Live ReviewsMusic
PHOTOS: Alice in Chains Concert Balances Now with Nostalgia

It’s hard to believe the current lineup of Alice in Chains with singer William DuVall has been together two years longer than the lineup featuring original singer Layne Stayley. That being said, the band’s focus remained on those early years during Tuesday night’s show at PNC Music Pavilion.
Tuesday’s setlist included songs like “Dam That River,” “Them Bones,” “Would?” and “Rooster.” In fact, only three songs on the 15-track setlist were more recent — one from each of the band’s three latest albums.

That’s not to say the band doesn’t drive forth with the same energy that it used to. DuVall is a much more energetic frontman than the normally stoic Stayley ever was, judging from the set I caught at Lollapalooza in the early ’90s.
Alice in Chains provided a solid punch to a night that featured co-headliners Breaking Benjamin stoking the modern metal fires (of course, modern only in the sense that they’ve been around about 10 years less than their counterparts, but still 20+ years).

Believe it or not, Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale is now 56 years old, but he held his own as well on Tuesday — both vocally and in terms of stage presence, pacing the stage and showing an enthusiasm not often seen during his band’s performances.

The night opened with a set by up-and-coming hard-rock outfit Plush, who proved their mettle (see what I did there?) with a cover of Heart’s “Barracuda.” The female quartet is definitely one to keep an eye on; they opened for Sevendust at Neighborhood Theatre earlier this year and are headed out on the Kiss Kruise later this month.

All-in-all the night provided a good balance of new vs. nostalgia.
Alice in Chains setlist
Again
Check My Brain
Grind
Them Bones
Dam That River
Hollow
Down In a Hole
Angry Chair
Man in the Box
Nutshell
The One You Know
Got Me Wrong
No Excuses
Would?
Rooster
Breaking Benjamin setlist
Blow Me Away
Sooner or Later
Firefly
Follow
So Cold
Angels Fall
Breath
Failure
Who Wants to Live Forever
Polyamorous
Give Me a Sign
Red Cold River
Until the End
Torn in Two
I Will Not Bow
The Diary of Jane
Bush setlist
The Kingdom
Machinehead
Quicksand
Bullet Holes
Everything Zen
Blood River
Flowers on a Grave
More Than Machines
Glycerine
Comedown

This work by Queen City Nerve is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.