ALABAMA 3 + OL’ TIMES – CONCORDE 2, BRIGHTON 7.12.23
Alabama 3, the acid house country band, were in Brighton on a wet December evening last Thursday as part of their UK tour to promote their 14th studio album, ‘Cold War Classics Vol.2’, released on Submarine Cat Records. The collective was founded in Brixton, London in 1995 by Larry Love (Rob Spragg) and The Very Reverend Dr. D. Wayne Love (Jake Black). You may be familiar with their song, ‘Woke Up This Morning’ as the theme tune to the TV series ‘The Sopranos’. Their lively sound combines techno beats with country, blues, gospel, and spoken word styles.
In keeping with the title of their latest album ‘Cold War Classics Vol.2’, lead singer Larry Love came on stage flanked by two people dressed as cold war spies, who wouldn’t have looked out of place in a film adaptation of a John le Carré novel.
For their live show at Concorde 2, Alabama 3 were a seven-piece band. (As their website says “We’re not from Alabama, and there’s not 3 of us”.) Larry Love was joined on stage by another vocalist Zoe Devlin Love, a drummer, guitarist, bassist, keyboard player and a harmonica and saxophone player.
Alabama 3 began with ‘North Korea’ from their new album, which started with a spoken word delivery and had a hip hop/electronic dance feel similar to ‘Connected’ by Stereo MC’s. This was followed by another dance number ‘Up Above My Head’, with Zoe Devlin Love taking lead vocals.
Front person Larry Love was very engaging with the crowd of devoted fans, frequently checking “Brighton brothers and sisters, how are you doing?” in a preacher-like manner. He also added self-effacing humour, introducing one song from the new album as “17 minutes long. So, if you want to go and do something else and come back later…”
On ‘Hypo Full Of Love (The 12 Step Plan)’ and some other songs, the keyboard player held the keyboard at a 45-degree angle, while playing. The spies returned during ‘Vietnamistan’, taking photographs as if on undercover surveillance. This was followed by a mellower song, ‘Speed Of The Sound Of Loneliness’ introduced as “back to 1972 country and western”. It closed with an interesting harmonica solo.
There was a slightly bizarre moment when for part of ‘Thank You’ a trombone player appeared from the backstage area and played in the corner in the audience. Other than a few people by the bottom of the old lift at Concorde 2, most wouldn’t have been aware of his appearance.
The following song was dedicated to the recently departed pillars of Irish music, Sinéad O’Connor and Shane MacGowan. Alabama 3’s cover of The Pogues ‘A Rainy Night In Soho’ was a fitting tribute to those legends.
Two tracks back-to-back later in the set were an example of the variety in Alabama 3’s music and their live show. ‘U Don’t Dans 2 Tekno’ had a country music sound and for most of the song was sung by Zoe Devlin Love with just a keyboard accompaniment. Whereas ‘Whacked’, which followed, had a disco, acid house vibe.
The spies returned towards the end of ‘The Road Goes On Forever’ and bundled the lead singer off of the stage in keeping with their characters. This wasn’t the end of the performance. At the start of the encore, Zoe Devlin Love returned alone to sing ‘(Oh Lord Won’t You Buy Me) A Mercedes Benz’. This was a superb vocal performance. The other band members returned for the rest of the encore, with lead singer Larry Love having changed into a pink jacket and cowboy hat. Alabama 3 closed a very impressive and entertaining performance with a low-key blues sounding number ‘Peace In The Valley’.
From the dancing and singing along during Alabama 3’s set and the reactions between songs and at the end, their performance was just what the Brighton crowd needed to brighten up a wet windy December evening.
Alabama 3 setlist:
‘Down To the River To Pray’ (intro)
‘North Korea’
‘Up Above My Head’
‘California Got You Stoned’
‘Hypo Full Of Love (The 12 Step Plan)’
‘Petronella Says’
‘Vietnamistan’
‘Speed Of The Sound of Loneliness’ (John Prine cover)
‘Woke Up This Morning’
‘Thank You’
‘A Rainy Night In Soho’ (The Pogues cover)
‘Have You Seen Bruce Richard Reynolds?’
‘Hello… I’m Johnny Cash’
‘U Don’t Dans 2 Tekno’
‘Whacked’
‘The Road Goes On Forever’ (Robert Earl Keen cover)
‘(Oh Lord Won’t You Buy Me) A Mercedes Benz’ (Janis Joplin cover)
‘Before The Ship Came In’
‘Power In The Blood’
‘Peace In The Valley’
Opening for Alabama 3 were Ol’ Times, a five-piece classic rock outfit from Galway, Ireland.
The band came on stage 15 minutes earlier than the set times published on social media before the concert. This may explain why there weren’t more people at the start of their set. The band themselves came on in stages, first the drummer and one of the guitarists, then the bassist and the other guitarist, and finally the singer.
The band’s sound was heavily influenced by 1970’s rock music with hints of glam rock like Sweet and T Rex in places. The singer was very animated putting everything into his singing, and dancing during the instrumental parts. He let the other musicians take centre stage, when he wasn’t singing, often taking himself and his mic to the back of the stage. The two guitarists shared lead duties, and each played impressive solo parts on different songs. Not to be out done, the drummer filled in with a good drum solo between songs mid-set.
From the start and as the set progressed, Ol’ Times got a very good reaction from the Concorde 2 crowd, who clearly enjoyed their opening set.
Ol’ Times:
Kai – drums
Finn – bass
Bean – guitar
Manuel – guitar
Gabbi – vocals
