What could be nerdier than naming your band after a Mac keyboard command? How about letting loose your grip on your Fender Stratocaster to play … the casanets? And if those castanets were the percussive snap to your highly regarded single from your Mercury Prize winning debut album, well that would just be another day in the life of Cambridge four piece Alt-J, who brought the exploratory sounds of their lp An Awesome Wave to a sold-out Fitzgerald’s Sunday night.

Hit the jump for the full review.

– sunbear

When the bass drop that ruptures wide the floodgates on “Fitzpleasure” hit, the entirety of Fitz’s (“Fitz at Fitz,” anyone?) bobbed their outstretched hands, hip-hop style, to the song’s deliberate beat. And that is no accident. The drumming of Thom Green is so mathematically perfunctory it recalls a genre that couldn’t be further away from the incongruous sound that the four-piece have championed since their debut’s release last September.

That sound, a kind of modular sheen made up of equal parts sex and swagger, was the night’s ultimate anachronism, coming from the rail-thin, bespectacled members of Alt-J, who were an undeniably tight band that never once broke a sweat performing. Rather than really “rock out” physically, the band let the songs, as well as their hypnotic light show, fill the venue and really speak for themselves. The sway-worthy “Tessellate” really stretched its elegant legs and flourished as the tone-setting first song of the night. Set closer “Breezeblocks” became the night’s sing-a-long as frontman Joe Newman threw an extended bridge of “Please don’t go-Please don’t go. I love you so- I love you so” the crowd’s way which they almost seemed to be waiting for.

With only one lp to their name, there weren’t many surprises to the band set, save for a turn down Silver Linings Playbook way with a performance of “Buffalo,” but that concise discography lent a very familiar feel to every song played, as if you knew all your favorite songs would be coming and it was only a matter of time. Speaking of familiar, I wasn’t even aware the band had a Rocafella diamond-style hand gesture that was their calling card but everyone in the venue did and weren’t shy about throwing it up at every given opportunity.

Alt-J have had a meteoric rise as “the new Radiohead,” which is a twice-absurd statement, as it’s both blasphemous and because the band are carving out their own unique niche that is as indescribable as it is captivating. In only two trips to Houston, the band have went from opening act for the deliriously sugary Grouplove, to selling out their own headlining slot in one of Houston’s oldest music venues. Well done, boys.

When the glazy Hundred Waters steped out of their opening slot due to illness, Houston’s own LIMB stepped up to the plate to beat some rock into his short and memorable set. Drumming with a fiery ferocity and simultaneously playing his own Dan Deacon-esque samples, LIMB had jaws dropped around the room, as many of the uninitiated Houstonians were formally welcomed into LIMB’s rapturous live show.

SETLIST:
Intro
❦ (Ripe & Ruin)
Tessellate
Something Good
Buffalo
Dissolve Me
Fitzpleasure
Matilda
❦ (Guitar)
Bloodflood
Ms
Breezeblocks

Hand-Made
Taro

Alt-J Will be making several appearances at SXSW as well as headlining a fall tour later this year. chck out the dates here.