Alabama Shakes set the tone for the season Tuesday night with an intimate, bluesy rock performance at the Soho Sessions in New York. The band packed their setlist with songs from their latest album, I Must Be Dreaming, and classic selections including “Don’t Wanna Fight.” Rolling Stone is exclusively showing the band’s 2015 hit “Gimme All Your Love,” directed by Ehud Lazin.
Brittany Howard commanded the performance with resounding focus, leading on guitar as she sang, “So much is going on/But you can always come around/Why don’t you sit with me, for just a little while?/Tell me, what’s wrong?” The instrumental break that followed locked the band into a seamless flow.
While creating their first album in more than a decade, Alabama Shakes were thinking about the same kind of intimacy and proximity that comes with the small performance space they took over. While their Soho Sessions appearance was hosted in support of the Grammy Museum, it was a different benefit event that brought the band back together.
In late 2024, Howard agreed to play a benefit show in Tuscaloosa and called up the rest of the band for the occasion. “And then I had a thought: I should call the guys,” she told Rolling Stone earlier this year. “We were gonna do, like, a little secret appearance. Well, we had to get together and rehearse these old songs we hadn’t played in forever, and it was pretty fun! It was fun being together again, listening to music, and listening to each other’s music. It just turned into, ‘We should play some more shows. You should listen to more demos that I have. We should record.’ It turned into an album.”
They were in sync on stage Tuesday night as they barreled through “Sound & Color,” “Future People,” and “Always Alright,” among other song selections.
“Having Alabama Shakes in this room is exactly why we created The Soho Sessions,” Greg Williamson, co-founder of The Soho Sessions, said in a statement. “They’re an incredible live band, and you don’t often get the chance to experience artists at this level from just a few feet away. To do this in support of the GRAMMY Museum and music education made this a really special night.”
