Perhaps no location is as significant to the indelibly intertwined histories of rock and soul music as northwestern Alabama’s Quad Cities, home to FAME and Muscle Shoals Sound Studios, the proudly interracial operations responsible for hits from, Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, The Rolling Stones, Lynyrd Skynyrd and, most recently, The Black Keys. It’s just an hour down the road from there to the Alabama Shakes’ hometown of Athens (not the Georgia one), and these guys (and gal) clearly hold their allegiance to that hallowed lineage close to their battle-ragged, sleeve-stitched hearts. Their out-of-nowhere debut, Boys & Girls (ATO), sees no need to split hairs between frontwoman Brittany Howard’s soul-drenched blues yowling and the amped-up heavy-rock riffage of awesomely named guitarist Heath Fogg (they came up as a Zeppelin-covering bar band) — it’s all rock ’n’ roll to them. That is, of course, nothing new under the Alabama sun, but it’s not every year you hear a group this unabashedly steeped in tradition sounding this improbably fresh.

Mon., Oct. 1, 8 p.m., $25-$33.15, with Fly Golden Eagle, Riley Downing, Electric Factory, 421 N. Seventh St., 610-784-5400, electricfactory.info.