Alabama Shakes in Jacksonville

About Alabama Shakes

Alabama Shakes are a four-piece from Athens, Alabama that somehow managed to make soul music feel urgent and unfinished in the best way possible. Brittany Howard's voice is the thing that stops you mid-conversation—it's got this raw, searching quality that sounds like it's being pulled from somewhere deep. The band broke through around 2012 with Boys & Girls, an album that felt genuinely different in a landscape of carefully calibrated indie rock. Hold On became their crossover moment, a song so fundamentally right that it still sounds fresh. Their follow-up Sound & Color showed real growth, with Howard's voice getting stranger and more confident at once. What makes them matter is that they never sound like they're performing soul music so much as living in it. There's always something slightly off-balance about their arrangements, a willingness to let songs breathe unevenly. They've never chased trends or tried to be cooler than they are. Just four people from Alabama making music that feels true.

They command a room with zero showmanship. Howard stands still mostly, lets her voice do the talking while the band locks into grooves that get tighter as the set goes on. Crowds quiet down to listen. When they hit the big ones, people lose it quietly—no screaming, just this palpable relief.

Known for Hold On, Don't Wanna Fight, Sound & Color, Girls in Alabama, Be Mine

Alabama Shakes + Jacksonville

Alabama Shakes brought their soulful Southern rock to St. Augustine Amphitheatre in April 2016, delivering a setlist that moved effortlessly between their most tender moments and their rawest guitar work. They opened with the atmospheric "Dunes" before settling into deep cuts like "Shoegaze" and "Gemini" that showcased the band's range beyond their radio hits. The show built toward their most anthemic material—"Don't Wanna Fight" and "Sound & Color" landed hard in the second half—and they closed things out with "Over My Head," leaving the crowd with something contemplative rather than bombastic.

Alabama Shakes in Jacksonville News

• New Jacksonville-area concerts include Trace Adkins, Alabama Shakes The Florida Times-Union · Dec 30, 2025
• Brittany Howard & Michael Kiwanuka Confirm 2024 Fall North American Co-Headline Tour Dates JamBase · Apr 23, 2024
• Why DB prospect Elliott Washington became Alabama football's first 2023 commit The Tuscaloosa News · Feb 1, 2022
• Tedeschi Trucks Band on a roll The Florida Times-Union · Nov 30, 2021
• St. Paul and the Broken Bones brings brass, energy to stage Gadsden Times · May 27, 2013

Live Music in Jacksonville

Jacksonville's got a weird relationship with soul and rock. It's not Nashville or Memphis, but it's got that Atlantic coast thing where blues-rock gets filtered through gospel and Southern grit. Alabama Shakes fit right into that DNA—raw vocal power, rhythm section that doesn't apologize, guitar work that knows when to get out of the way. The city's never been a major stop for touring acts, so when a band like this rolls through, it tends to stick around.

Jacksonville road trip to see Alabama Shakes?

Stay in the Riverside neighborhood—tree-lined streets, actual character, and close enough to venues without feeling disconnected from the city. Orsay has the kind of kitchen that justifies driving across town: French-inflected food that doesn't announce itself. Spend an afternoon at the Cummer Museum if you want something quiet before the show, or walk the San Marco area and remind yourself what civic architecture used to look like. The venue itself will be worth your attention—Jacksonville books serious acts, and they still know how to put on a show that doesn't get drowned out by the room.