Justice Continue Down Festival Warpath at Voodoo 2012

At Justice’s show, we found the guy in the banana costume who was selling granola earlier by the port-o-lets. A girl with a pink wig was riding on his shoulders, both hands gripped to the felt stem on his head. All around them were bright colors – the green of the glow sticks, the Easter blue of unicorn costumes, the yellows of the banana costumes. It was a little weird, and we felt ourselves getting all giddy at the prospect of an epic party.

Justice is in full festival mode this year – they hit the Ultra Music Festival in Miami back in March, followed by performances at Coachella in April, Lollapalooza in August, and Outside Lands in September. At this point, they have the festival game down.

What the band may have lost in all those months of performing a honed stage show is the ability to just let the audience dance. The light show, for all its grandeur, was almost too imposing and rehearsed ­­­– it sadly kept the vibe from getting too out of hand.

The epic party we were waiting for never really materialized.

The set had its magic moments – when, during ‘D.A.N.C.E.’ the fireworks from the Metallica set that was going on concurrently on the other side of the park lit up our faces; the moment during 'We Are Your Friends' when Xavier da Rosnay descended from the mock pulpit to (pretend to?) plink at the keyboard, a cigarette coolly hanging from his mouth. The 90-minute mashup, during which the stomp of 'Genesis' kept popping back in, was bullet proof. All before the shadows of cute chicks crowd surfing and riding on their boyfriends’ shoulders.

But elsewhere in the crowd it was too packed to dance – that, and after a full two festival days of music, we were a little tired. For us, and for the band, it was likely just a case of too much... festival.

When the show was over we gazed back to the main stage, which was just over the hill. Metallica was still riding the last strains of guitar overdrive and kicking giant balloons into the crowd. The music was over, but the crowd was still pumping their fists.