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Alabama 3 send off an era

The Coal Exchange is one of Cardiff's most historic buildings and has long been an important live music venue, full of character and with much better acoustics than similar venues in the city. The building is now closed for refurbishment. I hope that the main hall will return to its popular function, but there is a slight question mark about this aspect of the redevelopment (see BBC News article). The closing party was held 26th Sept but Friday 28th September was the official last show, and what a show! Alabama 3 came to end an era in style.

Whilst the main event certainly had panache, the support bands are more accurately described as interesting. First on stage were post nu rave/electro/punk ensemble Sicknote. I'd only heard one of their songs before, Taxi For Mr Blair, but their set was very innovative and well received by the incoming audience. In particular, they had highly amusing videos up on the screens either side of the stage and one band member (band names, songs and videos are all available on myspace) wearing a kilt, was entertaining the crowd in a dancing manner very reminiscent of The Erotic Volo from Mistys Big Adventure.

The second support band were negligible, mainly because they didn't annouce their name, or at least it wasn't clear from the general mumbling and griping of the lead singer. The songs were ok and with a better band may even have been good, but generally this band should have been nowhere near a stage.

After an extended pause, Alabama 3 took to the stage and played for about 2 hours. The set started with new songs Fly and Monday Don't Mean Anything, and the last encore was Peace In The Valley. The rest of the set comprised of songs from new album M.O.R., Exile on Coldharbour Lane and Power In The Blood; only Hello I'm Johnny Cash made the cut from Outlaw and Too Sick To Pray from La Peste. Highlights were Amos Moses, Are You a Souljah, REHAB, Speed of The Sound of Loneliness, Hypo Full of Love.



Once again the audience was of the most eclectic mix, far more varied than for any other band I could mention! The atmosphere was brilliant, especially on such a night to remember.

Comments

flapsandwich said…
nice review!! spot on. i'm the hairy one from sicknote... Alabama 3 were amazing, great night to see off an amazing venue. i for one, am gutted it's going... Where else comes close to that in Cardiff??? nice1 xx

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