Alice In Chains - MTV Unplugged
Listen to an audio version of this review by Greg
I feel very passionate about this album because not many people I know talk about it.
To give you all some context first, let me start with a story.
As I was strolling through the streets of Seattle, Washington in February 2022, my first visit ever to the city overlooking Puget Sound, I was just overcome with so many emotions. I couldn’t help but smile the entire trip because it was proof, it was the “nail in the coffin”, to my argument that I am indeed still a kid. I will never forget the first few months I heard the incredible music that came out of this city in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It all still holds up today. It is UNDENIABLE. In fact, with exception to the rock n roll of the late 60s and the 1970s, the 90s were the greatest decade for music.
Each block through Seattle that I walked down, I had the music in my head. For I was on a true pilgrimage to finally walk on the same ground as some of my heroes. Sounds to some maybe a bit childish? I don’t know. I can be hard on myself. Although I had a little support for my music, I was never heavily encouraged to further pursue a life in music while growing up. I always got that eye roll and that “I pray he grows out of this” look. I’m serious. It wasn’t slight concern. My parents were deeply concerned with my obsession for rock and heavy metal. And it just fueled my passion more. I can say this passion is stronger today at 45, and it grows with each day.
It was just so raw. So adoring. You can hear it. Just digging into your soul. I want to explore my addiction and obsession with the past.
As I’ve grown this podcast, I’ve been lucky to talk to so many musicians and music fans across the world. And I’ve found other people like me who are passionate and love something. Whether it’s music, art, sports or design, we all have a common goal. We want to share our passion and we want to learn more about what we don’t know.
Now that this site and podcast are up and running and have been for some time, I get to share many of my favorite albums with you guys. And today I wanted to touch upon an incredibly underrated album that came out of Seattle in the 1990s. This album is from a band who has several more well known, popular albums, therefore I found it important to talk specifically about this one today.
On April 10th, 1996, the members of Alice in Chains gathered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Majestic Theatre in New York to perform, and record live this small concert. It was recorded specifically for what was then a very popular MTV program, Unplugged.
Unplugged was a groundbreaking television program and unique to MTV at the time. Just as it sounds, Unplugged offered consumers an opportunity to hear and see more aggressive rock bands perform their songs, originally caked in heavy distortion, but this time in more of a stripped-down, no effects, acoustic set. No tricks. No frills. No pedals to hide behind. This show always separated the men from the boys and the women from the little girls.
Initially, Alice in Chains were reluctant to participate in MTV’s acclaimed performance show. Due to lead singer, Layne Staley’s poor health, the band did not tour in 1995 and much of 1996. Staley was unfortunately struggling with drug addiction. He had been battling with heroin for years and was not in good shape. But the band was able to put things together, rehearse (a little) and get to New York to do this show on April 10th. They would only play once more as a quartet before Layne’s health deteriorated to the point where the band had to stop performing as the original lineup.
I can remember seeing Alice in Chains in concert. Based out of Seattle, they were lighting it up on the radio, MTV and anywhere you could smell teenage angst. My concert experience lasted just one day in 1993. It was the Lollapalooza Festival. It was electric. I’m not just referring to the instruments. It was like being hit over the head with the butt of a machine gun, picked up and given the coolest feeling libation you could ever consume. That is the best description of my feeling. They played during the day. The sun was beating. I was heavily dehydrated. I’d been standing on what used to be a field of grass, now dirt and sand (no pun intended) for 4 hours, at least, by that point. It was July 17th, 1993, at Quonset State Airport, in North Kingstown, RI. A black curtain came up, and the band opened with Dam That River while performing behind a chain linked fence, something I had never seen before.
I can remember Layne reaching out and grabbing the fence, holding on for dear life as he sung his lyrics. Even though he was likely high for that show, he sung like a true professional, belting out his words and harmonizing with lead guitarist, Jerry Cantrell, whose voice is arguably just as good as Staley’s, perhaps better.
The show seemed too short, and I can remember when it was over, being really, really, REALLY sad it had ended. I was so jacked up on adrenaline and I will never forget that. For that same day, at the same festival I had also witnessed Rage Against the Machine, Tool, Fishbone, Dinosaur Jr., and Primus perform on the same stage. BAMMMM! Are you okay? Did you just pass out?
The band would record and release one EP in 1994 and one studio album in 1995 before agreeing to perform the Unplugged concert event for MTV. It was eventually released on July 30th, 1996. VHS and DVD versions would later be released.
If you liked Alice in the 90s but you forgot what the feeling or impact of their music had, just turn on track one, Nutshell.
While I listen to Nutshell, I keep my eyes closed. I smile. During my most recent listen, I also wiped a small, forming tear from my eye. I really did. This is what this music does to me. Although this song brings back so many memories, if I’d heard it for the first time right now, I’d be EQUALLY as blown away. Nutshell is a track off the band’s 1994 EP Jar of Flies, which many remember entered the Billboard 200 chart at #1upon its release, something that’d never happened to the band before. Layne Staley’s voice,…just where do singers like that come from? Mike Inez’s bass. Just so smooth. Oh, the sound of a fretless bass. The band also recruited Scott Olson for this gig to play acoustic rhythm guitar, which rounds out the sound and gives you that “full, surround sound” experience.
