With tickets completely sold out, one could feel an almost tangible buzz of anticipation throughout the crowd as we waited for indie-pop quartet Alt-J to take to the stage at the Cockpit, Leeds. The venue oozed an underground indie vibe well suited to both the crowd and the band – small enough to allow a feeling of intimacy, while being large enough to hold a respectable amount of fans for a band as fresh-faced as Alt-J.
Opening with ‘Intro’, the band elicited a remarkable chorus of cheers, testament to the meteoric expansion of their fan base in so short a period of time. Frontman Gus Unger-Hamilton greeted the crowd emotionally, expressing the band’s obviously sincere gratitude for both the fans’ enthusiasm and their delight in returning to play in their hometown. They kicked off in earnest with fan favourite ‘Tessellate’, which they performed flawlessly; Unger-Hamilton’s vocals may have sounded even better live than they do in a studio, and the ‘broken’ piano sound that characterises the song thrilling reverberated around the walls of the Cockpit.
The gig continued in a similarly excellent fashion with the band performing the entirety of their debut smash album An Awesome Wave in a different order. About three-quarters of the way through the set, with my hipflask now almost entirely empty, I became rather over-excited when guitarist/bassist Gwil Sainsbury removed his trousers at the behest of the crowd to reveal a pair of long-johns, in which he remained for the remainder of the gig.
While a little peeved that ‘Breezeblocks’ was not saved for the encore, the lesser-known final song of the set ‘Taro’ is astonishing; while it may not have the catchy element that ‘Breezeblocks’ possesses, its gentle, almost understated guitar rhythms proved to be a shrewd choice by the band, as the fans (myself included) lapped it up to raucous shouts, cheers and whistles of approval. Here was a gig that was free from gimmicky, over-the-top lightshows and similarly needless tricks, where the music was the main focus, as it always should be. To echo the sentiment of an inebriated fan expressed loudly during the gig – “Now that’s fucking music!”