Live And In The Flesh
Alabama Shakes – September 24, 2015
Alabama Shakes along with their incredible lead singer Brittany Howard had been blowing up the scene for the past couple of years, and I knew I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to catch them live in the Nation’s Capital so close to home for their first ever appearance in Ottawa. The band was scheduled for a Thursday night down at the newly revitalized TD Place at Lansdowne Park. I had just hit up the AC/DC show at the football stadium, and had been expecting Alabama Shakes to be performing in the same part of the venue. By the time we got down to TD Place I had realized that they were playing the arena, rather than the stadium, which was such a smaller venue for a live show! I remember catching The Pixies down there in 2011 and there wasn’t a bad seat in the house. Not to mention our general admission experience just got that much closer!
We made our way into the city with some friends who managed to get some seats to the show. Since there was plenty of time to spare before showtime, we ended up at one of the new restaurants down at TD Place for some awesome Thai food and then headed to the venue for some live music! Alabama Shakes were out on the road for a quick nine date tour, a third of which was spent in Canada. It turned out that July Talk, Canada’s latest indie alt-rock band was slotted in as the opener for the dates north of the border. I hadn’t really given them much of a chance until a few days before the show to be honest, and I was interested in how they were going to pull off their sound live.
Settling into the general admission area less than twenty feet from the stage, we were ready to go for the night! It wasn’t long before July Talk made their way out onto the stage to get the crowd fired up. Blood + Honey and Gentleman from their 2014 EP For Your Bloodshot Eyes started it all off with them diving into Guns & Ammunition not long after. The act between the lead singers Pete and Leah seemed a little over the top at some moments, but it was all part of their show I guess. Before wrapping up their eleven song setlist they were able to throw in a few new songs that they had been working on; Push + Pull and Lola + Joseph while finishing everything off with The Garden.
I was looking forward to Alabama Shakes up next. July Talk seemed to do the trick as far as an opener goes, and I was ready to rock! I don’t think I was quite ready for what was to come next though! Brittany Howard and the rest of Alabama Shakes made their way out onto the stage and everyone was looking like a rock star, Brittany especially, all dressed up and looking like she was ready to own the night! The moment we set our eyes on them as they tended to their instruments we could tell they were eager to show us what they were made of. Future People started off the Alabama Shakes set, one of their latest tracks from Sound & Color, and Brittany had us mesmerized in no time. Her voice was that much more incredible in person, not to mention her guitar playing, and the soul that she put into her music could be felt throughout the entire venue. Brittany was definitely the leader of the group.
Alabama Shakes bounced between Sound & Color songs, and tracks from their debut studio album from 2012, Boys & Girls. The songs seemed to mesh into one another with so much ease, and the crowd loved every minute of it. The cheers between songs were feeding into the band and that beautiful energy you only experience at a live concert was flowing freely. The band finished up their regular set with Boy’s & Girl’s Hold On, and Don’t Wanna Fight, and Gemini from Sound & Color. They were already up to an eighteen song set and I couldn’t imagine that they would have it in them to come back out for much of an encore, if at all, but they did! The title track from their latest album started the three song encore off before they sent everyone home with You Ain’t Alone and Over My Head. Twenty-one Alabama Shakes songs blew the roof off of TD Place Arena that night, and the appreciation I have for the entire band, along with one of the greatest lead vocalists going these days grew tenfold. They played their entire new album, not to mention half of their debut! Anytime their music graces the airwaves from here on out, their soul can be felt, and not just heard. Something you can only enjoy after experiencing such a great live performance.