ALT-J

Sold out within seconds of going on sale, and it’s no wonder why: Alt-J have returned to our shores to play two intimate shows in Sydney and Melbourne in the lead-up to their appearance at Falls Festival later this year. I was lucky enough to score some tickets to their Sydney show and I was not disappointed in the speed of my fingers (or the 5 minutes of time I appropriated at work to get them).

Starting with their freshest hit ‘Hunger of the Pine’, the group from Leeds had the audience in the palm of their hand. Following along with my personal favourite ‘Fitzpleasure’, they could have sung nursery rhymes for the rest of the show and I still would have been a very happy man.

With Joe Newman’s unique and powerful vocals, you could have sworn you were listening to a well-mastered recording. That was one of the most interesting things about this concert, I went along wondering how their glitch/sample sound would work live. Effortlessly, it would seem, with not a beat missed by Gus Unger-Hamilton and Thom Green with their technically complex sounds. With simple but effective lighting, the production really let the music be the star of the show, even with the band often appearing in darkness, the music shone through.