![]() And Staley was just as quick to point out, “It’s still the best.”Įven in their less-than-transcendent moments, there was plenty of light. it’s the only one we’ve done in three years,” showed a bit of the gallows humor the band was capable of as they navigated an incredibly difficult time. After noting “I think that’s it” towards the end of the night, Staley responded to the quick boos of the crowd with a playful “Hey fuck you, man!” And of course, his “this is the best show we’ve done in three years” comment, only to be reminded by Cantrell that “Layne. Towards the end of the song, Staley slides back in his stool, muffles his voice with a green bullet microphone, and a modified version of the song’s recitation follows, which could well be the most revealing moment in the entire program. And the main question posed here is simple but no less destructive: “Why’s it have to be this way?” It’s haunting, and to say it captured my imagination would be an understatement. In front of all this, an almost meditative Layne Staley sings quietly but as intensely as ever. Mike Inez’s bass zooms up and down and in between Jerry Cantrell’s careful picking and Sean Kinney’s subtly complex rhythms. That flawless transition from distortion and grime to the delicate touch required by un-amplified instrumentation might have been best illustrated on “Frogs.” A bleak, menacing song in its full, electric reading on Alice in Chains, it somehow becomes a darker illustration of depression in all it’s futility when the cloth is removed. The show and subsequent album revealed the depth of their all-too-brief catalog, with the band putting on a masterclass in how to strip these songs back without losing an ounce of their intensity. ![]() And the weight and power of their acoustic side came through with such blinding intensity during the Unplugged session.Īrriving on the heels of the Alice in Chains album, which was already in heavy rotation on cassette, Unplugged offered one of my first real glimpses of the band, apart from the quick, distorted glimpses provided by their videos. So the versatility of this band had always been on display, what with being able to flip from the heavy grind of Facelift, Dirt and their self-titled album with the acoustic EPs Sap and Jar of Flies with ease. But they had more than one trick in their bag. They were dark and heavy, sounding as mean as any metal band on the scene. Run through the first wave of that band - from “Man in the Box” to “Brother” to “Rain When I Die” to “I Stay Away” to “Grind” - and it’s a goddamned barrage of brilliance. Before looking backwards and discovering the bands of the 1960s and ’70s, there seemed to be a flood of music that seemed essential then and has only grown more significant since. Thinking of those important bands that came into my life as a teenager, Alice in Chains sits in rarified air. ![]() So, far overdue, here it is, a paean to the MTV Unplugged album that has been a spiritual guide since 1996. And I was stunned - a big, fat zero next to Alice in Chains. Which means I dip into the archives and loop through quickly to make sure I’m not repeating myself. Maybe I could come up with something on their self-titled 1995 album, under-appreciated as I feel it is, or maybe one of the EPs that dotted their early work between albums.īut because this site has been running far longer than it honestly should have, I have to check myself. So as I sat here, spending the better part of the week running up and down the original Alice in Chains catalog, I thought, maybe, it’s time to dip back in there. And there are certain albums I avoid on the assumption that I shouldn’t just keep talking about the same 15 records on repeat. There are a lot of records on the shelf, and even more on the harddrive, with new stuff coming out all the time. Still, for the tens and tens of people that will find this, I try to mix it up. It’s a place to process those thoughts, with the notion that this is a more productive way to accomplish that, rather than just annoying everyone else in reaching distance with them. Why does this space exist? More and more, it’s just a place for me to get some thoughts out on whatever I’m stuck on, whatever’s filling my ears. ![]() ![]() All the lightness and everlasting weight of Alice in Chains, unplugged ![]()
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