I was going to look for the Jerry Cantrell thread, but I think this deserves its own
...So yeah
It was INCREDIBLE! I had never gotten the chance to Alice live back in the day, so I was very much looking forward to the show. We were on the floor in seats about 13 rows back from the pit, a little left of center stage. There were cameras everywhere, as this was a VH1 Decades Live special for Heart at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City. Alice opened and the crowd went absolutely apeshit. I have never seen so many Alice In Chains t-shirts in my life in one place. AMAZING. William DuVall from Comes With The Fall, who had toured with Jerry during the Deg Trip world tour, sang three songs with them. They opened with Angry Chair and William was spot on. It was so awesome to see the Alice boys together! It was as if they never missed a beat. And the one thing I really took notice of was how HAPPY they all looked playing together. Jerry, Mike and Sean had smiles on their faces the whole time. I love the drumming in Angry Chair and when Jerry did this live, he would immediately follow the end drumming with Man in the Box. This was nuts, too. At one point Mike Inez threw his bass across the stage because of some technical problem and it made a huge crunching noise for half a second. I've a few Alice video boots and I've never seen Mike get pissed. It was pretty wild. Also, Duff McKagan played second guitar on the Alice songs. It was wicked, wicked cool seeing him. I like him a lot. Plus, he's so HOT! Sorry, couldn't help myself
.
After that, they had a big surprise. Phil Anselmo (!) came out and did vocals for Them Bones and Would? To be honest, I wasn't too impressed, but it was still cool to see him up there. Jerry gave him a very warm introduction and even imitated his voice a little. It was pretty funny. Phil swore up a storm, so I'm not sure how much cutting they will have to do for the special, LOL.
The guys sounded really tight and it was just amazing to finally see them together. I admit to having reservations about the reunion and all, but some of that was eased after talking to a friend who met Sean Kinney after the show. He told her that Alice was doing this current tour as a tribute to Layne and for the fans. He said the band will rename itself and probably get a new singer and he said there will definitely be new music, so this was great news. I'm really curious about what the new tunes will sound like. I still hope Jerry puts out his solo stuff, too. I've heard that a lot of it is ready to go.
Oh, and they ended up doing MITB and Would? over again, "through the magic of televsion" as Jerry put it, haha. He asked us if we minded, and of course, the place went ape again. It was pretty cool.
Heart came on after that and had a parade of guests, a weird mix, if you ask me, since so many people were there for Alice
. Heart had a good crowd there, too, though, but IMHO, the crowd was definitely most loud for AIC. We hung out with some very nice people. The guests included Carrie Underwood, Gretchen Wilson, Dave Navarro, Rufus Wainright.
The coolest song of the night was Rooster, though. They came out with Heart and William and did a kick-ass version. I got chills! William really nailed it. It's got to be hard trying to live up to Layne, but he did himself proud. I can't wait for CWTF's new album. Ann Wilson is AMAZING live, btw. That woman can deliver, end of story.
Jerry also played guitar on Barracuda, which was bad-ass. He and Nancy Wilson did like a dueling guitar jam and they were both on their knees playing their asses off. It was such fun to watch. And Dave Navarro is SUCH A BLAST to watch. That's the second time I've seen him with Jerry (Camp Freddy was the other time) and it was great.
Some other highlights. Before the show they were tuning things up and they started playing the riff to It Ain't Like That. Well, the place totally erupted thinking we were getting that song, haha. And we heard the opening chords to Rotten Apple and again, the crowd went nuts. Mikey was just testing his bass, but WHAT A TEASE!!! I would have passed out from sheer ecstasy if they had played that one.
Some other tidbits: Two young guys had a huge banner that read Layne Lives. It was a nice touch. I high-fived one of the guys as we passed it. The show did make me miss Layne a lot, but man, seeing them all up there was just such a great thing.
Heart's show was really good, too, but with the taping interruptions, it kind of took the energy out of the crowd, along with mostly an acoustic first half of the show. I have to say, though, that hearing their version of The Battle of Evermore was INCREDIBLE. That is one of my favorite Zep tunes, and I love their version. They also did Black Dog and Misty Mountain Hop and I just about lost my head from rockin' so hard. They do Zep pretty damn good, I must say.
It was just an incredible weekend. The next night was Nine Inch Nails. I'm still on a high from this. Too wild!!!