alt-J @ 02 Apollo Manchester review - a band which really knows what the fans want and gives it to them ★★★★

“That’s far more interesting.”

The work ‘interesting’, however, would be something of an insult if used to describe alt-J - they’re far too unique and unbothered by convention to deserve such an asinine assessment. Four albums in, the band is still doing something no one else on the planet is.

Playing to a giddy 02 Apollo, alt-J threw themselves into the gig with the kind of relish which can only be attributed to missing the hum of the crowd. And apparently Mancunian ones in particular: keyboard-player Gus Unger-Hamilton called the city the band’s ‘home-from-home’.

The response was enthusiastic. Playing a heady mix of material from their latest album The Dream, classics from An Awesome Wave, and an assortment of toe-tappers, knee-bobbers, and limb-looseners from This is All Yours and Relaxer, the band nailed the vibe.

Newman’s subtle but assured skills as a guitarist stood out given that he was combining such a keynote instrumental performance with his responsibilities as a vocalist - hardly a part-time role in a band like alt-J. Curly curtains and a beard framing his face, he swayed happily. Here was a man in control.

Here was also a band not predisposed to messing about: as each song finished, the ovation barely had time to dissipate before they launched into another tune, hopscotching from (The Ripe & Ruin) to Tessellate, from Something Good to The Actor, from 3WW to Every Other Freckle, from In Cold Blood to Ms.

Finishing with the flourish of the utterly tremendous encore of Left Hand Free, Hard Drive Gold, and the infamous Breezeblocks, the band left every soul in the room happy. Rarely do you go to a gig and hear every single song you hope to see. With alt-J, you get just that.

These three men know how to write songs like few others, they know where to take music so that it’s never samey, they know how to control a gig in their own way, and they know what a crowd wants. They’re far, far more than ‘interesting’.