Photo: Chris MacDonald

“When we played our first gig in Leeds we never thought we’d end up playing somewhere like this,” confesses keyboard player Gus Unger-Hamilton. You could forgive Alt-J for being slightly nervous though, with a performance at London’s O2 Arena being their biggest headline show of their career to date.

Supported by Wolf Alice and Gengahr, the 20,000 capacity venue is filled with trendy twenty-something’s, all anticipating tonight’s Grammy-nominated headliners.

Opening with Miley Cyrus-sampling ‘Hunger of the Pine’ the lights are dimmed, with each band member being only illuminated faintly, to create enchanting silhouettes.

Alt-J keep things modest, choosing to rid of any overbearing props, instead relying on side and middle stage screens that show only fragmented close ups of the band – and only during key song breaks. There’s no over reliance on visual aids here, as Alt-J hone in on technology entwined with music alone, to ensure closeness.

The first half of the set is upbeat, including hits such as ‘Fitzpleasure’ and ‘Something Good’. But ‘Matilda’ is the song that causes a mass flurry of excitement, as fans draw out their phones as quickly as possible to capture the moment.

Watch the video for 'Every Other Freckle' below

“This is a pretty big night for us, as you can imagine, so we thought we’d play a song we wrote in Leeds, which we haven’t played in about four years,” announced Unger-Hamilton before leading into rare track ‘Leon’. It’s a special moment, even though it’s far away from being as polished as earlier forerunners, the track manages to keep hold of the crowd’s attention during that tricky mid-set phase.

There’s not a dull moment during the set tonight, as each and every song is filled with tightly woven intricacy, crafting beautiful minutes of individual pleasure. And instead of restricting any intimacy, the O2 walls seemingly rebound and elevate off the creativity, from a band so in tune with one another’s musical soul.

Alt-J played:

Hunger of the Pine
Fitzpleasure
Something Good
Left Hand Free
Dissolve Me
Matilda
Bloodflood
Bloodflood pt 2
Leon
Interlude I (Ripe & Ruin)
Tessellate
Every Other Freckle
Taro
Warm Foothills
John Hurt

Encore

Lovely Day
Nara
Leaving Nara
Breezeblocks