Alice in Chains returns ...

I can't think of a band I'd more like to see if "they were still around."

 

With original members, I'd go see them in a heartbeat.

With an unknown lead singer?

Probably not...

On an unrelated topic, Waylong Jennings' son Shooter is also touring in the Midwest right now. Anyone know what kind of music he plays. I'd go see him if I was promised at least a couple Waylon covers...

 

Honky tonk country, but he ain't his dad. Don't know if he covers him, though, in concert.

 

that's cool. Better that than if he was playing death metal or something.

Of course, he ain't his dad. No one is...

 

Little-known fact: Alice In Chains was originally marketed as a hair metal band. They opened for, I shit you not, Poison in 1991. "Man In A Box" did pretty well in the summer of '91, then hair metal died a brutal death that fall and winter and next thing you know AIC is one of the poster boys for Seattle.

And hey, now it looks like they're being marketed as a hair metal band during their twilight. You can't get much more hair metal than playing South Dakota with a new lead singer.

And didn't Phil Anselmo of Pantera sing with AIC a few times? That's a great idea. Lose your original lead singer to a heroin overdose, then replace him with Phil Anselmo.

 

I think you may be thinking about Patrick Lachman, the singer of DamagePlan. He did at least one show with AIC about a year ago and it was widely-thought to be the replacement singer.
For those who don't remember, DamagePlan was the band that featured Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul, both formerly of Pantera. It was Dimebag who was murdered at a show in Ohio.

As far as going to see them play on this tour, I dunno. I'm seriously pissed I never got to see them with Layne. I remember they were supposed to tour with Metallica and Suicidal Tendencies (I think it was '94 or '95), but they dropped off the tour (replaced by fvcking Candlebox) and I never got to see them.
Layne absolutely made AIC. While all the other kids around my age were obsessed with Nirvana and Pearl Jam I was totally obsessed with Dirt just because it was so much darker than any other of the "mainstream" things coming out of the Seattle scene at the time.

 

They appeared on the "VH1 Classics in Concert" Heart concert earlier this year. The dude filling in for Layne was really, really weak. It was depressing to watch.

 

Alice in Chains was my favorite of the Seattle bands, but my tastes skew more toward the metal side.

When they went acoustic, they were great, when they were metal, they were great. I would put Dirt up against any heavy metal/hard rock record of the 1990s. Just an excellent band.

But when I think of them, I still remember being disappointed in summer 1994. They were scheduled to tour on a bill that was: Suicidal Tendencies for some shows, danzig for the first half of the summer tour, and Metallica, pre-load, still in their prime as a live act, headlining and playing possibly the best set of their career.

Mr. Staley, of course, missed the tour with a rehab stint, and AIC was replaced by Rob halford's band Fight. Still disappointing today.

So when AIC tours with a new singer, I am tempted, as I was when Guns n Roses was Axl and a bunch of schleps (love that word). But I remember how that A-hole couldn't stay clean long enough to sustain AIC's early success.