U.K. rockers alt-J performed an intense, moody set at Los Angeles’s Hollywood American Legion for their episode of Live From the Artists Den. The group offered up 18 songs to a crowd of 550 invited guests, veering between their eclectic new album, This Is All Yours, and the band’s 2012 debut, An Awesome Wave. The surging, boisterous set included hit singles “Hunger of the Pine,” “Fitzpleasure” and “Left Hand Free,” as well as a re-imagined cover of Bill Withers’ “Lovely Day.” The Hollywood American Legion, with its grand vaulted ceilings, made for a historic and dramatic setting that lent itself well to alt-J’s edgy, dynamic rock songs.

alt-J

British rock band alt-J, named for the delta symbol that appears when pressing “Alt” and “J” on a Mac keyboard, formed in 2008 after its members met at Leeds University and began playing music together. The band’s first album, An Awesome Wave, debuted in 2012, selling over a million copies worldwide and winning the prestigious Mercury Prize. Following months of touring and festival appearances around the world, the band released its follow-up album, This Is All Yours, in 2014. The album debuted at the top of the charts in the UK and earned the band a Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Album. Following this they released This Is All Yours and most recently Relaxer.

The Venue

The Hollywood American Legion was originally built in Los Angeles in 1929 as a new clubhouse for the local Hollywood chapter of the American Legion, the congressionally chartered organization founded in 1919 by serviceman returning from World War I to benefit veterans of the US armed forces. Built in the Egyptian Revival-Morroccan Deco style, the clubhouse was frequented by the post’s many illustrious members, including Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable, Gene Autry, Mickey Rooney, and Ronald Regan. From 1932 to 1964, the motion picture industry used the Legion as the “it” spot for introducing such new “Studio Starlets” as Marilyn Monroe, Shirley Temple, Jayne Mansfield, and Rita Hayworth to the world. The building remains in use by the American Legion today and was named a Los Angeles Registered Historical Landmark in 1989. Photography courtesy of Colin Young-Wolff for Artists Den Entertainment.