Alabama Shakes Salute The Purple One at Ascend Sellout

Brittany Howard remembers a time not too long ago when Alabama Shakes “couldn’t even get a show up here in Nashville.”

The Shakes did get shows in Nashville in 2011 — playing their first out-of-town gig at the The Groove on Record Store Day, and then six months later packing out The Basement. As they kicked off their spring tour with a sold-out show last Thursday night at Ascend Amphitheater, it was clear as ever just how far the Grammy-winning band has come.

“I just love it here. I just want to say, I consider you all neighbors,” Howard, now a Nashville resident, told the crowd. The Spin lost track of an “I LOVE YOU BRITTANY!” count after about a dozen times hearing someone loudly profess adoration for the frontwoman. (OK, so it was us a few of those times.)

Even singer-songwriter Dylan LeBlanc, who opened the show, spilled about how much he loves Howard and the Shakes. He played tracks from his album Cautionary Tale — a pseudo ’70s folk sound complete with raspy, husky vocals and violin fills — which came out in January.

Backlit in apropos purple, wearing a shiny gold-and-black patterned cape with a matching pleated dress, Howard put the Prince in Princess. Featuring theatrical sweeps with her cape, voice booming and electric, her performance came closer to Queenly — with all due respect The Purple One in the sky.

And sorry, not sorry, Bey.

Somewhat disappointingly, the Shakes didn’t attempt a full-on Prince cover, but they did come onstage to a recording of “Let’s Go Crazy” as fans scrambled to find their seats or spots on the lawn. And damn it if people didn’t lose their minds, dancing, heads bobbing, some even skipping to their seats. (P.S. If you don’t at least bob your head to “Let’s Go Crazy,” you have zero soul.)

Near set's end, Howard dedicated the Sound & Color standout “Gimme All Your Love” — which the band had performed with Prince at his Paisley Park recording studio — to the legend himself. (In an interview with Rolling Stone in December, Howard said it took Prince all of 15 minutes to learn the song. Sadly, she also said it wasn’t recorded.)

"We just want to let him know we love him and miss him,” Howard said at Ascend, smiling softly. “God bless him. May he rest in peace.”

During the 19-song, 90-plus-minute set, The Spin saw much dancing — elderly couples swaying together, bearded guys shaking and bobbing their heads and one woman seemingly dancing away from the beat to an EDM concert going on in her head.

Just when we thought the dance party was at full volume, the band lit into the first couple notes of “Hold On,” and we could see that even Rep. Mike Stewart couldn’t help but wiggle a little. (Last day of legislative session, get down!)

Ditching the cape and, a few songs later, losing the guitar as well, Howard dropped her head back and then nodded forward, diving into a heart-clutching “Joe,” followed by “On My Way” and “I Ain’t the Same.” So much of the Shakes’ music involves the idea of transition — of an evolution of the soul, of the continuous making of who we are and want to be. These three songs together — bellowed by Howard in the mouth-twisting, soulful tradition of Aretha Franklin or Janis Joplin — came off as a thunderous and roaring reminder of the stinging pain of changing ourselves.