Starting without Larry Love on stage, Devlin Love took the lead vocal whilst playing electric guitar, resplendent in gold lame jumpsuit, with a jacket with feather boas round the collar and wrists, topped off with Kiss type humungous platform boots in silver but with an added twist of sliver fringing from the top to the toes. She launched into Hotel California, which to me is an odd number to start with, as you don’t really launch into their version of the popular Eagles tune, you kind of wriggle and sliver. Larry came on after the first chorus, wanting to make an entrance befitting his status, but again just sort of slithered.
He too cut a fine figure in a shiny silver jacket with matching boots, and the obligatory black cowboy hat and shades.
Their real groove got under way with Cocaine (Killed My Community), and from then on
didn’t disappoint the willing crowd, by hitting them with Mansion On The Hill, Woke Up This Morning, You Don’t Dance To Techno, and I think every track from Exile On Coldharbour Lane and La Peste. 17 songs in all. As usual they whipped up a great party atmosphere. The highlight for me was and always has been, Too Sick To Pray. The words and build up really resonate with me.
The sound was pretty awful, but the Ritz is renowned for bad sound. I couldn’t tell what Larry was saying in between songs, I just caught the occasional word like Manchester, spice, Manchester Special Brew. Although I did manage to catch a rant about the Americana Music Association not having an award for Acid House Country and he thought there should be one, as they had been playing it for so long.
They finished the set with Hypo Full Of Love, and then encored a lowkey The Thrills Have
Gone, 2129, Peace In The Valley, and Sinking, which did just kind of sink at the end, and nobody in the band seemed to know it had ended.
I do love Alabama 3. I’ve seen them better and I’ve seen them worse, but they always
deliver the songs you want to hear, and they sent away a very happy crowd.
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