Alt-J (∆) at Triple Rock, Minneapolis (09/22/12)

Tour Dates 09/25/12 Portland, OR Roseland Theater 09/26/12 Seattle, WA Moore Theatre 09/29/12 Los Angeles, CA Bootleg Theater 09/30/12 Santa Ana, CA Constellation Room 10/01/12 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore 10/04/12 Las Vegas, NV Boulevard Pool 10/08/12 St. Louis, MO The Pageant 10/09/12 Tulsa, OK Cain's Ballroom 10/11/12 Houston, TX House Of Blues 10/12/12 Helotes, TX Josabi's 10/13/12 Dallas, TX House Of Blues 10/14/12 Austin, TX Zilker Park 10/14/12 New Orleans, LA House Of Blues 10/27/12 Manchester Royal Northern College 10/28/12 Leeds The Cockpit 10/30/12 Norwich Waterfront 10/31/12 Birmingham O2 Academy 11/02/12 Oxford O2 Academy Oxford 11/03/12 Bristol Trinity Centre 11/05/12 London Electric Ballroom 11/08/12 Paris, France La Boule Noire 11/10/12 Lorient, France L'Espace Cosmao Read More Alt-J UK art rockers, alt-J are certainly no strangers to the awkward task of assigning context to obscure subjects. The quartet met at Leeds University in 2007…

With the announcement of An Awesome Wave, the debut album from Alt-J (∆), to be one of the shortlist for the Mercury Prize, Alt-J is getting a lot of attention. That's certainly the case at last night's sold-out show at the Triple Rock in Minneapolis, as Alt-J played to their adoring fans.

JBM

Starting off the show was JBM (aka Jesse Marchant), a Canadian singer/songwriter who expressed gratefulness to have been on the brief tour through the United States (last night was their last stop on their tour).

I got the sense that JBM's music was very personal to him, as he closed his eyes and sang out his heart. Just look at his lyrics for "Moonwatcher", as he paints this vivid picture: "The wind blew down through the cracks of the home and the frozen sides of it creaked. One day I'd of liked to see you come. Stay the night and fill me warm with your sunlight…"

He mostly played guitar, but switch to the keyboard for two songs, including "Thames" and his last song on the set.

Although JBM's storytelling songs sounded nothing like Alt-J's more upbeat music, the audience didn't seem to mind one bit.

As for Alt-J, I felt their music had a very Caribbean breeze to their music, especially with the percussion on some of their tracks, but people are saying they're more "avant pop", which translate to art-rock. Whatever they're classified as, their fans knew all their songs and it often turned into a sing-along show. Although their album just came out September 18th, I got the feeling that fans were already privy to An Awesome Wave well before the official release date.

If you look at their setlist, they did their entire debut album, An Awesome Wave, live. The live set is very similar to their track listing (minus the various interludes) from the album: "Intro", "Interlude 1" (aka "She She She"), "Tessellate", "Something Good", "Dissolve Me" "Ms", "Fitzpleasure", "Matilda", "Breezeblocks", "Bloodflood", "Hand-Made" and "Taro."

There was no encore, which didn't surprise me because they've played every song known to them. Yet, the audience was still clamoring for more Alt-J, even when the Triple Rock started playing their closing out songs over the speakers.

Alt-J is currently on tour in North America, in support of An Awesome Wave, which is out now on Canvasback Music. Catch the wave now to see the band at smaller/intimate venues, rather than paying for the price later when they really blow up.

Alt-J at Triple Rock Social Club, Minneapolis (09/22/12)

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