Closing out the NPR showcase on Wednesday night at Stubb’s in Austin, Texas, following highly acclaimed performances from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, amongst others, were none other than one of the most loved bands in Australia at the moment, Alt-J.
Usually when a band plays the US versus in Australia you get a bit more production, but here it was actually stripped back from what we saw at Laneway. With no backdrop and simple lighting, the Mercury Prize winning UK group played their music and kept things simple. The set was very similar – if not virtually identical – to what we saw at Laneway. Fair enough though, given it was only a month or so ago.
As they went through the intro and then into “Tesselate”, it became clear that the lead singer was a bit exhausted. Joe Newman sported a rustier than normal voice and the music seemed to slow down a bit to accommodate this. But can you blame them? This performance came at 1am after a day of performances and press, ahead of a week more, following a massive jaunt around the world – including of course their Australian performances. And irrespective of this, the very nature of SXSW makes it very difficult to hold something like that against any band. So maybe we shouldn’t be explicitly reviewing some shows? I’m not sure. But in spite of the above, it was still an incredible performance, particularly impressive given how seemingly exhausted they all were – or at least seemed to be.
The set, like at Laneway, kicks off with the album opener, closes with its closer (“Taro”), and then mixes around the insides. It included everything from “Something Good” to “Bloodflow”, “Fitzpleasure” and “Matilda”, the latter of which was huge. “Breezeblocks”, meanwhile, seemed as popular here as it did back home, with everyone singing along. And what drumming, too, I might add! They also fit in two ethereal new songs, one of which was about a buffalo – and to my understanding is called the same. The sound of the venue, furthermore, was up to its usual standard of brilliance.
Following a night that included bands like Iggy and the Stooges and Big Black Delta, you’d think that that would be enough to call it a night, but as I left Alt-J I stumbled across the last few minutes of a set from Ghostface Killa, who was bringing a very different crowd into Mohawks, where Iggy played earlier. It was a sound reminder that not only can one’s night bring about a wide variety of surprises, but one doesn’t even need to leave a single venue to get an eclectic mix of some of the world’s finest artists. Oh SXSW, you make me fall more in love with you every year…
