Friday Full-Length: Alice in Chains, Unplugged
Posted in Bootleg Theater on December 24th, 2021 by JJ KoczanIt’s been probably well over a decade since the last time I actually listened to Alice in Chains‘ Unplugged album, and if there’s a reason I stress ‘actually’ there, it’s because most of the time I don’t have to turn it on to hear it. It’s just imprinted on my brain. Still, details like the oddly popping snare on “No Excuses,” the oddball opener “Nutshell,” the slightly-off-and-where’s-Ann–Wilson harmonies of “Brother,” all feel like coming home to a certain degree. Recorded in Brooklyn in May 1996, it was aired on MTV and released on CD that October, and I remember watching it on my mother’s tv upstairs in her room because it was the biggest screen in the house other than the one in the family room downstairs, which my father used exclusively for watching old nuns talking about the apocalypse and war documentaries. My parents split up about a month later, maybe? Funny to think of these things in context like that. I’m honestly not sure I have the year right.
So I guess I’ll beg your indulgence on the nostalgia trip as much as I can indulge it myself. ‘Tis the season, and so on. But it’s been probably since Unplugged was reissued in 2007 that I listened to it straight through. They hadn’t played a gig in like two years, which I suppose makes the set I saw them do at Lollapalooza ’93 — I was 11 at the time — almost relevant in their touring schedule, and with their self-titled third album (discussed here) having come out in ’95, Unplugged has ended up an encapsulation of what the Seattle-based grunge forerunners did during their first incarnation, prior to fizzling out, losing frontman Layne Staley in 2002 to a heroin addiction that in ’96 was already visibly and audibly ripping him to shreds and eventually regrouping in the mid-aughts with William DuVall on guitar/vocals alongside founding guitarist/vocalist Jerry Cantrell, bassist Mike Inez and drummer Sean Kinney.
That third full-length features well on Unplugged with “Sludge Factory,” “Heaven Beside You,” “Frogs” (which didn’t air on the original broadcast) and “Over Now,” and their 1992 commercial breakout
, Dirt (discussed here) does likewise, with “Down in a Hole” (with some switched up lyrics in the second chorus), “Angry Chair” (which also apparently didn’t air though damned if I don’t remember it doing so), “Rooster” and “Would?” included alongside EP cuts like “Brother” and “Got Me Wrong” from 1992’s Sap (discussed here) and “Nutshell” and “No Excuses” from 1994’s Jar of Flies, which one imagines were easy enough to translate to their Unplugged arrangements, being largely acoustic-based to start with.
Some songs work better than others. The brooding harmonies between Staley and Cantrell come through on “Angry Chair,” but of course part of what makes that track such a highlight of Dirt is its harder impact, and that’s willfully given up here. Points for trying. “Down in a Hole” is better here than on Dirt. And it’s strange to think of a release that was mixed by Toby Wright, broadcast on MTV and released by Columbia Records as being “raw,” but the largely dry treatment on the vocals and instruments that was such a part of the series’ aesthetic does still lend an organic feel. “Sludge Factory,” after its false start, “Heaven Beside You,” the suitably croaking “Frogs” and “No Excuses” fare exceedingly well, and I might say the same of “Rooster,” “Heaven Beside You” and “Would?,” the latter a track that I’d burnt out on years ago as a radio single but in my recent kick have gone back to repeatedly, the lyric “Am I wrong?” often followed by a “yes” in my brain as a kind of running gag.
I’ll spare you the “rock ain’t what it was” spiel, since that entire perspective is even more tired than I find myself having woken up shortly after four this morning with these songs running through my head. The harsh reality is rock isn’t what it was; it’s better. Yes, their was pivotal groundwork being laid at the time by bands like this, but especially thinking of the best of 2021 list that went up this week, I don’t think I’d trade what’s being made now for what was being made then, as much as you couldn’t have the other without the one. Stuff like Alice in Chains just happened to hit me at the right moment in my own life. I know people who feel the same about Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, The Beatles. The art you engage with in formative years should be important to you, but if you neglect the present in service to it, it’s your loss.
My view, anyhow. Idolization of the past — and your own inherently subjective experience of it — is a trap to be avoided. Your best days are ahead of you; a thing to be worked toward, however old you are.
Alice in Chains gave glimpses of what might’ve been after their self-titled, here and elsewhere. “Killer is Me” rounds out as an encore here with Scott Olson on bass while Inez moves to guitar. That track, as well as songs like “Get Born Again” and “Died” that were recorded in 1998 for the Music Bank box set, comprise the bulk of the band’s final work with Staley, which is sadder in light of their prior accomplishments.
With DuVall as a co-frontman with Cantrell, the band has progressed across three full-lengths. The most recent of them, 2018’s Rainier Fog (discussed here), continues to get semi-regular spins. More than this record, come to think of it. I skipped 2013’s The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here after not digging the return LP, 2009’s Black Gives Way to Blue, but finally put in the time to listen — substantial time, at that — and don’t regret it. I’ll probably cap a week with it sooner or later.
But the bottom line here is some albums and some bands stay with you, year in and year out, even if you don’t actually listen to them all the time. That’s me and Unplugged. I’m way more inclined to put on Sap or the self-titled or Jar of Flies on a given day, or even Dirt or 1991’s Facelift if that’s where my head is at, but neither do I regret having this one on this morning. As always, I hope you enjoy.
Thanks for reading.
—
My original plan for this week had been to post the two in-studio pieces I wrote last weekend on Monday and Tuesday. I probably should’ve run that plan by the label involved, admittedly. I did not, and their preference was to hold off until closer to the album hype, which will start in like two months. Meanwhile, every minute I could give to anything Monday and Tuesday was going to the year-end stuff, so there was neither time nor headspace to write about anything else. I do my best, but I’m only one person, despite the still-weekly “hey dudes” emails and messages I receive.
Anyhow, Happy Xmas if that’s your thing. I did a news dump yesterday in an effort to get caught up — ongoing — but will have a proper review up Monday, either Weedpecker or Spaceslug, though I seem to recall Spaceslug are doing a video premiere elsewhere and I don’t want to conflict with that. So maybe Weedpecker first. I plan to get to both, in any case.
And I’ve planned the Quarterly Review to continue the week after though I may delay it.
I know these things are low stakes. I know they matter most to me, but they do matter to me, so I like to work it out ahead of time. To know what I’m doing.
In any case, I’ll be back on Monday to the best of my ability. The Pecan is off from school next week and he loses his shit when he sees me on the laptop, so I’m basically at the mercy of The Patient Mrs.’ indulgence and whatever I can get done in the mornings. I’m sure I’ve survived worse with reasonable productivity intact.
Then it’ll be New Year’s, which I suppose is also a thing.
I’m gonna punch out and close my eyes on the couch. Been writing this on my phone — see “loses his shit” above — and it’s time to stop. If you’re celebrating today or tomorrow, or if you’re not, all my best to you and yours.
Thanks for reading, have a great and safe weekend, hydrate and watch your head. Back on Monday.
FRM.
