Somebody check my brain...

Tuesday marked the first new Alice in Chains album in 15 years (it's excellent, btw). First of new material anyways. Lead singer hooked on heroin a large portion of his life and eventually dying of a drug overdose in 2002 can do that to a band. The band never complained publicly and always stood by poor Layne Staley. But a handful of years after his death the band decided to test the waters with a new singer, William Duvall. Response was overwhelmingly positive and the band soldiered on eventually leading up to Tuesday's release of new material. And why not. They always did the right thing, never made a scene, and the surviving three members deserved to move on. And to be fair, Jerry Cantrell sang on most of the songs and wrote the vast majority of them as it was.

Alice in Chains is a band I wrote off seeing live years ago. Having gotten to see them last night was a great treat.

When we got to the venue it took forever to get inside. Doors at 7? I don't think so. Show starts at 8? Yeah right, show started at 9:15. Crowd was starting to get a little restless. There was no opener.

They took the stage and immediately broke into Rain When I Die and all was forgiven. Duvall slayed it. He was awesome. Band was awesome. They sounded great. They had an acoustic break down which should be par for the course. The new songs stood up great next to the old ones. It was a flat out fantastic show. Not to mention I was 4 or 5 people back from the stage. It wasn't the longest set list ever, but that is easily forgivable when every song is a monster. I also loved that they didn't stay in "position," every member made a point to stand at different spots for different songs.

The crowd loved it and was one of the loudest crowds I have been around, despite the venue's tiny size. The guys were very appreciative and looked incredibly happy to be where they were... finally playing a show after releasing some new material. It was said several times that it was the end of the beginning, but that it was still a beginning. I think without a doubt we will be seeing a lot more of these guys and a lot of new albums down the road. Congrats to them and thanks for the great show. Set list and some videos of various things below. Tonight brings one of their Seattle brethren, Pearl Jam!

No Excuses, Old song performed this week on Kimmel


Check My Brain, first single off of new album


And most of Rain When I Die... last night from the Avalon.


Set List

Rain When I Die
Again
Check My Brain
Them Bones
Dam That River
A Looking In View
We Die Young
Nutshell
Love, Hate, Love
Black Gives Way To Blue
Your Decision
No Excuses
God Am
Acid Bubble
Angry Chair
Man in the Box

Encore:
Sludge Factory
Would?
Rooster