diffrentcolours | Alabama 3, The Ritz, Manchester (Reply)

Alabama 3 at the Ritz in Manchester tonight was an excellent gig. A little bit under-rehearsed in places perhaps, but the band were on strong form with a more country-rock oriented take on their back catalogue of sweet, pretty, acid house country music. Sadly bright_helpings couldn't make it, but I met up with a dear old friend from my Oxford days a quarter century ago.

First up as support, we had Sonny Eriksson performing his "cyberbilly" - a mixture of electronica and psychobilly. It sounded a bit like Lux Interior fronting KMDFM, with heavy use of samples. The specific use of samples for crowd interaction reminded me of Public Service Broadcasting too. Weirdest revelation of the night is that Sonny E. is a pseudonym of the artist also known as Adamski. Yes, that Adamski.

With the unfortunate passing of the Very Reverend D. Wayne Love in 2019, it's kind of weird to go to a gig which is a retrospective of their first two albums without one of the singers on stage (though his recorded voice did lead us during Hypo Full Of Love among other songs). What we got instead was a more stripped down version of the songs, with a country rock edge courtesy of female vocalist Devlin Love.

It didn't sound like the albums, and it didn't sound like the last time I saw them, shortly after D. Wayne's death, when they had adopted a more gospel-focused sound. But the power of the music shone through, particularly on "Peace in the Valley", a gloriously minimal "The Thrills Have Gone", and personal favourite "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlife". They bravely knocked out their most famous song, "Woke Up This Morning", early in the set to leave the audience wondering what would come next.

Larry Love's banter was on good form, asking us to petition Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham for an "acid house country" category in the Country Music Awards, and dedicating "The Old Purple Tin" to the Spice addicts of Manchester. Apparently the song is named for the purple cans of Tennent's Super lager. They ended that number with a musical segue into Prince's "Purple Rain" which was good fun.

I moved a lot during the gig, shouting through my FFP2 mask, singing along and waving my hands in the air. I left the venue feeling in some way refreshed and restored. In the words of "Ain't Goin' to Goa", my consciousness expanded by singing at the local tabernacle.

They're playing Bristol on 13th December and London on the 14th, catch them (and their support!) if you can.