This post was written immediatley after the event between 11:30-1:30am
I’m still reeling a bit from tonight’s killer Alice in Chains experience and from the fact that I just heard the new record “Black Gives Way to Blue” in its entirety a month before its official release and can honestly say it is extremely good. I won’t get into details quite yet though.
My wife and I started our night outside the EMP/SFM where we checked in and received the nifty little laminate seen above. We also were strapped with two separate bracelets, one for entrance into the Science Fiction Museum and another for proof that we were indeed 21 years of age. We asked if there would be a bar available during the show, but the folks checking us in said they weren’t at liberty to say. The whole event was so mysterious, hence the “secret show.” Nobody was talking at all. What did Alice have up their sleeves?
When the doors finally opened about 6:30 pm we were ushered into the Science Fiction Museum, (which was the secret location of the show), down the hall and then up the stairs into what looked like a space ship. Excuse my ignorance but I have yet to check out the sci-fi part of EMP. At the top of the stairs a good sized room was set up with a stage that had intimate mood lighting reminiscent of Alice’s MTV unplugged stage. We waited for awhile positioned no more than 8 feet from where Jerry Cantrell would sit, listening to the KISW standard radio rock on a constantly skipping CD player. After about a half hour Jolene from KISW came out and did a nice introduction for the band and 10 minutes later Jerry, Sean, Mike and William Duvall took the stage. They played only five songs, but they were nothing short of magical. They started with “Brother”, then “Got Me Wrong,” which always invokes a crowd sing-along. The guys were their normal goofy selves, constantly kidding each other. Like their MTV unplugged performance they added a few fun interludes between songs including a hilarious rendition of the Mission: Impossible theme with Jerry and William on sound effects. They even broke into what could have been an amazing acoustic version of Led Zeppelin’s “Dazed and Confused.” William Duvall was a spot on Robert Plant for about 3 seconds. The crowd tried to convince them to wing it, but no such luck. The rest of the set was filled with “Rooster,” which was humorously dedicated to Ross Perot because Jerry thought somebody in the audience yelled out Ross Perot.
After they played “Rooster,” I thought that if any people in the audience were not convinced of William Duvall’s talents and his rightful position as the new front man of AIC, they now were blown away by his amazing range and would have realized that he is the genuine article. It gave me goose bumps! Everyone sung along loudly to every chorus of every song of the night--especially “Rooster.” The rest of the short but awesome set consisted of “No Excuses” and then one of my favorite Chains songs ever “Down in a Hole,” where once again, Duvall earned his keep channeling Layne Staley on one of his most self- reflective songs. After they finished Jerry asked if we would like to hear some new songs. Off course, everyone cheered. He got up and said, “well, we are going to do something fun, so follow us.” Jerry and the band walked through the audience and Jolene got on the mic and told us to follow. The crowd of 400 to 500 people trailed behind Jerry, Sean, Mike, and William down the stairs, out of the Sci-Fi Museum, onto the main drag of the Seattle Center and headed toward the Center House. If felt like a wild goose chase or something as we paraded towards another mystery location. Jerry marching with smoke in mouth and beer in hand, led us through the Fun Forest by the bumper cars and then towards the Pacific Science Center. The crowd finally congregated at the gates of the Pacific Science Center. Here we were serenaded by the thunderous drumming of the Seahawks own Blue Thunder as Jerry led us down into the Science Center. At this point, I figured out we were headed to the Laser Dome. Sure enough, we all lined up outside the Seattle Laser Dome for a pretty thorough search with metal detecting wands and the whole nine yards. Earlier, we had been warned repeatedly that if we had cell phones, cameras or any recording devices of any kind, they would be confiscated. That’s why I have no good pictures to share. I hope that some of the official AIC photographers will release some soon. Also, a camera crew recorded the entire performance and event.
Once past security, we entered a room with free snacks and kegs of beer. Not just any snacks, but fresh fruit skewers, chips and dip and raw vegetables. Pretty classy for a KISW sponsored event, right! On a side note, I won my passes from 107.7 The End, but the 107.7 The End was nowhere to be seen at the event. KISW, on the other hand, was fully represented with signs and every annoying KISW crony was in attendance including Ricker.
Tif and I helped ourselves to a couple Rainers; yep they served Rainer--how cool is that! The four members of Alice in Chains were gracious hosts and mingled with us the entire time. Tif and I both met all four members and had them sign our laminates. If I would have known we were going to be able to meet the guys and get autographs, I would have brought a box of sharpies to sell. They were at a premium and only a few folks had them out of the 400+. After an hour of hanging out noshing on snacks and sipping on frosty cold keg beer, the guys got on some microphones and announced we’d all be hearing their brand new record, which would not be released until September 29th in its entirety and that we were going to hear it with a laser show accompaniment.
The new record started off with such an amazing song, crunchy riff, haunting vocals, 100% Alice in Chains. It seriously just about brought a tear to my eye hearing one of my all time favorite bands who I thought would never again make new music, coming up with a song like “All Secrets Known.” Unfuckingbelievable! From beginning to end the record was very, very good.
I’m having a hard time coming up with words to describe something I’ve only heard once in a strange setting and with tons of nervous energy to cloud my memory. I frantically tried to write notes in the dark, but it came out as a jumbled mess of illegible graffiti on the notepad. I can tell you that there are some really nice acoustic ballads on the record--I believe two if I was counting right. The rest of the record was extremely heavy and melodic and sounded like Alice in Chains, instantly recognizable but also something new. There was an undeniable rage or intensity in the songs, like somebody had something to prove. Another thing I took away, which was a gut feeling more than anything, was that underneath the sinister melodies and monstrous Cantrell guitar riffs there was a real sense of optimism in the songs. It’s obvious that Jerry, Sean and Mike have been through a lot with the passing of Layne and the dissolution of the band due to his issues with drugs. That shows up in the songs, but also the notion of being born again or starting anew rings heavy in many of the tracks. The closer and title track “Black Gives Way to Blue”, which is the now infamous Elton John piano song, is absolutely beautiful, and sung solely by Jerry. It basically says it all, not only a fitting goodbye to Layne, but at the same time an open arms hello to a whole new chapter for Alice in Chains and it’s members.
As witnessed firsthand tonight, not only do they have so much left to give to us, but as fans, we have so much to give back, and are so ready for the mighty Alice in Chains to finally return home where they belong.
- SRG
Set List:
1. Brother
2. Got Me Wrong
3. Rooster
4. No Excuses
5. Down in a Hole
Check out the official photos here and here
I live in Seattle, but I never hear about ANYTHING cool until AFTER it happens. Blah!
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