The surviving members of AiC are reuniting, first for a VH1 tribute to Heart on March 10 and then for some shows this summer. The lead singer from Comes With The Fall (who have backed up Jerry Cantrell on tour) will be handling vocals, and may do the summer tour.
I so hope they end up playing a show close to here, because I would LOVE to see them live, even without Layne.
Anyone else excited?
I’d need to hear them with the new vocalist first. Layne’s going to be a hard act to follow.
Exactly. It’d probably just make me regret that I was too young to see them the first time out. Supposedly they packed a major punch live, so I’d be tempted… but I count Layne as one of the two really original vocalists to come out of that scene. I can’t imagine how they’d replace him.
I first saw Alice at a local skate rink, battle of the bands type thing. they played in drag.
Jerry is a good singer in his own right but Layne was damn good live, to bad he couldnt drop the heroin.
I would love to see them again even with a different singer.
I saw Alice in Chains live when Man in the Box came out. Unfortunately for them, they were the opening act in the 1991 “Clash of the Titans” tour: Slayer, Anthrax and Megadeth. They were not-at all- appreciated by the audience. We were there to see some thrash metal and mosh, and this band came out and the singer pretty much just stood there. And started that whining (Man in the Box was the first number). The metal kids were mostly just in disbelief that they had to sit through this crap.
Of course, when I was 17 we hated all of these new ‘Seattle’ bands. I think in our minds they were killing heavy metal, which had been reasonably popular up to that point. Pretty much anything new at that point we looked down on.
But then a few years later I saw Jerry Cantrell (I think he opened up for Metallica?) and, being a little older and wiser, I was actually quite impressed.
What depresses me the most though is this: I know it was a long time ago, but time kind of goes by really really really fast after you get out of high school, and it’s hard for me to not still think of bands like AIC as relatively new. So when I hear someone say he wasn’t old enough to hear them when they were new, it makes me realized I’m not 17 anymore. That doesn’t feel so good.
It’s hard to get too excited about that without Layne Staley being there.
hijack (for the metal heads):
Have you heard that Rick Rubin is working with Metallica for their next album?
On top of his other skills, he has a knack for getting performers to get back in touch with their roots. I think that is very exciting news – at least a lot more exciting than hearing that Metallica is playing with the San Francisco Philharmonic :rolleyes:.
I remember when the last album came out(10 years, 3 months ago!!!)
I was a senior in high school and my friend skipped school to buy a copy. I gave him the money and he picked one up for me. Inbetween classes, we went out to the car and listened to it.
I also remember their Unplugged performance like it was yesterday. It had that somber feeling that Nirvana’s did…like somehow we all knew Layne would be dead soon as well.
Of course, it wasn’t until 2002 he died…but that last album and the Unplugged performance felt like the end. Even though they released a few songs after that, their Unplugged was like a goodbye.
I’d love to seem them again with the new singer, though it is obviously not the real Alice in Chains. It’d just be good to see Jerry playing some AIC songs again, especially the one’s he was the main vocal on anyway.
This doesn’t shock me. It was about a year ago that the surviving members played a show with all-star guests (Including Heart and Maynard James Keenan) in Seattle.
The MP3s of “Them Bones” and the stellar “Man in the Box” with MJK (of Tool) on vocals can be downloaded from the audio section of Toolshed.