Alice in Chains Back in the Groove

The history of Alice in Chains is a known story. Leaving a rich discography they quit (although never officially) years ago after they weren't able to recover from the regretful death of Layne Staley. Now they're back with a new album "Black Gives Way to Blue"(due September 29) and a fresh tour including "new" singer William DuVall.

Alice in Chains at the Melkweg Amsterdam, August 12 2009 (Ronald Says 7 out of 10)

And of course it's hard not to compare him to Layne Staley. But we can get this out of the way pretty fast. He gives the band a new face but a familiar voice and the fans seem to have accepted him. The rest of the band haven't lost their power either. Guitar player Jerry Cantrell plays some very nice solos while drummer Sean Kinney and bass player Mike Inez lay down some big heavy grooves. DuVall plays the crowd with ease and asks for some feedback now and then. Since the set has quite some slow songs it doesn't really turn the hall into a hard rocking mosh pit but then again that's not really what you would expect. It does create a nice atmosphere and even the loudly chatting guys next to me can't get my out of it.

And so they give a very convincing performance playing many all time favourites like "Angry Chair", "Them Bones", "Would?" and closing with my favourite "Rooster". But they also play a couple of songs of their upcoming album that blend in nicely. It does seem that it will be a dark album with slow heavy grooves like "A Looking in View" and "Acid Bubble" but with the unmistaken unique Alice in Chains sound. And so they're ready for a new chapter and hopefully many nice things to come.



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Them Crooked Vultures touch down

Rumours were buzzing on the internet for a while. A website showing only one page and directions to Twitter, Facebook and MySpace pages revealed little. But it was appearant that the superband Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters) had spoken about in a 2005 interview was taking shape. The band name: "Them Crooked Vultures" and according to Grohl in the same interview "they wouldn't suck".

A little later the band announced their debut gig at the Metro in Chicago on August 10th. The band besides Grohl consisting of Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age) and John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) opened their set at exactly midnight. No one knew what to expect since no songs had surfaced so far.

Grohl was handling the drums while Homme was on lead vocals and guitar. John Paul Jones as always played bass. Alain Johannes completed the band on guitar although it seems he's not an official member of the band. They played an energetic 80 minute set totalling 12 songs:

Elephants
New Fang
Scumbag Blues
Dead End Friends
Bandoliers
Mind Eraser
Gunman
Daffodils
Interlude w/ Ludes
Caligulove
Warsaw
Nobodys Loves Me


Read a full description of the gig over here.

Rumours are the band will play surprise gigs at two European festival Pukkelpop and Lowlands. I can't wait to hear some of their songs or see them live at Lowlands! What about you?
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Dr. Funkenstein's Practice Open to Anyone

George Clinton is one of those artists that you just have to see once in your life. And better late than never so I finally got to see him in Eindhoven.

George Clinton Parliament Funkadelic in the Effenaar Eindhoven, August 1 2009 (Ronald Says 7 out of 10)

Well it's fair to say his best years are behind him but you can't blame him. He's well into his sixties and not as vivid as he used to be. So he kind of restricts himself to direct the other band members and tries to control the many people on stage. That's how a George Clinton Parliament Funkadelic night is anyway: many people hopping on and off the stage in a seemingly disorganized performance. But when you look closer it's all pretty good controlled. And it should otherwise it would definitely end up in a mess but exept for a bit of a rough start the set continues in an orderly matter.

The band consists of some long time members like Garry Shider (Diaper Man) and Michael Hampton and some newly added members that probably change a lot as well. Some people only perform maybe on a couple of songs, others are there most of the time. They play many of the styles that Clinton has touched upon with both Parliament and Funkadelic: funk, soul, rock, blues, it's all there making it a varying show. Most of the vocalists get their part in the spot light and show their stuff but the horns and Michael Hampton leave the biggest impression on me with great solo's. Too bad some of the band members are acting a bit static compared to the other lively members.

I still had a great time and it's nice to see a legend as Clinton doing his stuff. I guess it was even better seeing him 20 years ago when he was on top of it all.


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