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A few years after the extraordinary Southern rock trio known as Alabama Shakes dropped their triumphant, triple-Grammy-winning 2015 album, Sound & Color, they decided to embark on an eight-year hiatus.
Frontwoman Brittany Howard—the peerless and powerful voice at the center of their success—spent those years crafting a pair of solo albums and claiming a Grammy in 2021. The prospect of a formal Alabama Shakes reunion remained in limbo until earlier this year, when the former high school classmates from Athens, Alabama, announced a 36-stop tour for mid-July.
When the comeback train rolled through Las Vegas’ Fontainebleau on August 9, guitarist Heath Fogg and bassist Zac Cockrell had no trouble slipping back into a familiar, rhythmic lockstep alongside Howard’s dynamic vocal range and unbridled stage presence. They proceeded to string together a dense 20-song set that hit all the key notes from their initial two-album run, plus a trio of Sound & Color-era B-sides and two new compositions.
Howard came equipped with a glitzy purple feathered coat, a vintage green Gibson SG guitar and some serious main character energy as she and her fellow Shakes vaulted headfirst into the misty, cerebral murmurs of Sound & Color’s “Dunes.” It served as the perfect table-setter for an evening that featured most of the tracks off that landmark album, but only after the band first hit a flurry of highlights from its 2012 debut, Boys & Girls.
That early stretch showcased their foundational groovy tempos and soulful inflections on songs like “Hang Loose,” “I Ain’t the Same” and “I Found You” before coalescing around the twangy riffs and cathartic shrieks of their hit recession-rock ballad, “Hold On.” Between those and the many Sound & Color entries that followed, Howard and her bandmates had a packed house singing along as if they’d never even parted.
From her earnest, confessional lyricism on “This Feeling” to her rapport with a smooth cadre of backup singers across the meticulously layered soundscapes of “Sound & Color,” Howard’s knack for infusing her performances with a blatant sense of sincerity proved constant throughout the night. She would go on to crush the incessantly catchy hook of “Don’t Wanna Fight” before bringing the room to a standstill over the voluminous jams and emotional howls of “Gimme All Your Love.”
The band then left the crowd roaring for nearly five consecutive minutes before returning for a three-course encore that began with one of its first new songs in a decade. Titled “American Dream,” it opened on a plunky, plodding bassline before working itself up into a spacey, psychedelic fever dream while Howard crooned on uncharted subjects like the White House and reproductive rights—“what are we doing?”
One slow-cooked, blues-laden guitar solo later, Alabama Shakes circled back to the cautious optimism that’s so far defined their discography, with Howard urging the audience to “keep dreaming.” The energy carried over to “Drive By Baby,” a high-octane Sound & Color B-side that does everything classic rock and roll did best without devolving into a pandering nostalgia trap.
With just one song remaining and her father, K.J., in attendance, Howard took a moment to let everyone know how good it felt “to be in a room connecting with people again.” And with that, this new-era Alabama Shakes offered up one last treat in the Grammy-nominated 2014 single “Always Alright.” One could easily make the case that the song is the Shakes at their very best—but when are they not?
English (US) ·