If semantics were anything to go by, then Alabama 3 would be a country-and-western three-piece. But, like Ben Folds Five and The Barenaked Ladies, they have chosen a moniker that describes what they're not. Because, a couple of stetsons aside, country this ain't, and their numbers swelled to an implausible 10 at various stages of last Friday's concert.
They have a vaguely 1980s style about them (especially one elaborate Adam Ant-esque jacket), with their heavily synthesised sound and stereotyped stage costume. Augmented by guitar, keyboards, mouth organ and various vocalistscum-Bez-style dancers, they sound like a cross between Frankie Goes To Hollywood's Two Tribes and Black Grape. They never quite reach the heights of either, but their energetic style and all-round grooviness made it impossible not to tap feet and be at least slightly amused.
Each song, even those which were introduced as "sad" or "sentimental", hopped along at the same Macerena-style mid-tempo groove, but only one, the poor You Don't Dance To Techno Anymore, descended into hokum.
