An evening with Alice in Chains, a sold out crowd, and a setlist that perfectly captures the legacy of one of the most influential and successful American rock bands of the last two decades. No opening band, just two hours of epic music. And they sounded so spectacular live that I would easily list them as one of the top five touring bands on the planet at the moment.
Frontman William Duvall is simply masterful at handling lead vocals and his guitar adds a welcomed layer to the band’s colossal wall of sound that wasn’t there before. And before you say that no one can replace the late, great Layne Staley, I will say that I agree. He’s not trying to. Duvall sounds fucking amazing on the classic material and adds a new dimension to the Alice in Chains sound—keeping it alive and well.
And how’s the rest of the band? Jerry Cantrell looks and sounds as good as ever before, Sean Kinney still pounds the shit out of his drums, and Mike Inez continues to make it look effortless laying down the bass upon some of the heaviest grooves of all time. Collectively these guys look like a band that still very much loves to perform, instead of those who tour only for a paycheck.
Highlights from the set are just too many to name, in fact it’s difficult to think of one song that I didn’t hear from the first three albums and two EPs. But I really would have loved to hear a few more from the newer records as I don’t think either of these two get enough credit. While Dirt may be recognized as the band’s masterpiece, I would easily put both Black Gives Way to Blue and The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here in the same rock ‘n’ roll weight class. They are both that fucking good and solid metal albums from start to finish. It’s just too bad they were born into a world that doesn’t celebrate albums any longer.
It’s also very cool that the band has enough respect for their audience to switch up the setlist each night. They could have easily gone out like pretty much every other band and played from a Xerox copy of the same songs every night, but instead they keep the order fresh and slip in a few rarities and gems that weren’t there the night before. The only thing that I missed was an encore. I think then entire sold out crowd was expecting one as well.
Bottom line: Alice in Chains are alive and well and arguably performing better than ever. Do yourself a favor and buy their last two records on vinyl and turn them up very loud. You will not be disappointed.
Check out hi res shots in the gallery here.
