Alice in Chains @ The Fillmore Detroit: The MCB Review

Cantrell & Duvall at a AIC show in 2009.

Alice in Chains may be one of the few rock bands from the 90s to do a comeback without blowing it out of proportion or trying to live too much in the past. With the death of Layne Staley in 2002, Alice in Chains reemerged in 2005 with a new lead singer, William Duvall, and slowly made baby steps before recapturing some of their past glory.

Making their third trip to Detroit in the past year, with another way sold out show of about 3,000 at the Fillmore Detroit, Alice in Chains made the trip well worth it for fans wanting to hear the band’s catalog of moody hard rock. Starting out with the new track “All Secrets Known”, Jerry Cantrell and company played the populist role during their show. Instead of trying to alienate older fans by playing the new album in its entirety or digging into solo material, Alice in Chains brought the hits and the fans jumped all over it. They didn’t waste any time playing cuts like “Them Bones” and “It Ain’t Like That”, which gave the mostly twenty and thirty-something crowd visions of Lollapalooza circa 1993.

As he has since the band reformed, Duvall has proven he is more up to the vocal challenge of the truly haunting voice of Staley, especially when he gets into songs like “Angry Chair” and “Rain When I Die.” Sure, there are a lot of times where guitarist Jerry Cantrell’s harmonizing helps to give the songs an extra punch, but Duvall is clearly paying homage to Staley while finding his own voice at the same time.

Now that the band’s new album, Black Gives Way To Blue, has been successful since its release last fall, the band has peppered new songs into the set list. So far, crowd favorites including the bleak sounding “Acid Bubble” and groove-laden single “Check My Brain” have been met with strong praise from fans.

Alice in Chains may not have strayed far from their original sound since the band’s rebirth 5 years ago, but given the reaction of the show at the Fillmore, I don’t think fans were even looking for a total change. Tried and true was the theme of the night for what was a very quality show.