GIG REVIEW: Alt J Serenade the Grassy Hills of Riverstage with Newest Album The Dream

Words by Emma Newbury

Hot off the release of their latest EP The Dream, Alt J have finally made it off of the diving board and back into the eyes, ears and hearts of their beloved Australian fanbase. Solo shows in Sydneys’s Metro Theatre and Hordern Pavilion as well as a string of shows as part of the 2023 Groovin the Moo bill warmed the British rockers up well to serve an all too familiar venue for them - Riverstage. 

Opening act Royel Otis (Yes, Royel with an e) flooded the grassy hills with nostalgic reverb guitar and a soft croony voice, like a vocalised daydream. The backdrop matched the nostalgic Demarco-esque pop with a cluster of colourful static. If you haven’t been living under a rock for the past year, you’ve probably heard Otis’ TikTok-boosted single Oysters in My Pocket, which featured amongst his latest EP Sofa Kings. 

After a short intermission where the audience restocked drinks and the sun finished its post in the sky, Alt J took to the stage with a chant-like introduction from song Bane. 

I sold my soul

For a sip at school

A swimming pool

Ice cold black fuel 

Red neon sizzled up from the ground, carried up by a thick layer of smog, and with the pace of a bass drum a flash of red would appear in vertical stripes. Three stripes gave way to the three band members, as lead singer Joe Newman began crooning in his deep folky vox. Bane from recent album The Dream transitioned effortlessly into older hit Every Other Freckle from the popular This Is All Yours era. The playful jumping from new to old; old to iconic allowed the three-piece to cover all the way back from An Awesome Wave, through to This Is All Yours and RELAXER, and gently ease their fans into the new choral-meets-upbeat toe-tapper project The Dream. 

Australia have always been fans of the triangle-shaped band since they first received airplay on our national radio waves for 2012 album An Awesome Wave, leading to their debut visit in 2012 for the album tour, followed by revisiting our capital cities for St Jerome’s Laneway in 2013. Australia is reciprocally loved by the band, so much so that the dance-romance hit U&ME from the new album was inspired by frontman Joe Newman’s experience at Sun Cycle Festival in Melbourne with his partner. “I could hold onto the memory of that day for the rest of my life” Newman closes out the song by saying. A simulacrum of Newman’s own experience could be seen rippling through friends and couples within the crowd that night when U&ME followed the popular track Tessellate; faces glowing with lights of red, orange, and the sentiment of all sorts of love. 

Other tracks from the new album that were shared that night included the likes of hits The Actor and Hard Drive Gold, as well as pingy chillwave track Chigaco, the broody Delta, and the ethereal orchestral Philadelphia. 

While Alt-J are no longer newcomers to the indie scene, The Dream walks the tightrope well between commercial success and artistic integrity; moving forward while still staying grounded in the iconic folky melodrama that soared them to musical endearment. Both NME and The Guardian rate the new album at 4 stars, citing it as both reflective and a breath of fresh air - a phoenix constantly combusting and being reborn while remaining the familiar creature. 

Alt J closed out the night with their most adored pieces Left Hand Free and Breezeblocks. Fans headbanged nonchalantly while shouting the lyrics to Left Hand Free as a truly phenomenal light spectacle glittered the stage; like rays of colourful sun peeking through holes in a blank canvas.

“She may contain the urge to run away but hold her down with soggy clothes and breezeblocks”

Newman sang perched between 2 spotlights arising from the ground followed by the la la la la’s of fans that bought in geometric visuals and the iconic toy-piano romping that lead us from our current moment at Brisbane’s watersedge back to the first time we all heard Alt J. Alt J continue to define the soundtrack from our pre-covid salad days at flower crown festivals into the city-wandering florets of our ever-changing youth.

Check out the full gallery by Caleb Spark here