychotic electronic pop – the brilliantly 80’s toting ‘Heartbreaker’ particularly – set this evening’s pace at a speed marked ‘we’re hear for a good time, not a long time’. Nope, tonight it’s all about a couple of Parisians. And a massive neon crucifix.
Wedged between two towering walls of Marshal stack amps, Justice seem to mix and mash-up their ‘Cross’ album for an age tonight, without ever outstaying their welcome. We always knew that their debut was something of a seminal record for post millennium dance music, but tonight, live, the tracks sucker-punch harder and heavier.
As on record, the bellowing horns of ‘Genesis’ mark the arrival of this duo and – with the aid of an extra lengthy dramatic pause – this evening, as corny as it sounds, quickly become a religious affair. Yes, the cross in front of the Justice altar does give the impression of Brixton being ‘our church’ before a beat is dropped, but ‘Genesis’ exorcises the non-believing spirits amongst us by being a soaring, prowling, heart-pounding experience.
From the following ‘D.A.N.C.E’ to the Gary Numan, robotic ‘DVNO’, Brixton pulses as one. Lost in Justice’s preaching sermon of squelching and booming dance we even forget that is was this French couple that brought to life Simians ‘We Are Your Friends’, until it’s dropped on us like bucket of cold water. Momentarily we’re in the real word again, yelling the vocal hook and punching toward the stage. It’s the hymn of the evening without need of hymnbooks or an overhead projector for the lyrics. A disjointed mix of Klaxons’ ‘Atlantis To Interzone’ comes and goes and then Justice are done.
Having converted atheists into believers, the pair calmly walk from behind their decks, bow and a saunter offstage. An experience more than a gig, Justice live needs to be seen before you arrive at The Pearly Gates to explain why you were off your chops to a dance act that have successfully commandeered a religious symbol as their own.
Originally appeared in volume 1, issue 28 of Loud & Quiet magazine
