Justice’s Hyperdrama Coachella show sets the bar for electronic music performances — again

For the past few years, the idea of a rock show and an electronic music show have become increasingly synonymous. Dance music stars like Kaskade and Illenium are filling the same stadiums that Foo Fighters are touring this summer, applying production rigs that are just as fiery and laser-filled.

But one electronic group has bridged the gap exceptionally.

They’re called Justice. And they bridge this gap at Coachella.

Every time Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay have released a new album, from † in 2007 to Hyperdrama, due out this Friday, April 26, they’ve celebrated with a live set at Coachella.

For their previous two albums, they played Coachella in the year following the album’s release dates. Fans had months to engage with the new music before experiencing their live show.

This time, like with the first album, the people at the festival were among the first in the world to experience the full power of their new music. It was loud. It was glitzy. It was a spectacle. It was a marked set for tens of thousands of attendees.

Gaspard and Xavier don’t need to do stage dives or light guitars on fire. From the moment they first appeared at Coachella’s Sahara tent in 2007, everything about their show from the sound to the lighting to the stage setup employed the type of epic collaboration that only bands can accomplish. This year was no different.

They kicked things off, as always, with a rendition of their ultimate classic: Genesis. It’s the only thing their fans want to hear at the beginning of their set. It’s the long-awaited signal that a new era of Justice has arrived.

Throughout the show, they pieced together reworked hitters like Love S.O.S, The Party and D.A.N.C.E. Those familiar tracks generated a relieved roar from the crowd. But when they dropped tracks from the new album, the relief turned into euphoria. New music is here, and Justice delivered it with punchy, distorted drops that felt like the sound was ripping through the night sky.

This is one thing that differentiates Justice’s live dynamic as a band. Where electronic acts often create wild original imagery for their shows that fills up massive LED screens, bands generally use screens to highlight the members themselves and then create custom lighting rigs. This is why Justice now plays at the Coachella Stage or Outdoor Theater. Sahara Tent is big enough to handle the Justice crowd, but the production is too stable with the giant screens.

Justice’s light show strobed, shifted and flashed with sheer intensity. They switched from white to prismatic from second to second. Sometimes, the strobes flashed downwards and Gaspard and Xavier remained stoic, effortlessly exuding cool in their white suits as the desert wind blew dust around them. It was a rare set where you didn’t know whether you wanted to watch or dance.

But that’s Justice’s sweet spot. It’s dance music, but they hook your attention with Genesis and don’t let go until they take you on an extraordinary journey wherein you visit Kevin Parker (only the recording of his voice on One Night/All Night; he unfortunately didn’t show up to sing) and then ends with drum ‘n’ bass and hard style.

Dance music fans who walked by to hear the last few tracks in those uptempo genres would have come running. Rock fans who saw the light show moving in line with the distortion also would have come running. Because as rock and electronic music become closer and closer, Justice will always be there to demonstrate how they were never so different in the first place.