Alt-J Plays St. Pancras International in London
As mentioned on this morning’s Morning Music Notes, Alt-J were playing St. Pancras International Space Train Station as part of the Station Sessions Festival, to raise money for Prince’s Trust Music. The show was free (donations aside), and about 150 or so fans and curious commuters took in the set.
Alt-J, you’re going to miss your train! (Copyright: PeteHatesMusic)
Alt-J are readying their debut album, An Awesome Wave, for a May 28 release, and played an acoustic set. The openers were Amber States, and while I only caught 2 of their songs, they seemed promising. Check out their SoundCloud page and see if you agree.
The 4-piece Alt-J started with Tessellate, off of upcoming album. The band had to smile as the inevitable announcement quietly came over the P.A. system at the train station, somewhat interrupting their song. They then played their recent hit (the one with the awesome video) Breezeblocks, which sounded greatly acoustically, with the keyboardist switching between a xylophone and the keys.
Xylophones never go out of style (Copyright: PeteHatesMusic)
Next was Ms, which has some a capella parts that seemed to lose the crowd – do we cheer / are they done? Up next was the lovely Matilda, demonstrating the band’s harmonies perfectly. Something Good was another strong song. The drummer even had a shaker on his drum stick, which was a novel idea I actually haven’t seen before (but I don’t get out much).
Just playing in a train station, no biggie (Copyright: PeteHatesMusic)
The final song of the 6-song set was Hand-Made. All in all, it was a relatively strong set, showing that most of the studio songs translated well to an intimate, live acoustic setting, in a famous train station no less. Alt-J seemed to have fun and enjoyed the unique experience. The short show has actually slightly raised expectations for the album – so don’t let me down, lads!
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Soundchecking in the middle of St Pancras station. Surreal.
— Δ (alt-J) (@alt_J) May 2, 2012
Should we make a train station / musical “conductor” pun? (Copyright: PeteHatesMusic)
I still can’t get enough of this brilliant video.
Alt-J – Breezeblocks
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[…] Down segment, with their excellent, must-see video for Breezeblocks. We even caught them performing an acoustic set at the historical St. Pancras International train station in London. Now, we are happy to bring you their debut album, An Awesome Wave, streaming in its entirety […]