NO discussion of Alice in Chains’ musical legacy should have to begin with VH1’s Sober House With Dr. Drew. And yet, how can it not? Anyone who wonders why Alice in Chains should be touring now, with a new frontman, need only look as far as the band’s former bassist Mickey Starr’s appearance on that ghastly train wreck of an excuse for entertainment this year. Because, for some people, that’s what Alice in Chains’ legacy is now. Drug casualties, wasted opportunities and wasted lives. By the time frontman Layne Staley OD’d in 2002, the band had been on hiatus for six years, with Staley sounding like a dead man long before he actually was one. The band put out only three proper albums—along with EPs, live records and various miscellaneous material—and yet had 17 Top 40 singles. There’s a whole generation of us who grew up on “No Excuses” and “Down in a Hole” and have difficulty explaining why the metal-edged Alice in Chains was a big deal. I’ve even seen them equated to Stone Temple Pilots (what?) as rip-off grunge by the uninitiated, though they were right there with Nirvana, Soundgarden and the other Seattle bands from the beginning. Better that Jerry Cantrell and company (who reformed in 2005 and put out an album two years ago) should put a reminder right back in the naysayers’ faces.
Monday, 7pm
Event Center, San Jose
$39.50
