“I shot a man in Cork...just to watch him die (cackle)”
Hot damn, Mama! Hide that stash of poteen and lock up yer daughters, for something wicked this way comes. If it ain't everybody's favourite Outlaws Without Frontiers, ALABAMA 3, here to put the 'session' into 'recession' and dip into their bulging bag of seasonal country-blues treats like the most wasted' n' glorious trio of Saint Nicks ever.
And it literally IS the Alabama 3 tonight, for our Brixton renegades have slimmed down to a fighting-weight trio for this two-night 'acoustic' stand at Cork's plush, but intimate Crane Lane Theatre. W&H catch mutterings from those in the know that diminutive vocal foil Devlin Love performed with them last night, but tonight's close-to-packed audience are confronted by the extroverted Larry Love (vocals, extreme showmanship) and his talented henchmen Rock Freebase (fork-tongued slide guitar) and suave, man-in-black harmonica-wailer extraordinaire, Mr. Harpo Strangelove.
Yet even in this stripped-down acoustic form, Alabama 3 remain a compelling proposition. Potent, earthy, magnificent and hilarious in roughly equal proportions, they are soon mining a seam of bourbon-soaked blues' n' country courtesy of songs like Last Train To Mashville and proceed to wheel out a seething version of their 'Sopranos' theme calling card, 'I Woke Up This Morning' within the first fifteen minutes. Even without the mashed-up beats and Gospel-tinged vocal input from Devlin, it's celebratory as hell and with real-life Son of a Preacher Man Larry Love rapping like an amphetamine express train between tunes, they've got us eating out of their hands in no time.
Highlights are frequent and furious. There's an expletive-stuffed and localised version of Johnny Cash's 'Folsom Prison Blues' while the A3 'no rules, everything's possible' credo is exemplified by a positively cooking 'Woody Guthrie'. In contrast, a steely tenderness courses through the veins of a defiant 'Let The Caged Bird Sing' which Larry prefaces with a tribute to the Guildford Four and dedicates to the memory of Sarah Conlon. It's a reminder that Alabama 3 have moments of devastating beauty to counteract the controversy courting even if it does follow the bizarre sight of a leery, lizard-like Larry Love urging his alcohol-soaked congregation to sing along with 'Two Heads' warped catchline of “I got three eyes...I'm gonna pluck one out for Jesus.” As you do, on a Monday night prior to Christmas.
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This gift for quixotic genius shadows their every move tonight, although it would be hard to beat their closing set-piece 'Hello...I'm Johnny Cash', where Larry finally removes his Stetson and perma-shades and walks among his people. An open mic interlude follows,with Larry looking for a plausible Johnny Cash impersonator. He gets more than he bargains for when one young disciple produces a timbre-perfect version of 'Folsom Prison Blues' and ends up retorting with “he can't be Johnny Cash...he looks like a fucking geography student!” Cue cheers and Larry dashing back onstage for another of those passionate, Red Sea parting moments courtesy of 'The Speed Of The Sound Of Loneliness'.
On paper, Alabama 3's cross-pollination of electro beats, Americana, firewater preaching and head full of hard drugs really should be disastrous. Yet for over a decade now, their skill and dexterity has produced the goods and it's still on stage where they truly excel. Granted, it helps if one of your co-frontmen is a born again, Elvis-worshipping Christian fundamentalist, but Alabama 3 would still have got precisely nowhere if they hadn't been able to walk it like they talk it. Tonight, they talk it like prime period Muhammed Ali and walk it like the Last Gang in Town. As early Christmas presents go, it sure is one hot Mofo.
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