Live Review - The Alabama 3

The Alabama 3 @ Birmingham Institute 17/11/16

The Alabama 3, in their own words are “…a pop band. A punk rock, blues and country techno situationist crypto- Marxist-Leninist electro pop band.” From this very specific (!) description you may gather that there is no pigeon hole for which TA3 can fit. The music world is a fucking circle hole and this band is a square peg, or something more, a star shaped peg? A horseshoe shaped peg? I don’t know… image the most creative metaphor for yourselves! They don’t really “fit in” anywhere, but that is wonderful.

They are this crazy yet wonderful amalgamation of all things tuneful and all things wild. A collection of talented and wonderful individuals all dedicated to their characters (donning the stage in cowboy hats and southern USA accent these guys are all actually from Brixton!) owned the stage on this night, about packed out the Institute basement front to back with an enthusiastic and invigorated crowd.

Slowly building the band one by one, the stage only just big enough to contain them- don’t let the name fool you, there is not three of them, it takes more than that to create the intricate layered wall of sound that these folk blast! It’s very rare in our saturated world to find anything different, to be surprised is a rarity - but The Alabama 3 stand out, and they created an palpable buzz in Birmingham for us and everyone else dancing at this show.