At a sprawling amphitheater in Buckhead on Saturday night, Miley Cyrus’ voice carried on the cool breeze. “I’m a female rebel,” she declared, the line a sample snatched from Cyrus’ “4×4” and featured prominently in “Hunger of the Pine,” with which the show’s headliner, alt-J, opened their nineteen-song set.
A few hours earlier, the line to enter the Chastain Park Amphitheater streamed down the sidewalk outside. The young, hipster-heavy crowd was eagerly anticipating the night’s sold-out show. Alt-J, an indie rock foursome out of Leeds, England, may as well have rode into town on a tidal wave of buzz. The band’s current North and South American tour will crisscross the continent, taking them everywhere from Colombia to Coachella. A few days before their Atlanta stop, alt-J sold out Madison Square Garden.
Alt-J is named for a Mac keyboard shortcut—punch those two keys and you get a delta sign (∆), which, in addition to being the band’s alias and unofficial logo, is the mathematical symbol for change. This symbolism is fitting. Alt-J has made a big impact on the music world in a small amount of time. The band’s 2012 debut LP, “An Awesome Wave,” earned them the U.K.’s prestigious Mercury Prize, not to mention endless comparisons to Radiohead. The album has sold over one million copies worldwide. Their 2014 follow-up, “This Is All Yours,” went straight to the top of the charts in the U.K. But this year, the band’s sights are set on America.
The show began on an enthralling note thanks to opening act Tycho, a four-piece ambient outfit from San Francisco. The band, led by producer and multi-instrumentalist Scott Hansen, spent their set weaving one hypnotic soundscape after another. Tycho’s music was complemented by a low-key light show and a shifting series of visuals projected onto the wall behind them. The band ended their set with “Awake,” the entrancing title track from their 2014 album.
Around 9:15 p.m., as the full moon climbed through the trees, the amphitheater went dark, heralding the band of the hour, and the howling crowd collectively leapt to its feet. Through the darkness came the opening synth notes of “Hunger of the Pine,” bleeping like some harmonious heart monitor, their pulse mimicked by flashing violet lights, then joined by guitarist and lead vocalist Joe Newman’s inimitable warble. And when the chorus hit, the stage lights went up to reveal the band while Cyrus’ sampled voice and an awesome wave of music washed over the audience.
Alt-J’s sound is difficult to pin down. The Radiohead comparison is fitting in that both bands make unpredictable, artful rock music, but alt-J’s aesthetic is far more warm and playful than that of their alleged progenitors. The band seems to revel in blending disparate influences, putting delicate vocal harmonies and orchestral flourishes up against jagged guitars, menacing synths and esoteric samples. Alt-J’s calling card is Newman’s strange, searching voice, but their unsung hero is drummer Thom Green. Green’s incisive, cymbal-free drumming propels alt-J’s music, an astonishing feat given the fact that he is nearly deaf.
As the show progressed, alt-J’s audience demonstrated a deep connection with their earlier material, but seemed to have mixed feelings about more recent tracks. Favorites from “An Awesome Wave” like “Tessellate” and “Taro” got their heads bobbing and fists pumping. When the band started in on “Matilda,” Newman didn’t have to sing a word to start the verse or chorus — the audience, shouting “this is from Matilda,” did it for him. New track “Warm Foothills,” a beautiful bit of quiet, soft-spun folk, seemed to bore the high-energy audience. However, mesmerizing closer “The Gospel of John Hurt,” another new song, won them back, its crescendo putting an exclamation point on the ostensible end of the show.
After alt-J retook the stage for their encore, keyboardist and vocalist Gus Unger-Hamilton, who acted as emcee, said with a smile, “Thank you so much for this lovely reception, Atlanta.” The band began with the bonus track from “This Is All Yours,” a subdued, beautiful and barely recognizable cover of Bill Withers’ “Lovely Day.” Two tracks later, Unger-Hamilton declared us “an awesome crowd to play for” before the band launched into “Breezeblocks,” the song’s oblique opening chord earning an enthusiastic roar. The taut and eerily brilliant track is an excellent example of why alt-J is on their way to worldwide success. As both the song and the show drew to a close, Newman sang the refrain: “Please don’t go, please don’t go / I love you so, I love you so.” Atlanta sang it back to him.
