‘Long time, no see,” declares Brittany Howard, stepping on stage to a rapturous welcome, as Alabama Shakes return from a hiatus. It’s been 10 years since the multiple Grammy-winning blues-soul-rock outfit from the deep south last played in the UK and 11 since their most recent album – though a third is being teed up for later in the year.
If there’s any rustiness, it isn’t evident as they glide straight into the smooth but punchy Rise to the Sun. It sets the tone for an evening in which the group can do slick and groove-locked songs as vividly as they do raw and raspy ones.
Playing as a five-piece band – now minus original drummer Steve Johnson – plus three backing singers, they perform in front of a backdrop that recalls a Windows 98 screensaver of animated clouds, a stripped-back setting for a band who do not require embellishments. Howard, capable of Curtis Mayfield-esque falsetto one minute and Aretha Franklin-like rousing bursts another, is more than enough to hold the stage, letting rip gloriously on tracks such as Hang Loose, while the band are especially captivating when in full swing. On new song Time, they stretch into a raucous yet deft instrumental workout fusing hard rock with wobbly psych, while Gimme All Your Love blends polished R&B with blistering riffs.
One inescapable element is the lingering sense of hope that ripples through their music, from the mantra-like cries of their 2012 hit Hold On, performed movingly, to Howard singing “I’ve been having me a real hard time / but it feels so nice to know I’m gonna be all right” with palpable emotion on This Feeling. Even the encore of the new political single American Dream – a slow-burn number that references abortion rights and gun violence – is rooted in the belief that tough times can be overcome. Howard ends by wishing affordable housing, love, and pets that live to 35 years old on the whole crowd, who have lapped up the whole evening up so voraciously that you really get the sense this band has been sorely missing from their lives.
• Alabama Shakes play Alexandra Palace, London, on 3 July
