Alice in Chains is a band I’ve listened to for a long time and wanted to see with little hope of it actually happening. But now they have a new frontman and a new album and a new tour.

Glad I caught them and wish I’d seen them back in the day.

William DuVall does a great job filling the shoes of Layne Staley and genuinely seemed REALLY excited to be fronting Alice in Chains and playing in NY. Some of the harmonies on old songs sound different because he’s an octave off or something, but it still sounded good.

Being a GA show, Lethy struggled as usual to get a good vantage point, but we managed. What surprised me was that 1) There was a lot of crowd surfing and 2) There was a mosh pit for most songs that never got broken up. I haven’t seen a mosh pit allowed at a show in many years. Maybe I’ve been going to softer shows / venues, but it seemed to me like the rough and tumble pit days died in the late 90s.

Setlist From setlist.fm, but I think its actually a little off. Been too many days between the show and this post though, so here it is:

All Secrets Known
It Ain’t Like That
Again
Check My Brain
Them Bones
Dam That River
Rain When I Die
Your Decision
Got Me Wrong
We Die Young
A Looking In View
Down In A Hole
Sickman
Sludge Factory
Acid Bubble
No Excuses
Would?

Encore:
Man in the Box
Rooster

I strongly recommend checking out the youtube videos of All Secrets Known. They do a really nice job with shadow play during the opening song.

Couple weeks ago we went to MSG for Silversun Pickups and Muse.

Silversun Pickups were forgettable, not that they were terrible, but they were awfully average. Granted, I am quite biased, I never liked his voice much and it sounds even more strained live.

Muse was the main attraction and they really put on a great show.

We’d seen them at Bamboozle a couple of years back where they played at noon or 1PM to a completely unenthusiastic crowd.

This show was completely different. They had a great stage and the video work was spectacular. It was a lot more than just a combination of pre-recorded and mixed clips with live footage. They had lots of different effects and it made it a lot easier to get into the show from a big distance. Sadly none of my pictures do it any justice. Ken did put up some pretty good video though at:

http://www.youtube.com/zawsum