This song is just the warmup. Track two, Brother, makes me smile even more. Why? Because the run of the mill Alice fan has never heard this one. They have Dirt and maybe they purchased Facelift, but they only listened to Man in the Box and then switched the cassette out. Brother is the opening track off the band’s 1992 EP, Sap, not on the radar of most Chains fans. And this live version they play is superior.
I enjoy deep tracks. I enjoy them even more when I can pick them out of the crowd going as nuts as me, while every other fan stands with a bored look on their face. Deep tracks are like the little gifts the band gives out to the die-hards, the fans that really dug deep into their catalog. These fans were turned on by their radio hit but knew there was so much more on that album.
What’s that you say? A hit you want? Well, a hit you will receive, as track three, No Excuses, follows up Brother. No Excuses, a strong number, don’t get me wrong, leads the charge and gives the bulk of the small audience at the Majestic Theatre a reason to cheer. Now they know a song. Like many of the songs on Jar of Flies, No Excuses did very well on the charts in 1994 when it was released.
The band continues with such well known tracks as Down in A Hole, Angry Chair and Rooster, all ridiculously strong tracks off the band’s 1992 album, Dirt, which essentially turned into a rocket ship, taking Alice in Chains to the moon and back, bringing them from submissive notoriety to true celebrity status.
If you’re liking this review, go back and check out my review on Dirt at albumreview.net.
Skipping ahead, I want to bring the track, Got Me Wrong to your attention. Mainly because it’s also off their 1992 EP, Sap, and it’s not as well known by casual Alice fans. The version on Unplugged is equally as strong as the EP version, only with crowd cheers, which I think elevates ANY song. I don’t care what you say! The band writes a lot of songs in minor chords. I mention this a bit in my review of Dirt. Minor chords just give these songs a darkness, a depth, a fullness that is hard for me to explain, just listen to what I mean.
This song just bleeds “dirt”. That’s the word that comes to mind when I hear it. Although it was not released on the album Dirt, I thought that was the perfect word to describe their music. In contrast, it sounds funny, like someone on the playground making fun of your favorite band (that band sounds like “dirt”) but for me and many Chains fans, it is a word that perfectly describes their sound. Dirty.
Another example would be Frogs, which is another dark and dirty track about friendship and loss. It’s a seven-and-a-half-minute sleeper from their 1995 album, simply titled, Alice In Chains. It’s the album with the three-legged dog on the cover. It would also be the last album Layne Staley recorded vocals on.
Layne died of what was recorded as an overdose on a speedball on April 5th, 2002. A speedball is a combination of heroin and cocaine. His body had been decomposing for 2 weeks before it was found on April 19, 2002.
That day began with Layne’s manager and accountant connecting to discuss his whereabouts. It was reported that he had not withdrawn any money from his bank account in over 2 weeks, which they both found unusual. The two contacted Layne’s mother soon after, and like any worried mom, she called 911 immediately.
Layne’s mother and father, then divorced, went with the Seattle Police to Layne’s home where his body was discovered, partially decomposed. He had been sitting on the couch for two weeks. Two weeks, man. It was so bad, that medical examiners had to identify his body through dental records.
April 5th was determined as the official date of death based on the professional medical examination…and strangely, that was the same day Kurt Cobain died, eight years earlier in 1994. Two music moguls, ahead of their time, from the same city, during the same era, still early in their careers with so much more to accomplish, were both gone. As I sit writing/talking about this today, we’ve added yet another to that list. Chris Cornell, the lead singer from Soundgardenwas found dead in his Detroit, Michigan hotel on May 18th, 2017. Of the big four lead singers of the big four Seattle bands…only Eddie Vedder is still with us….thank God.
You could consider Alice in Chains’ Unplugged album as a Greatest Hits, with a few deep tracks sprinkled in there,…..oh yeah….AND IT’S ALL LIVE!! Listen to this one on your headphones as the production is superb.
Throughout every Alice in Chains album, you can hear examples of blatant and even passive references to drug use. For the most part, Layne did not hide his addiction. It’s even more important to pay attention to this today as our country and our planet is suffering from mental health issues. I think we all know someone struggling. Although Layne Staley’s friends did what they could, Layne’s illness was deep and the jury is out if he could have ever recovered.
As I stood atop the Space Needle looking over Seattle, I thought a lot about Layne. Mostly, I was so grateful to have experienced the music of Alice In Chains and the Seattle sound that came out of the 1990s. And despite personal taste, I encourage everyone to find a greater decade for music. Perhaps the music of the late 60s and entire 1970s are an exception. But like the music culture of Seattle, the 1990s consistently pushed out groundbreaking, heartbreaking, painstakingly dirty and beautiful music from hip hop to rap, rock to metal, new age to grunge. We may never see a time like this again. I really hope I am wrong but let’s point to the evidence today.
Pick up a copy of this album Alice In Chains’ MTV Unplugged. Listen to it on your sound system and if you weren’t alive to remember, take a trip back in time and feel the dirt of a genre that changed the entire direction of music forever.
