Alice in Chains US tour., Who's going? Options

[Tabucky]

I never thought it would ever happen, but Alice in Chains (or what's left of them -- May you rest in peace Layne) is touring the US! I've read William DuVall does an incredible job doing the vocals, and that the band puts on quite an amazing show. I'll be catching them on both their New York City tourdates (Nov 1 and Nov 2) at Nokia Theatre. God am I psyched!!!!!! I can't freaking wait....and I glanced at the setlist they did at one of their summer shows, and all I can say is, holy fuck.

Now, am I the only one here who will be lucky enough to experience such a breathtaking concert? (Or, in my case, TWO.)

[Tabucky]

Alright, so, three days since the second night, and I'm still getting over the awesome sensations of those two incredible concerts. First night, the crowd was fuckin' nuts, but I loved it. Absolutely everyone the first show, including me, was participating in moshing and crowdsurfing, but it was the good kind, not violent or stupid. The second night, I concentrated on the performance part exclusively, number 1, because it would be dumb not to, number 2, because people were idiots the second night and were not fun to fuck around with, and number 3, because my girlfriend was with me and I had to protect her from all the dickwads around us. I am a bit bad at explaining how concerts go, but all in all, the guys were just amazing, both nights. William DuVall is more than qualified for the slot, has a great voice, and fills those gargantuan-sized shoes perfectly -- he nails Layne's vocal parts extremely effectively, but at the same time, he doesn't try to imitate him or copy him. Only problem with both nights was that his voice wasn't loud enough on the speakers, but it was okay, because you could still hear it. I'd have to say that they performed better the second night, even though the crowd was much better the first night. Too many drunk retards being complete assholes the second night, and there were many uncalled for actions in the crowd, including crowdsurfing during the acoustic set (which is fucking stupid) and drunk guys falling all over people. There was nothing like this the first gig, except for some strange middle aged lady in pink who was obviously drunk off her ass and being as much of an imbecile as possible. Anyway, enough with the crowd. The moment Whale and Wasp started playing through the loudspeakers, I knew it was destined to be special. Then they ripped into Again, a powerful opener that set the tone for the whole concert. There isn't a whole lot to say as far as the playing goes, it's rather indescribable. Pretty much every song was a highlight. In the middle of setting up for their acoustic set, a video montage of Layne was played, in all eras of his work with AIC, including funny moments, concert clips, and just normal footage. Goddammit, they need to fucking release all those videos, they looked absolutely fantastic and I would love to own all those concerts that were filmed and the footage of studio shit. When the montage was done, the whole crowd would chant, "LAYNE! LAYNE! LAYNE!" It was very special and heartwarming.

RIP Layne.

Anyway, here's a half setlist, half song-by-song rundown of the concerts. As I said, the quality of performing the songs was better the second night, but they showed consistency in the way they did all the songs in each gig, and I mean that in a good way. The only difference in set in each show was that the song Dirt was not played the first show and only the second.

Whale and Wasp through the speakers, while lights dimmed.
Electric Set 1:
Again (couldn't think of a better way to open up)
Bleed the Freak (freaking awesome!)
Grind (for some reason I remember the lighting the most on this one, it was sweet)
It Ain't Like That (great to experience this one live --the crowd got kicking when this came on)
Junkhead (crowd sang along on every song, but on this one it was especially amazing)
Nutshell (slowed down a bit from the studio version, but it sounded incredible)
Them Bones (this was truly the shit)
Dam That River (done with power and passion)
Rain When I Die (Inevitably one of the main highlights of the sets, always a shitkicker)

**Layne Tribute** (While the stage crew was setting up for the acoustic set)

Acoustic Set:
Don't Follow (such a heartwarming and great job they did with this track)
Brother (damn was it good)
No Excuses (great great great --acoustic set allowed them to do this one)
Killer is Me (felt like MTV Unplugged --they did it even better though --one of my all-time faves)
Got Me Wrong (crowd pumping fists, enjoying the hell out of it --so did I)
Down in a Hole (I knew this classic was good acoustic, but I never realized how passionate and moving it could be done in front of my eyes --utterly amazing and powerful --couldn't think of a better song to close up the set with)

Electric Set 2:
Sludge Factory (always wanted to hear it live --if I had my way, they would've done it acoustic too!)
We Die Young (so energy-filled and fun)
Heaven Beside You (they aced it --great to hear plugged in and in your face)
Angry Chair (awesome ... all I can say)
Man in The Box (the place goes absolutely nuts as soon as the drumline to Angry Chair segues into it, just as it does on their "Live" album...what a motherfucking balls-to-the-wall rendition both nights...could've mistaken the year as 1990)

Encore:
Dirt (William nailed it and one of their most gutwrenching songs was done justice...I used to dream and dream about somehow seeing this song performed in concert...the way they did it definitely lived up to my fantasies...shame they only did it the second night! But alas, I believe I am being greedy at this point)
Rooster (holy shit -- unfuckingbelievable -- one of the most brilliant performances of a song I've ever seen in concert)
Would (such a tremendous ending to the 2 hours of euphoric bliss that I had experienced -- such a fucking awesome song that never gets old -- the climax was reached as the entire audience shouted with fists raised "IF I COULD, WOULD YOU"...never will I forget that feeling at the end.)

Sorry for the long ass review. I actually copied and pasted some of this from what I have been sending to my friends and writing for my personal use, but I just wrote up the individual song thingies just now. I am very tired at the moment, with a Math SAT2 looming on the horizon tomorrow, and I am studied out from over the weekend. I guess that accounts for my lack of illustrative language for the song reviews, but I hope I was able to give somewhat of an okay description of those amazing two nights. Peace y'all.