Alt-J have come a long way since the first time I saw them playing to 80 people in a local boozer back in 2011. It would have been hard back then to imagine them as bona-fide arena 'rock stars'. They are one of the few bands despite headline festival appearances (Latitude), and arena tours, most people would be pushed to recognise or name any of Mercury Prize winning band. This co-existence between popularity and anonymity seems to be a natural habitat and a place where they are able to confound the norms.
First of the starting block is Ghostpoet, and despite my initial reservations wondering how the languid sounds would suit an ernorma-dome, the thousands that arrived early enough were clearly smitten. The Horrors may be at 'treading water' stage of their career but 'Still Life' and 'I See You' remain epics. Frontman Faris Badwan whilst engaging in an uncharacteristically inelegant mic twirl can still do a mean 'staring out the audience face', a quality supporting double bill. So far, so very good….
Alt-J are a perplexing proposition, refreshingly surprised at the high female to male audience ratio I was more confounded by the youthful presence, this pleases me as I'm often swayed by the media saturation of X-Factor and their lowest common denominator ilk. From the get go I was instantly catapulted into the zone, the light and sound synchronization was breath-taking.Credit also to the arena who in recent times made huge strides in terms of sound as the acoustics are now 'sorted'.
Which made it very easy to be hypnotised and wallow in the e sound and visual delights on offer, twas a blistering opening, with the audience totally enthralled. The often impressively silhouetted drummer Thom Green held the band tight and kept them disciplined, only in the live environment was his stickmanship fully appreciated by this observer. They will always be slightly discombobulating to some but if you allow yourselves to be bathed in Alt-J's all-encompassing glow you'll likely find rich rewards await.
Highpoints of the night (of which there were many) included 'The Gospel of John Hurt' which live proved to be a building, brooding behemoth of a tune.'Taro' was gorgeous, 'Matilda' was warm and soothing and with a very special 'Every Other Freckle'…the list goes on and on…
Closer, 'Breezeblocks' was a sublime finale to a joyous triple bill, if you missed it you missed out!
FUTURE GIGS
sorry, we currently have no gigs listed for this act.