an acoustic hour with alice in chains

my friend, shane and i traveled to the house of blues last night to see an acoustic performance by alice in chains, billed as alice in chains, the acoustic hour: an intimate unplugged engagement. needless to say, we were both quite excited, for how often can you see an entire acoustic show from one of your favorite bands of all time? for me, this is my first opportunity.

The opening act, which also played an acoustic set, was called social ghost. while at first, i was not too keen on the music, as the show progressed, the band's excitement was contagious, and i ended up enjoying their set. check them out to see what you think.

when alice in chains came on stage, they brought with them a feel-good atmosphere, which transferred to the crowd immediately and added to everyone's already high spirits. all members were in top form. jerry cantrell played some great solos, missing a note occasionally, but each time laughing it off, as if to just say "oops!". i am sure nobody will be complaining. his voice was also sounding great. william duvall, who has become an official member of the band, taking over lead vocals, was excellent, hitting all of the notes, and sounding good doing it. mike inez and his bass were certainly excited to be there. the big smile didn't leave his face the whole show. sean kinney was, well, sean kinney - a totally sweet drummer.


photo courtesy of aliceinchains.com

they started the show with nutshell, from their ep jar of flies. after that i don't remember the exact order, but here are the other songs they performed in album order (i think i remember them all):

i can't remember and love, hate, love from facelift
brother and got me wrong from their acoustic ep sap
rooster, angry chair, down in a hole, and would from their album dirt
got me wrong and don't follow from jar of flies
heaven beside you and sludge factory from their self-titled album
killer is me which was performed on their 1996 mtv unplugged album

they also included two cover songs:
elton john's curtains from his 1975 album captain fantastic and the brown dirt cowboy
the who's squeeze box from their 1975 album the who by numbers

there were a few teasers, when they broke into the doors' love me two times and david bowie's ziggy stardust. those would have been excellent additions, had they kept going with them. the band invited about 50 people to come up on the side of the stage to watch the encore close-up. what an excellent gesture. from a band that has been around so long, they still appreciate their fans, and it certainly shows. many bands that i have seen live just come out, play their songs, and leave the stage. i really respect these guys.

anyways, i enjoyed the show immensely, and as a lucky bonus, i got a guitar pick that jerry cantrell tossed into the crowd. i will add that to my soon-to-be-created concert memorabilia scrapbook! seeing the band this happy playing together again has made me hopeful of new material in the near future. if you have a chance to see this small acoustic tour, please do yourself a favor and go. the band makes it well worth it.