A Band Reborn
“In your darkest hour you strike gold”
It has been said before, but Rock City is a superb venue in which to watch a band, definitely in the top five in the UK. Dark, dingy and an expensive bar it may have, but its a pretty good view from wherever you choose to go, and the band must feel the audience is right on top of them. Its a wide and short place so even at the back you are pretty close to the action. With several venues around the country falling prey to developers seeking a few quick bucks, lets hope and pray this one goes on and on serving the needs of the gig going public. With the increase in large soulless venues where the punters are happy to sit down throughout the show and expect entertainment, we need places like Rock City for the genuine fans.
I’ve seen this tour a couple of times now, and on both occasions have caught the majority of the set of Little Fish. They are in the main a two piece act (They are joined by a keyboardist for a couple of tunes), and are kind of a White Stripes in reverse, male drummer, girl singer and guitar. Their sound is more rock than Jack White’s indie blues urges however, and they certainly do have some leanings towards The Kills. Front woman Juju has a fine voice in a Siouxsie style loves a good scream or two to help a tune along. They make a decent racket but a lack of immediately memorable tunes seems to hold them back a bit, though ‘Darling Dear’ is a pretty good slow burning, slow building rock tune. For a relatively unknown support act they were pretty good and performed really well, and I will be checking them out again in the near future.
Alice in Chains seemed to reach the end of their grimy back road in 2002 when iconic singer Layne Staley succumbed to his drug habit. However for a lot of the fans they had ceased to be a going concern since the last self titled studio album came out in 1995, only an MTV Unplugged show shortly after being significant. By 1996 to all intents and purposes it looked like the end of another one of the great Seattle grunge acts, Nirvana of course had ended abruptly 2 years earlier and Screaming Trees and Soundgarden were on their last legs. The band never split though despite some Cantrell solo offerings, and in 2007 started playing again with a new vocalist William DuVall. A new album followed in the Autumn of 2009, and the band are back touring it. So tonight the band would be keen to show us they still are a going concern and are not just out for a few nostalgia points and a bank balance boost.
Rock City is packed to the rafters and there is a genuine sense of anticipation long before the lights go out. After a couple of minutes of dark the lights go back on to reveal the band standing there, Jerry Cantrell with a huge grin and they go into the mighty ‘Rain when I die’. It’s an awesome sound, the tune powered on by the first in a series of huge riffs from Cantrell’s Gibson. There’s little pause before the best of the Dirt album continues with ‘Them Bones’ and ‘Dam that River’. The crowd reaction is superb and its not such an old audience with the younger members seeming to know all the songs. The other encouraging thing is the reaction to the new tunes (they play seven of the eleven tracks from the new album). This is only fair enough as Black gives way to Blue is a superb record, not an immediate thing, but one that gets better with every listen. One immediate track however is recent single ‘Check my Brain’ and there is a mass singalong kicked off by the slowed down juggernaut of a riff that introduces it. Jerry Cantrell is one of the great modern guitar players and his stuff is a nice mix of the tried and tested and innovative, whether playing the Sabbath style grunge rock tunes, or delicate acoustic campfire pieces. One interesting point to note is that in 2006 he was awarded the title of Riff Lord by Metal Hammer magazine beating James Hetfield and Tony Iommi. His soloing is also spot on tonight.
William DuVall
His singing is impressive too, and here you have one of the paradoxes of Alice in Chains. Layne Stayley usually takes the credit for the band’s sound, but more than often is is Cantrell’s voice that is distinct, or both of them singing in harmony. Which brings us nicely onto new front man William DuVall. Alice in Chains were always a bit different from their grunge contemporaries, and one of the reasons was the dual vocal harmonies between Cantrell and Stayley. The latter was often quite happy to slip into backing vocal mode, letting Cantrell take the lead in many of their most famous tunes. It is the same with DuVall but he is an excellent vocalist and has the rare gift of being a presence without overdoing it. His vocals really shine on the likes of ‘Again’, ‘Man in the Box’ and new tune ‘Last of my Kind’. He more than does justice to the older tunes, and an additional talent is his rhythm guitar which adds to the sonic delights. He is also a damn sight more reliable than Stayley was in the latter years of course. At this point I must also mention the stalwarts in the engine room, Mike Inez and Sean Kinney who play most of the gig with huge smiles, clearly delighted to be back. Both are great musicians and play full parts in the live performance.
The middle of the set features a short acoustic performance. Now everyone bangs on about how great and iconic the Nirvana Unplugged in New York live album is, but I think these boys produced the defining MTV Unplugged record in 1996. Playing acoustic tunes was always a big part of the AIC agenda, just listen to Jar of Flies as well as the Unplugged album. More so all the tunes on that record are their own – Nirvana’s features more cover versions than original tunes. They underline this point with the three songs chosen tonight, a run through ‘Your Decision’ from the new album, a visit to Jar of Flies for ‘No Excuses’ No Excuses @ Rock City on YouTube and finally the tribute to Layne, ‘Black gives way to Blue’ is stunning and quite emotional. Rock City was a bit to small for the band’s full video backdrop show, but when it is in operation the screen shows a candle burning which gives way to a simple black and white photo of the former singer. The only bad note of the whole evening was the lack of ‘Down in a Hole’ but its a minor personal quibble.
The show climaxes with the epic new tune ‘Acid Bubble’ with its fast slow sections, already a fan favourite, a very intense ‘Angry Chair’ and the almost funk metal of ‘Man in the Box’. The Rock City crowd indulges the band in a good old fashioned encore shout with clapping, stamping and chants of ‘We want more’. This is an art form that is slowly disappearing and I was glad to see it return. The band obviously appreciated it and return the favour by treating us to ‘Nutshell’, ‘Would’ and of course the customary set closer, the epic ‘Rooster’ Jerry Cantrell’s tribute to his soldier father, in my opinion one of the great songs of the last twenty years. DuVall really comes of age in this tune adding his own little vocal twists and the crowd sings most of it anyway. They leave after nearly two hours of epic and heartfelt rock music proving that they are still very much a proper band, and with the addition of an excellent new album to back it up. The prospect of any of this taking place just three years ago was remote, and the good news is that Cantrell promised more from the band soon. They are almost definites to play a festival or two next summer, anyone who likes even a smidgen of rock music should be in the queue for tickets.
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