Alt-J (Manchester Academy 2013): Review

Alt-J – Review

Manchester Academy

9^th May 2013

It is incredible what Alt-J have achieved on the back of a single album. Before the gig, someone asked me the question - what are they like? And I stuttered my way through the answer. After seeing them live I am no closer to shaping a solid response to that question, but I can say that they are a band with a massive future.

With chance to carefully pick my words here, I’ll have a go at describing the unique sound that Alt-J have added to the UK’s ever-expanding arsenal of music. Their sounds and song structure justify their inclusion in the experimental rock genre. Bands who inhabit this genre often fail through the alienation which comes when breaking away from the norm. Without a connection with an audience, no matter how impressive the actual musical talent is, a band can never truly succeed. Alt- J are one of the exceptions. They combine memorable keyboard and guitar riffs with lead singer Joe Newman’s exceptional voice to create something quite special.  

There have been many comparisons with Radiohead, and I see how this idea may have come about. I don’t entirely disagree with the statement, but I would say it is premature, for if you played Alt-J’s debut An Awesome Wave back to back with Radiohead’s Pablo Honey there would be an obvious shift in theme and genre. The comparisons with Thom Yorke and co seem more justified when you examine them next to the other artists who were appearing at the time, their sound was unique then, just as Alt-J’s is unique now.

Manchester Academy was packed, it had sold out months ago (forcing me to pay an extortionate amount on eBay) and there was a warm buzz of expectancy from a crowd highly populated by students. The band members were quick in making their way onstage, in front of the bizarre tangles of the An Awesome Wave themed backdrop. They opened with album opener Intro, followed by a song in which Newman and the majority of the crowd confessed “Triangles are my favourite shape”. Tessellate has the formula to become a modern day anthem.

It was nice to experience a truly relaxed crowd, who danced and sung their way through the radio friendly Something Good, this venue was a clearly filled with people united by their love for a single album. It can be guessed from their onstage performance that Alt-J are a shy and extremely modest bunch of lads, as they do not attempt to work the audience much at all. In fact, their performance mirrors the crowd, as they seem to simply enjoy the songs they play as much as the fans enjoy hearing them. Stage presence is not their strong point, but the perfect song recreations backed with a frantic lightshow goes some way in making up for this.

An early highlight of the gig was Dissolve Me, which featured a goose bump conjuring vocal harmony that led back to the tropical sounding keys. The band do not tend to extend their songs as you may expect, but an improvised addition of Newman’s voice can add a dimension to the song that will stick with you; I can no longer listen to Dissolve Me without the memory of one of these moments hitting me.

I have to thank Manchester Academy for the booming bass of their sound system. It was necessary for fan favourite Fitzpleasure, which shook the place as the bass line hit, Newman swaying from side to side after he signalled the trip-hop beats with lyrics (to the effect of) “in your snatch fitzpleasure, a broom shaped pleasure”. This was followed by a cover of Kylie Minogue’s Slow Dre, which would have easily passed as for an unknown song of their own to anyone who did not have a look at the set list. One of the many qualities of the album is that everyone seems to have a different favourite. This helps the live show as each song receives a similarly colossal ovation; tracks such as Matilda, Bloodflood and Ms kept this flow going strong. 

After a forgivable false start (Newman got carried away with the “na na na na nas”), Alt-J dropped their most well known track, Breezeblocks. This received the best audience reaction, fans climbed on the shoulders of their friends to show appreciation to the band and the majority of the audience was bouncing by the “please don’t go” section of the song.

A note on the encore: when they left the stage it was one of the most continually loud roars for a band to return to the stage I have ever heard! The set up to this point was much appreciated. Again, they didn’t keep the crowd waiting too long, and returned with album track Hand-Made and a cover of College’s A Real Hero (which you may have heard during the Ryan Gosling fronted film, Drive).

Taro remained to supply a strong finish. In previous live reviews, many reported that Gwil Sainsbury’s finger-tapping, bhangra-esque riff was overpowered by the rest of the band in the live setting. I don’t know if they have read these reviews, or even just noticed on their own backs, but for me, it all came together perfectly. The audience thrived off the song, shouting “hey Taro” in unison after the familiar crunch of the strikingly dark guitar. The gig flew by. It was only an hour long, the shortest I’ve attended this year, but after playing the brilliant An Awesome Wave in its entirety, plus some b-sides and covers, Alt-J can be forgiven for this.

Verdict: Alt-J seem to have hastily grown into a more successful band than they could have possibly imagined when they first started writing music in their student halls in Leeds. With an already remarkable amount of crowd-pleasing songs, another album of similar quality could propel them to festival headline slots (they are already headlining the Reading/Leeds NME tent this year), in similar fashion to Arcade Fire’s sudden emergence to bill topping heights in 2010. Alt-J’s main strength seems to be touring on the back of a Mercury Prize winning debut album, there isn’t too much they can do wrong when they can recreate its much loved songs so flawlessly live. There is some room for improvement in terms of stage presence but with some of the most powerful harmonies in music and unmistakable instrumental talent there is more than enough to enjoy.