![]() The performance featured some of the band's highest charting singles, including "Down in a Hole", "Heaven Beside You", and "Would?", and introduced a new song, "The Killer Is Me". The show marked Alice in Chains' first appearance as a five-piece band, adding second guitarist Scott Olson. It is often hailed as one of the most memorable editions of MTV Unplugged, with a reputation comparable to the famous editions featuring Nirvana, Eric Clapton, and Bob Dylan. ![]() The performance was one of the band's final appearances with vocalist Layne Staley. The album was re-released as a CD/DVD package on September 18, 2007. The songs "Angry Chair", "Frogs", and "The Killer Is Me" were cut from the original MTV broadcast but are included on both the CD and home video releases. The album has received platinum certification by the RIAA and the home video release has received gold certification by the RIAA. A full length DVD of the concert was also later released in 1999. A live album of the performance was released in July 1996, which debuted at number three on the Billboard 200, and was accompanied by a home video release. The show first aired on MTV on May 28, 1996. If you didn’t know any better, you would think nothing was wrong.Alice in Chains resurfaced on Apto perform their first concert in two and a half years for MTV Unplugged, a program featuring all-acoustic set lists. The audience rewards them with cheers, whistles, and applause. Staley and the band-Cantrell, Inez, and Kinney, plus Scott Olson, the rhythm guitarist for the evening-deliver one stellar song after another. The stripped-down format allows the songwriting and musicianship to take center stage, as it did on their largely acoustic EPs Sap, from 1992, and Jar of Flies. The intimate venue shines a light on the reunited group’s dynamic, camaraderie, and sense of humor. They blow everyone’s expectations out of the water. ![]() Starting with the first song, though, Alice in Chains don’t merely squeak out a show. Studio execs would be forgiven for being more than a little concerned. Mike Inez was trolling the newly shorn members of Metallica, who were sitting right up front, with a message scrawled on the front of his bass: “FRIENDS DON’T LET FRIENDS GET FRIENDS HAIRCUTS…”. Songwriter and guitarist Jerry Cantrell had eaten a bad hot dog and was barely staving off the effects of food poisoning (if you’re watching the show, you can spot a trash can next to him). By all accounts, Staley was high but just high enough so that he wasn’t actively in withdrawal and could function in public. ![]() Combining the long break with the band’s numerous personal obstacles during the actual show was a major risk, and the night could’ve easily gone south. MTV had been after Alice in Chains to do an Unplugged taping for some time, and they finally agreed, rehearsing first in Seattle and then New York. (This would be the group’s last studio release to feature Staley in a 2018 interview, Cantrell called it “the sound of a band falling apart”.) They did not tour in support of the album. Due to his heroin addiction, Staley would frequently miss sessions, and the band, who had drifted apart, wrote much of the material in the studio, stretching the recording time to four months. The recording of their previous album-Alice in Chains, released in November 1995-was painful and prolonged. Before Unplugged, Alice in Chains had indeed been offstage for about two and a half years. Unofficial import on colored vinyl - Alice in Chains’ MTV Unplugged is an essential grunge album and a career-high point for the band. ![]()
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