Alabama – and perhaps the entire Southeast - has a new live-music center of the universe. Orion Amphitheater announced its presence with authority, this past weekend with an opening triptych of concerts, dubbed The First Waltz. The lineup? A wish-list of Bama-muso zeitgeist, legacy and tomorrow. The 8,000-capacity Orion oozes classic charm and has a first-year lineup boasting big gets for Huntsville, a brainy market zooming with development and now the state’s most populous city.
Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit perform at the Orion Amphitheater in Huntsville, Alabama, on May 13, 2022. Jason Isbell put an exclamation point on First Waltz’s Friday. Isbell and his ride-or-die backing band The 400 Unit unleashed widescreen Americana-rock upon a near-sellout crowd. It was definitely the weekend’s largest audience. Hardcore Isbell fans pine for his Drive-By Truckers classics. And the show-closing kerrang of “Decoration Day” gave that to them.
Mavis Staples and David Hood perform at The First Waltz, Saturday, May 14, 2022 at Orion Amphitheater in Huntsville, Ala. The biggest legend in Saturday’s lineup was the opening act. Mavis Staples is the sanctified vox behind Staple Singers soul-classics like “Respect Yourself” and “I’ll Take You There.” For her First Waltz gig, she lined up a guest spot from David Hood. His peppery perfect basslines adorned those aforementioned Staple Singers hits.
Rap trio The N.E.I.G.H.B.O.R.S., who performed at Orion Amphitheater's First Waltz on Sunday, May 15, 2022. Cities like Atlanta, Houston, Memphis and New Orleans are widely known as Southern rap hotspots. Huntsville, Alabama isn’t quite in that zip-code. But the city has produced some rap acts that resonated beyond here, including 2010s duo G-Side. Sunday at Orion, rising trio The N.E.I.G.H.B.O.R.S. proved they’re legit too.