Alt-J – September 5th – Fillmore Auditorium

Photos by Ty Hyten

The sold-out Fillmore Auditorium was home to the much anticipated return of English indie rockers Alt-J. They played a sold out show in at the Bluebird in April and quickly sold-out the much larger Fillmore just as quickly. The massive venue filled in as Indie-Folk band Lord Huron played slightly less majestic versions of their songs on a dark stage. While their performance was quite good it failed to nail the dreaminess of last year’s Lonesome Dreams. By the time Alt-J took the stage, the heat in the venue had soaked my shirt with sweat and there was no hope of moving gracefully across the massive floor packed with twenty-somethings.

The group remained rather still on stage and let the dynamic lighting display and energy of their music carry the show. With only a single album under the young band’s belt, they delivered all of the favorites, including “Matilda,” “Fitzpleasure,” “Something Good,” and “Tessellate.” The mesh of vocals sat well in the mix, the sound was good and the crowd moved, hands outstretched, to the buzz of the electronic bass line all night. The show ended around 10:30 with an encore bearing fan favorite “Breezeblocks.” The show was just as good as the performance at the Bluebird and if these guys can continue to produce good music you can be assured they’ll be playing somewhere even bigger next time through.