Saturday 21/05/05 Alabama 3 @ Academy, Glasgow

Alabama 3 are like no other band. For a start, they merrily ignore the fact that you think Americans aren’t cool. Secondly, they’ve forgotten that ANYONE ever thought that Americans weren’t cool. Then they’ve decided that being good South Londoners who actually kind of like Americana is in fact the coolest thing ever and that building a career around this is the way forward -regardless of fashion, record sales or public opinion. And you know what, they’re absolutely goddamn right. Alabama 3 first came to most people’s notice when their seminal ‘Woke Up This Morning’ ended up fronting James Gandolfini’s drive home on the opening credits of The Sopranos. However, they have been plugging at their southern-tinged Brixton-narco country disco sound since Britpop was cool. Yeah, it’s been that long.

Now, having been both on the brunt of some serious abuse, as well as some devoted worship, it would seem like their time has finally, and justly, come. With their new LP ‘Outlaw’ it looks like – from the critics’ point of view – they’re gonna get what’s coming to them. From the crowd’s perspective tonight in Glasgow, they can do no wrong. Despite some really crappy sound which made The Reverend D Wayne Love’s expressions of what we can only assume were inspirational devotion utterly incomprehensible (which may, to be fair, being generous given his well documented love of mind-altering substances), the whole venue was still in rapture. If you wanted to start a church based on booze, blues and floozies, this would have been the right night. With everyone in full-on, beat-drenched faux-gospel mode, every utterance received a cheer, every burble a hallelujah. If you’ve ever wanted to find out what a cross between a club night and a blues gig was like, this is it. And during the country-with-an-808 footstomper that is new single 'Hello I'm Johnny Cash', you could have found out what it would have been like if your brand new night out had been held in a church.

An Alabama 3 gig is not a normal one y'see. It's an experience as a whole. It picks you up and takes you on a railroad ride from South London to the Deep South. They're a band who genuinely live in their own world, where transatlantic divides no longer exist, where the critics no longer matter, where the only thing that is important is that the crowd have The Best Time Ever. With their new armoury of frankly jaw-dropping tunes, with their ability to rope in both the guitar-toting punk rockers alongside the beat-happy pill-freaks, with their irresistible knack for a tune, it's hard to think of another band that can so accurately and effortlessly sum up the sound of a generation. Forget the smack-wielding, supermodel-shagging, backward-looking gunslingers trying to persuade you that the East End of London is where it’s at. This right here is where y’all belong.