Alt-J (∆), Riviera Theatre, Chicago, Illinois

It was already very crowded at the Riviera even an hour and a half before Alt-J (or is it ∆, I still don’t know how I should write their name) was scheduled to take the stage. We picked a spot on the second tier as close to the railing as we could find, so that we could see and hear pretty well. The evening started with opening act Lovelife. They were quite good, one of the better openers that I have seen recently. Their performance included a respectable visual show and a lot of energy.

Alt-J took the stage about 8:45pm. Four musicians were on stage: Joe Newman (guitar, lead vocals), Gus Unger-Hamilton (keyboards, vocals) and Thom Green (drums). Gwil Sainsbury (guitar, bass) was the former fourth band member when I saw them last summer. However, he amicably departed earlier this year. For their current tour, he was replaced by Cameron Knight (guitar, bass, sampler).

I had first discovered Alt-J following their release of their Mercury Prize winning debut album, An Awesome Wave (2012), and was instantly hooked. Though I have seen them previously, it was a Thursday evening set at Bonnaroo. While I was relatively close, it was extremely crowded, and I was exhausted. I was looking forward to seeing them a second time in a club setting. It was also an opportunity to hear a new set of songs from their sophomore album, This Is All Yours (2014), released earlier this fall.

They ended up playing a good mix of songs from both albums. The setlist below was technically pulled from their show the previous evening, but as near as I can tell it was the same setlist. I liked that Bloodflood, from their first album, was directly followed with Bloodflood Pt. 2 from the second. While I like the overall set of songs they played, I thought they put too many of them a bit too early in the set. Towards the end of the show, they didn’t have any of what I would consider their best songs to end their main set or include in the encore. It was also a bit on the short side, including only about 65 minutes of music in total. They could have included a few more without the overall quality of the show suffering. I did appreciate that their encore break only lasted a minute or two, and I was home a bit after 10pm.

The performance also included some pretty solid visual elements, including lights and an LCD apparatus.  For most of the show, the lighting seems to emphasize the overall ambiance instead of the members of the band themselves. Much of the time, you could barely even make out their faces.

Setlist:
Hunger of the Pine
Fitzpleasure
Something Good
Left Hand Free
Dissolve Me
Matilda
Bloodflood
Bloodflood Pt. 2
❦ (Ripe & Ruin)
Tessellate
Every Other Freckle
Taro
Warm Foothills
The Gospel of John Hurt
Encore:
Lovely Day [Bill Withers cover]
Nara
Leaving Nara
Breezeblocks