Alabama Shakes - 5/30/26 - Berkeley, CA - Greek Theatre

Alabama Shakes put on the kind of show you'd expect out of them, and that's a compliment. We got the full range of their sound, the blues, the soul, the rock, the R&B all fused together. The expected result, of course, is the infectious grooves that you can't help but dance to and Brittany Howard's voice that touches something deep in your core.

I always talk about how I like all different types and genres of music, and what I want is music and performances with soul. I want true artistic expression, through the lyrics of the song, or the way the lyrics are sung, or the chord progression, or the notes picked out during a solo, or the bass line, or the drum beats. And to the surprise of absolutely no one, Alabama Shakes brought the soul.

What was a little surprising, was the low energy crowd. Virtually the entire general admission section was sitting down, and I even got asked by someone to stop dancing and sit down myself.... On a Saturday night! In the GA section!! At a freaking Alabama Shakes show!!!!! I can't for the life of me understand how the entire venue wasn't standing and dancing for the entire show, and it must be just a little disappointing to be on stage giving an amazing performance, only to look out over the crowd and see a lot of people sitting down. Thankfully, towards the end of the show the people in front of me stood up and that was all the excuse I needed to stand back up myself and dance for the rest of the night.

Lame crowd aside, it was still a great night. I don't know what else to say other than that as a pretty big fan of their music, I got exactly what I was hoping for from them. They were excellent.