Alt-J’s success story is a powerful example of how a band can still arise to lofty heights in this digital era after their debut EP drove the blogosphere insane just four years ago.
With ‘Tessellate’, ‘Matilda’ and ‘Breezeblocks’ making up three of the four tracks on the release, it’s hardly surprising it had such a reaction since they remain the band’s best three songs to date.
With their embrace of electronics and Menomena-esque stop/ start songwriting approach that draw the inevitable Radiohead comparison, combined with acoustic guitars, crooning vocals and folk sensibilities, they’ve bagged themselves an enviable wide-reaching fanbase. Combine that with how damn catchy any of those three aforementioned tracks are, making them the perfect introduction to the band and you’re left with a group set to take over the world no matter how nasal Joe Newman’s voice sounds.
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The last time Alt-J were in Brisbane was for 2013’s St Jerome’s Laneway; back when they were still playing the 'who dat?' role as a support act for bigger names. It’s an approach that served them well, with those that caught them live telling their friends who told their friends who pirated the album etc.
Since then, they’ve been embraced by Australia in a way that most other bands would envy. The screams that met their arrival on stage were more akin to a One Direction gig; though I had to check, Zayn hadn’t been added as a surprise fifth member of the band. From the looks on their faces, and from the reaction between songs, the effect of such an enthusiastic crowd was genuinely humbling, the rise to the top evidently surprising them as much as others.
Image © Chris WardThe repetitive synth that underlies ‘Hunger Of The Pine’ opened the set, perhaps the most progressive song on their latest album ‘This Is All Yours’ with its lean towards nu-soul and TNGHT's synonymous, cheeseball horn synths setting an ethereal pace to the evening. Despite these chilled vibes, the crowd couldn’t help themselves to fist pump, hold their mobiles up high and act as though we were in the middle of a new-rock revolution.
It swiftly became obvious that Alt-J could have spent the first five minutes farting onto a mango and the crowd would have still screamed like it was the second coming. Instead, it was left to Gus Unger-Hamilton to provide the conversation between songs.
Image © Chris WardWhat Alt-J have in musical acumen, they certainly lack in on stage charisma with the only words in the first half of the set being “Hello Brisbane!”, twice. Seemingly overcompensating for this, they have adopted a busy, and impressive light show that’s pretty spectacular even without the music.
Though a sight to behold, it does err on the side of excessive, sometimes feeling as though it’s been programmed for the wrong gig. As a strobe pulsed under a finger-picked acoustic guitar, I couldn’t help but laugh at the ridiculousness of it all.
Image © Chris WardAs far as the performance went, the band were as tight as you’d expect from one who’ve toured pretty much non-stop in the little time they’ve been together. With low lighting on the band themselves giving them a relative anonymity on stage, only lead singer Joe Newman attempted some tricks from the book of stadium rock to get the crowd going.
Whether it was leaving the chorus vocal hook for the crowd to sing while holding his hand to his ear, or propping a leg up on the monitor to increase ventilation to his testicles, the bravado sat awkwardly with the former student and resident of Cambridge. It’s for that same reason that blues-rock plodder ‘Left Hand Free’ sounds just as bad live as it does on record, with as much confused swagger as fellow Mercury Music Prize winners Gomez are often guilty of.
The gig was unquestionably a massive success, with the reactions to those first three mentioned songs the biggest of the night. By the time the encore closed with ‘Breezeblocks’ the crowd were amped enough that the band wouldn’t have needed to do anything but stand back and enjoy the a capella. Tempting as it was, they instead played it the traditional way, with the old hand to the ear trick played a few times more for good measure.
Image © Chris WardIt’s easy to forget that all of Alt-J’s best material is getting further and further into the past. I don’t think there’s anyone out there who could argue with any conviction that ‘This Is All Yours’ is a better album than ‘An Awesome Wave’ and in turn, the highlights of that debut album were all on the debut EP.
The greater variation in sound and approach on ‘This Is All Yours’ suggests a band struggling to know where to go next, but with enough goodwill in their fanbase to carry them through their latest release, there’s still time for them to get there. Though they may be one of the few, organic success stories of the digital age, they should be more aware than any other how precarious their position really is.
Click here for photos from the show.
