Justice Plays Mind-Melting Set at Massive New Venue in Brooklyn Navy Yard: Concert Review

The massive Brooklyn Navy Yard has been a major part of New York’s history for nearly as long as the city has existed. Sprawled over 225 acres across the East River from Lower Manhattan, the Dutch began using it as a harbor in the 1600s, the British held American prisoners on a ship there (under unspeakably brutal conditions) during the Revolutionary War, and warships and commercial ships were built and sailed or steamed out of it for more than 300 years until it was decommissioned in 1966. After laying fallow for years, its huge warehouses and docks have been transformed into a giant industrial site that hosts everything from the New York Fire Department’s fireboats to multiple small businesses and Steiner Studios, the largest film and TV studio in the U.S. outside of Hollywood. Yet it is almost completely isolated: Although owned by the city, it is technically private property, and unless you have official business there or are attending one of the occasional (and fascinating) official guided tours, the guards will turn you away at the gates. Although…

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Some of those warehouses have been converted into giant events spaces — this writer attended a wildly extravagant, million-dollar-plus album release party there for Lady Gaga’s ill-fated “Artpop” album in 2013 — and it’s safe to say concert promoters have been salivating at the prospect of transforming one of those several-city-blocks-long buildings into a concert venue for decades. However, access is problematic — the main buildings are a long way from the entrance gates — and transporting a large number of people across the yard presents numerous logistical challenges.

But it’s finally happened: Brooklyn Storehouse, a gargantuan converted warehouse formerly used for shipbuilding, has been transformed into a 105,000 square-foot, 5,000-capacity venue by British nightlife operation Broadwick and New York events company TCE Presents. It soft-launched with fashion events last fall, held a series of dance-music concerts during the spring, and this week premiered in earnest with a pair of sold-out shows by long-running French duo Justice that used the venue’s massive size to its best possible advantage with a brain-melting light show and surprisingly clean and powerful sound for such a cavernous space.

As expected, the venue is challenging to get to, but a small army of staffers directed concertgoers from the rideshare drop-off just inside Navy Yard’s northern entrance to Assembly Road, down which you walked — and walked and walked — to the massive venue, which is located on the awesomely named Gee Avenue (presumably named for most humans’ reaction to the size of the building). After presenting tickets or credentials in the huge entry hall, you’re in the main building, which is at probably two or three city blocks long, and walk through one massive room into the football-field-sized main concert hall, which had elevated viewing platforms on either side perpendicular to the the stage at the far end; there were ample bars and dozens of port-a-potties.

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The event’s promoters — and Justice — took full advantage of the venue’s size, with a massive lighting structure surrounding the stage and rows of lights reaching all the way across the room. Anyone who knows the long-running duo’s hits — like “We Are Your Friends” and “D.A.N.C.E.” — and its battery of dancefloor powerhouses knows what to expect: An evening of bass-heavy beats, elaborate electronic textures and strategically timed drops that, musically, is an elaboration on the template built by Daft Punk; many moments during the show recalled that French duo’s “Alive 2007” live album. Combined with the mind-melting, mostly white light show — a combination of blinding halogens, rows of warm spotlights, neon-like tubing and occasional blasts of reds and blues — it made for an explosive dancefloor experience through highlights of the duo’s four albums that combined with the huge room to rock the audience’s senses in every way.

It was a long evening of music — Justice, who followed sets from Busy P and Braxe + Falcon, didn’t take the stage until midnight and were still playing 90 minutes later when we began the long walk to the congested but relatively efficient rideshare area. Brooklyn Storehouse is a time investment — wear sensible shoes and dress for the weather if attending — but it’s also the most exciting new concert space to open in New York for a long time.

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