Fresh from a live DVD shoot in New York City two nights before, the newly reformed Alice In Chains hit the decaying and dilapidated Dome Theatre on the American side of Niagara Falls for a 105 minute set, which proved to be an exciting and more than respectable return of the quintessential Seattle grunge band.

The band played to a packed and sold out crowd of about 2,500, in which the band tore through most of their major hits, and dove into fan favorite material. As the band entered the stage, old Alice members Jerry Cantrell (who is now a dead ringer in the looks category with Zakk Wylde), Mike Inez and Sean Kinney received thunderous applause; as other fans were eagerly awaiting new lead singer Will DuVall.

Any fans who doubting that DuVall (formerly of the band Comes with the Fall) could not pull off the haunting and eerie vocals of original and deceased lead singer Layne Staley were put to rest early as DuVall ripped into the chugging “Again”. DuVall shocked everyone with his almost dead on sendups of killer tracks such as “Bleed the Freak”, and the theatre-shaking “Them Bones”.

DuVall excelled in his vocals on more obscure material, such as the crowd favorites “Sickman”, and “It Ain’t Like That”.

Even with DuVall belting out the vocals the way he was, it is now obvious that guitarist Jerry Cantrell was the brains and brawn behind Alice in Chains then as well as now. Cantrell’s evil and dark riffs showed that the backbone of the band was through his dark charisma; and he turned out to be more than capable of singing the band’s songs as well. As Cantrell dished out “Heaven Besides You” towards the end of the set, this reviewer gets the strong feeling that Cantrell always had sung that song, and not Staley.

As expected, at least two tributes to Staley WERE delivered during the evening, and thankfully didn’t delve into the perils of his demise due to heroin. The tributes were kept light and upbeat and were done tastefully.

The band was blowing the crowd away, until a six song acoustic set, which seemed to drag on for longer than it should have. The semi-acoustic “No Excuses” and “Down In A Hole” were the highlights of the set within a set, but other tracks could have been left out.

Even with the surprising omissions of Alice hits like “Rooster” and “Would?”, the band didn’t disappoint during the encore, bashing through “We Die Young”, and the band’s first hit “Man in the Box”, which put a cap on an impressive return to form for one of the forefathers of the Seattle grunge movement.

It will be interesting if the band decides to go ahead with new material, and continue to tour as a 90’s nostalgia act. The band is already heavily rumored to be on OzzFest next year, and it should be a shame for the band to not capitalize on the strong buzz from their tour to not put out new material.

Stay tuned. I will. Oh, and email me for crying out loud. ArtHatesYou@detroitbuzz.com