Hot on the heels of the recent announcement that “the man who ruined dubstep” was coming to Shanghai and tickets were being charged out at nearly US$100 presale (580RMB) and over US$100 (RMB680) on the door, come the wonderful Justice, tickets priced at the most reasonable level of RMB380 (limited early bird), RMB420 presale and RMB500 on the door. We do understand that these artists are pretty big names in Europe and the US (in the case of Skrillex, the biggest name in EDM over the last 18 months), but the sad thing about an artist like Justice coming to China and playing a venue like Bar Rouge at such a ridiculous price premium is that the Chinese music fan (who has likely never really heard of Justice before) will assume that they are just another overhyped, overpaid DJ to grace the decks of one of Shanghai’s expat haunts. The fact is, they are also a huge (semi) live festival act.
Back in 2006/7, we saw a similar phenomenon with Felix from Basement Jaxx. He came in to DJ the Shanghai club Bonbon, who promoted the hell out of the Basement Jaxx connection (as any good promoter would). The trouble is, to a mainstream audience mostly not familiar with Basement Jaxx, the ongoing assumption is that Basement Jaxx are a DJ act, so when they are offered around the market as a band traveling with 20 people, with massive production requirements and a huge asking price, then there are no takers, because there are no ticket buyers.
Will it be the same for Justice?
As promoters in our other lives, it will make us double and triple take what will be exorbitant requests for this live act. Will Justice ever make it to China as a live act? Our guess would be no, but isn’t electrocrunch dead anyway?
(and we’ve also heard a rumor that Skrillex in Shanghai has be cancelled??)