The night started off at Matilda in Lakeview for a going away gathering in honor of my friend Steve. After a stint in Florida and a few years in Chicago, he is finally headed back to New York, although this time he'll be based in Montauk. Rough life! The next stop was Lava Lounge in Wicker Park where New York-based, Ambivalent, was playing to support his hot new release on Richie Hawtin's M-nus label. Chicago local, Frankie Vega, got things off to a banging start, but brought it back down a notch and turned it over to Kevin around 12:30am. The crowd was digging the live set, which was full of quality minimal nuggets... and as expected, Kevin finished up the night with his track, RU OK. Congrats to Kevin on his success with the track and Saturday night booking at Mutek! 
Just when I thought I was on my way home... I get a phone call and a re-direct from my friend from school, Chris, who decided to make a late night trip downtown from Evanston to 
Smart Bar. I was faced with the choice of a $30+ cab ride home from Wicker Park OR a $10 cab ride to Wrigleyville, a $15 cover and a free ride home. I'll take number two every time! And we're off! Party #3... Justice! Prior to tonight I only knew three things about Justice - 1) they are a rock/electro DJ duo from Paris, 2) they produced the monster hit "We Are Your Friends" and are getting some love for their new track "D.A.N.C.E." and 3) hipsters dig 'em. After tonight I now know three more things related to Justice - 1) they are party rockers, 2) their hipster followers are party rockers and 3) hipsters are funny... especially Carlo with the granny glasses, the dude with the Mr. T style gold necklace, the Rick James look alike and everyone that was throwing the Justice "cross" sign in the air. What will these crazy kids think of next!?!? Oh and one more hysterical moment... I'm standing in the middle of the dance floor watching this scrawny little striped-shirt boy hold his cigarette behind his back, while ashing on the floor. That would normally be fine except for the fact that he had ashed a cherry into his cuffed pants and the little fireball was about to set his leg on fire! I had to tap him on the shoulder and tell him what was going on for fear I'd have to stop, drop and roll his a$$ in the middle of the show!The music was fun, the crowd was a blast to watch and interact with and quite honestly, I haven't seen Smart Bar rock that hard in a damn long time, so Justice definitely deserves some credit. I didn't actually get to hear either of the aforementioned tracks, but I did hear "Smack My Bitch Up" (for the 2nd weekend in a row), "Killing In The Name" and the surprise closing track, [It's] "My Party" [And I'll Cry If I Want To] by Lesley Gore. And the hipsters go wild! And start doing the twist! I'm not kidding.
Ambivalent drops "RU OK":
Justice playing Rage Against the Machine's "Killing In The Name":
More Justice Hipster Craziness:
Me and Steve:
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