MattA75's Full Review: Unplugged by Alice In Chains
When the whole Seattle Scene happened in the early 90s, there was one band I loved (Pearl Jam, duh), two others who I liked but wouldn't call favorites (Nirvana and Soundgarden) and one who I just couldn't really stand to hear much from: Alice in Chains.
Some might consider that last statement blasphemy, but whatever. I've long said that lead vocalist Layne Staley's voice was one of the most depressing things I'll ever hear in my lifetime. After listening to about four AIC songs in a row, I'd be ready to start cutting things. That's how crazy an awful lot of their material drove me, killer riffs or no killer riffs.
When Staley died last year, it surprised no one. After all, his drug addiction had so addled him that he alienated himself from not only his AIC bandmates, but his other friends in the Seattle music scene as well, including Mike McCready of Pearl Jam, who Staley had recorded a side project with in 1995 dubbed Mad Season.
So perhaps it's fitting that Alice in Chains last stand as a band on record is their 1996 MTV Unplugged concert. While the songs sound tight enough for a band that hadn't played together in almost 3 years, that fact alone, three years in between shows, should tell you an awful lot about how the band was functioning (For the record, this is not the last show the band ever did. They opened a handful of dates for Kiss 1996 tour, the last of which was July 3, 1996 in Kansas City.), if you even want to call it "functioning."
Despite some hard core fans claims of greatness, the AIC Unplugged is actually rather pedestrian, featuring very little that deserves any real critical recognition. The setlist is a nice mix of hits and album cuts, although unfortunately, the band's debut, Facelift, does not get represented at all. In addition, the lack of I Stay Away, possibly the band's best song, and one that is already acoustically based, is a head scratcher.
Very few of the songs are any different from their original album incarnations, with the obvious exception that now the band is playing them on acoustic instruments. One of the main ideas of Unplugged was to challenge artists to fit their songs into the scheme. Barring that, many artists, including AIC's Seattle contemporaries, PJ and Nirvana, managed to make a few things special at their respective Unpluggeds. But so little here stands out as "special."
To be sure, some of the performances here are very nice. Heaven Beside You sounds great, thanks to a solid vocal performance from Jerry Cantrell. No Excuses is tight from beginning to end, although that shouldn't come as much of a surprise given the fact that it was acoustically based in the first place.
Outside of that though, Unpluggedsounds like a band playing at its own funeral. The entire disc is somber, with so little in terms of rays of hope, that it's not hard to see why this band splintered apart for the final time less than 3 months after this concert was recorded.
Maybe I'm just not getting the so-called "genius" that I've heard some people call this disc. Is playing a song note for note on an acoustic guitar instead of an electric "genius?" And if so, since when?
You know what I hear on this record? A band slowly, but inevitably, moving towards their own death as a band. Sure, the songs are ok, they're as bleak and desolate as ever. But there's nothing on this record that REALLY makes me stand up and say "wow, that was f*cking cool." And it's that lack of a defining moment that moves this performance from good to merely pedestrian.
This disc might be fine for the Alice newcomer. But for someone who has the bare bones essentials, I'd recommend starting with Jar of Flies instead. For the die hard Alice fan though, I find it hard to believe this could be considered anywhere near essential. You'd be better off throwing your money at Jerry Cantrell's Degradation Trip Vols 1&2, which has been ignored by seemingly everyone.
The full tracklisting, with my ratings, are below. Please note that my rating on these performances do NOT reflect my OVERALL opinion of some of these songs (most notably Would?)
1.Nutshell **
2.Brother **1/2
3.No Excuses ****
4.Sludge Factory **
5.Down in a Hole ***
6.Angry Chair *
7.Rooster **1/2
8.Got Me Wrong ****
9.Heaven Beside You ****
10.Would? **
11.Frogs *
12.Over Now **
13.Killer Is Me **1/2
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