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Last Saturday I got to see Alt-J perform live at Liverpool’s o2 academy. I’ve been overly keen to see the quartet perform since their Mercury award-winning album An Awesome Wave reached the Top 20 early last year.

The band remained still throughout their set-list and didn’t really connect with the space on stage. I’ll give it to bassist Gwil for trying to jerk about though. Both the band and the crowd held simple small movements- tapping a foot, shuffling along the sticky floor, mimicking lead singer Joe’s sway. There was no climbing of amps or the band asking for silly requests from the audience (how annoying is it when artists ask you to sit on the floor and jump back up at a concert?) Everything was plain and simple. For instance, the band's set mirrored the order of their album, with the exception of ‘Breezeblocks’ being saved for their not-so-surprising encore.

I found Joe’s I’ve-got-the-flu voice really distinctive when I first started listening to the band. It’s notable that he can describe a woman being murdered (hold her down with soggy clothes and breezeblocks) in a calming, matter of fact tone. At times, it is difficult to understand what he is saying and I’m guessing the crowd agreed; the only point the whole audience sang along was to the opening of ‘Matilda’.

The band played two covers: ‘Slow’ by Kylie Minogue and College and Electric Youth’s ‘A Real Human’; the first appeared to be under appreciated by the crowd but ‘Slow’, having been previously performed in Radio 1’s live lounge, was a pleasant surprise. The song complimented the minimalistic approach Alt-j had held all evening.