Alice in Chains link more US shows
Fresh off a five-date club tour, reconstituted grunge-rockers Alice in Chains have rolled out a handful of late-summer concerts that will follow an imminent run through Europe.
So far, the band has lined up three early August concerts in the Northeast, a pair of mid-August performances in South Dakota, and an Aug. 13 headlining performance at this year's annual Locobazooka, a Boston-area rock festival. Details appear in the itinerary below.
Meanwhile, the group is about to tackle a full battery of spring and summer shows throughout Europe, including a slew of summer-festival appearances. More information is available at the band's website.
Earlier this year, surviving Alice in Chains members Jerry Cantrell (guitar/vocals), Sean Kinney (drums) and Mike Inez (bass) announced that they were reuniting for their first tour in more than a decade. Singer William Duvall of Atlanta-based rock trio Comes With the Fall, who worked with Cantrell during some of the guitarist's solo outings, is handling lead vocals, along with "a few other special guests and musical friends honoring the legacy left behind by Alice's late singer, Layne Staley," according to a press release.
Staley died of a drug overdose four years ago. He, Cantrell, Kinney and original bassist Mike Starr formed Alice in Chains in Seattle during the late '80s, and released their debut album, "Facelift," in 1990. The disc spawned the group's breakthrough hit, "Man in the Box," and secured the band's place in the pantheon of early '90s Seattle-based acts--which also included Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden--credited with ushering in the grunge scene.
Alice in Chains went on to release two additional full-length albums (1992's "Dirt" and 1995's "Alice in Chains) and two EPs (1992's "Sap" and 1994's "Jar of Flies"). Collectively, the releases featured numerous hit singles, including "Got Me Wrong," "Rooster," "Would?" "No Excuses," "Grind," "Heaven Beside You" and others.
Gold-certified "Sap" is the only one of the group's original releases to fall short of platinum or multi-platinum status. "Dirt" is the group's best-selling release, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, which in May of 2000 certified the album quadruple-platinum for shipping 4 million copies in the US.
Inez joined the band after Starr exited in 1993.
Following its '92/'93 touring cycle in support of "Dirt," the group did not tour behind any of its subsequent releases--reportedly due to Staley's addiction--but did give a 1996 performance on "MTV's Unplugged," which was released in album form later that same year. The group also filled the opening slot on the first four dates of KISS' 1996 reunion tour.
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Album Review: Alice in Chains, "Black Gives Way to Blue" (Virgin) [September 2009]
LiveDaily Interview: William DuVall of Alice in Chains [September 2009]
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