Alabama Shakes Shine As 'Saturday Night Live' Musical Guests [VIDEO]

Alabama Shakes were Saturday Night Live’s musical guests on Saturday, bringing their customary flair to comedy’s biggest stage.

After an introduction from host Christoph Waltz – “Ladies an gentlemen, Alabama Shakes” – singer Brittany Howard and the rest of the band playing their biggest hit, “Hold On.” Slow at the beginning, the rendition picked up the pace and power as it went on, and turned out to be one of their best live performances of the song.

While Howard, in a maroon dress and large-framed glasses, led with her vocals and guitar playing, Heath Foggs was also on guitar and Steve Johnson expertly set the rhythm on the drums. Zac Cockrell slammed the bass while touring keyboardist Ben Tanner added some melody to the set.

For their second song of the night, the Alabama Shakes performed a version of “Always Alright” – their song that appears on the soundtrack of the Oscar-nominated Silver Linings Playbook. Like their first performance, it showed why the Shakes have grown into an “it” band since shaking up the music scene in 2011.