Seemingly everyone who filled the boxes and benches for Friday’s sold-out Justice show at the Hollywood Bowl knew they were in for something special. That included Thundercat, who was there not (just) as a spectator, but as both the opening act and a featured guest on the closing track.
Thundercat certainly did his part to raise his own stakes for the occasion. During his hour-long set, the bass-playing prodigy from Compton threw in a cover of Selena’s “Dreaming of You” and invited Big Sean and Eryn Allen Kane on stage for a rendition of the former’s “Black Void”.
All that, in addition to busting out his viral song from Yo Gabba Gabba!, “The Orange Cat’s Special Time Outdoors”, along with catalog staples like “Interstellar Love”, “Dragonball Durag”, “Funny Thing”, and “Them Changes”.
In its own way, Thundercat’s extraterrestrially funky bass exhibition was as complementary a prelude to Justice’s signature blend of French disco-come-prog rock as any. Most attempts to match the latter’s curated combination of light, laser, and sound—save for fellow Busy P protégés Daft Punk—would be futile.
As has been the case throughout the tour in support of its 2024 album, Hyperdrama, the debonair duo of Gaspard Auge and Xavier de Rosnay deftly wove their most magnificent musical motifs through a pulse-pounding 90-minute set, illuminated by a dazzling stage display.
From the moment the speakers burst forth with the percussive pronouncements of “Genesis” into “Phantom” and “Phantom Pt. II”, the crowd of 17,000-plus fans moved their hips and banged their heads in equal, ecstatic measure. It was as though they had gathered for a collective release of pent-up anticipation that had accumulated since Justice’s last live go-round in America back in 2018.
Related: Thundercat Hosts Walk Of Fame-Worthy Homecoming At L.A.’s Greek Theatre [Photos/Videos]
What followed was a myriad of mashups that mixed in recurring bits that have become synonymous with Justice’s ever-expanding ouevre. There was the heft of “Generator” counterbalanced by the romantic airiness of “Love S.O.S.”, the various grits of “Afterimage”, and “Waters of Nazareth” tossed into the same boiling pot, and the classical-with-fist-pumps “Audio, Video, Disco” that blended with “Stop” to close out the main set.
In between, notes of Kevin Parker on “Neverender” seeped separately into combinations with “Safe and Sound” and “Incognito”. The Tame Impala impresario’s sultry falsetto on “One Night/All Night” also mingled melodically with Justice’s anthemic “D.A.N.C.E.”, which, in turn, came back around during the encore as both a standalone opener and a MSTRKRFT-remixed piece of a musical amalgamation with “Safe and Sound”, “Neverender”, “Helix”, and Jay-Z and Swizz Beatz’s “On To The Next One”.
Of course, no night celebrating Justice would be complete without a nod to their original breakout. To that end, “We Are Your Friends”—their beloved remix of SIMIAN’s “Never Be Alone”—wove its way into an early sonic smorgasbord with “Alakazam!”, “Mannequin Love”, and “TTHHEE PPAARRTTYY”, as well as an encore medley that included, among other Justice favorites, “Planisphere”, “Phantom”, “Civilization”, “Heavy Metal”, and “Pleasure”.
Musically, those elements all blended together with aplomb—and with barely a moment for the audience to catch its breath in between that beautiful mayhem. Throw in the eye-popping array of flashes, beam lights, lasers, lit-up video screens, reflective arrays, and smoke, along with endemic production capabilities of the Hollywood Bowl’s iconic shell stage, and there wasn’t a single mind in the building that didn’t leave without at least some portion being properly melted.
To finish off the night, Thundercat re-emerged to provide live vocals to his Justice collaboration on “The End”. All the while, he danced seductively with an audience member that he had pulled onto the catwalk around the Hollywood Bowl’s Pool Area pit.
It was a fitting way to finish off an unforgettable evening of sound and light that transcended the usual paradigms of EDM. Gaspard and Xavier spent their time on stage attending to their respective decks, focused intently on recreating their piece of high-tech performance art in perfectly real time. They presented a pliant crowd with a transcendent scene painted with the vibrant palette afforded by their painstakingly produced discography.
Fortunately for fans of Justice, there is much more of this magic yet to come. The pair has tour dates spanning the globe through March 2025, with a show at Seattle’s WAMU Theater coming up next. For a full list of upcoming shows and to purchase tickets, head here.
Justice – Hollywood Bowl – Los Angeles, CA – 10/4/24 [Full Set]
[Video: For Lack of a Better Channel Name]
Thundercat – “Them Changes” – 10/4/24
[Video: Manuel “Manny” Lozoya]
Thundercat – “Funny Thing” – 10/4/24
[Video: Manuel “Manny” Lozoya]
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