By Nadia Ahmad |Staff Writer|
Alt-J, winner of the British Mercury prize, performed a stellar show in Pomona after releasing a new album.
The crowd went wild when the band opened with “Hunger Of The Pine” the first single released off the new album, which features vocals by Miley Cyrus.
Several audience members told me that this was their favorite song off the new album.
English Indie-rock band Alt-J won the British Mercury Prize, an annual music prize awarded for the best album in the UK, after releasing their debut album “An Awesome Wave” in September 2012.
The band released their second album “This Is All Yours” last month and started their North American tour on Oct.14.
I feared that since the band had just started touring after the release of a new album that they would not perform any of their old music.
Fortunately, they played a balanced mix of songs from their old album and their new album.
The two albums are both spectacular, but very different.
The first album “An Awesome Wave” is much more synthetic and exciting than the newer album.
The band’s sophomore album has a slower pace with the exception of their two latest singles.
The concert was enjoyable and the band’s live sound was very original.
When the show started, all you could see were the silhouettes of the band members.
As soon as the beat dropped, the stage beamed with red lights.
The lighting for a show like this is so important as the band has a very synthetic and electronic sound.
“They were good tonight, but they were better at Coachella,” said one member of the audience who had seen the band live at Coachella in 2013.
Alt-J has been on the lineups of many well known U.S. music festivals such as Coachella and Lollapalooza.
I can agree that some bands sound better in a different atmosphere, and Alt-J seems to be more of a festival band than a small-city-venue band.
The band originally formed in Leeds, England in 2007 by bass player Gwil Sainsbury, Joe Newman, Gus-Unger Hamilton, and Thom Green.
Sainsbury left the band for personal reasons in the beginning of January, which was very upsetting news.
I feared that the lack of a bass player would hurt the live performance of a band I’ve been wanting to see for years now, but the trio did not disappoint.
The band played about three more songs off of their old album.
“Tessellate,” which was the second single off of “An Awesome Wave,” really got the crowd moving with its smooth drum kicks and sensual lyrics.
It seemed to be a crowd favorite.
Alt-J ended their set with their very first and most popular single “Breezeblocks” which was an absolutely perfect way to end the show.
This concert was one of the coolest I’ve ever been to and one I will not soon forget.
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