Unplugged (Alice in Chains album)

Alice in Chains had not toured since co-headlining Lollapalooza in mid-1993, including a stop at Woodstock '94, but the band canceled all their scheduled dates one day before the start of the tour due to frontman Layne Staley's heroin addiction. The band parted ways for about six months, Alice in Chains regrouped in early 1995 to work on new material, They had originally planned to tour in 1996 for the new album, but these plans were scrapped, adding to the rumors of Staley's drug abuse. In the meantime, MTV approached the band with an offer to perform acoustically as part of its MTV Unplugged series. The network had been requesting the band partake in the series for years, and the band had repeatedly declined the network's advances. Cantrell reasoned that it was too difficult to make the band sound satisfactory and worried that a televised audience would not be receptive to the band's raw and abrasive style, despite the band's prior experience recording acoustically on the extended plays Sap (1992) and Jar of Flies (1994). even the band's most recent studio album was often likened to the acoustics of Jar of Flies. ==Preparation==

Alice in Chains had limited experience performing acoustically in a live setting. Prior to the Jar of Flies era, the band took part in an acoustic benefit concert in early January 1994 for John Norwood Fisher of Fishbone, who was having difficulty paying legal fees. Being the first time the band deviated from their electric, heavier sound in a live setting, fans at the performance were disappointed with the drastic change in sound. Rehearsals began in Seattle, but were continuously hampered with problems. According to Kinney, there was "barely any rehearsing at all, guys not showing up — the same shit". Cantrell agreed, "everyone always show[ed] up at different times and we usually just end up talking and goofing around anyway. [...] We always kind of end up flying by the seat of our pants." At the last minute, a request came to use lava lamps to decorate the stage, adding an unexpected visual element. Footage of the show shows the translucent paraffin wax in the lamps barely moving, emphasizing the mood of the performance itself. The concert organizers achieved this effect by accident, simply because they were unaware that the lamps needed to be properly warmed up in advance for their intended effect. Staley had recently dyed his hair pink, so the lighting technician decided to match the stage backdrop to it. Unique lighting color schemes were chosen for each song. The band had predetermined their setlist and provided it to MTV, so lighting was selected well in advance. ==Recording==

The Brooklyn concert was scheduled for April 10, 1996. Two hours were allocated for recording—from 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM—but the theater doors opened an hour early. The performance was fraught with a number of problems and delays. Cantrell was suffering from food poisoning caused by a hot dog consumed before the gig. The band's guitar technician, Randy Biro, was also addicted to heroin, and both he and Staley went into severe withdrawal before the show. Biro forgot his heroin and sent someone to get more. Staley, on the other hand, was prepared with a glass bottle sealed with a cork cap containing ready-to-use heroin, and took a hit just before the show. According to Biro, he had only used a slight amount of the drug: "He hadn't done enough where he was nodding off and drooling [...] he didn't do a lot". Wright worked from a mobile studio inside a truck located outside the venue, where he would produce the audio and communicate with the band in case anything needed redone. Coletti, on the other hand, would be responsible for producing the televised performance, rotating between the production truck outside and the venue inside. There were only 400 seats available for the show that evening, though thousands of people attempted to gain admission. The musicians prepared thirteen songs for the concert. Some songs were eliminated immediately, while the band worked on others for some time until realizing that they would not sound good performed acoustically. Ultimately, the band put together a setlist that would satisfy both casual listeners and ardent fans. It included material from all of the band's releases up to that point, with the exception of their debut album, Facelift (1990). The omission was not intentional; the band had planned to include the Facelift tracks "We Die Young" and "Love, Hate, Love", but abandoned these when time constraints prevented them from fitting them in the taping. These time constraints also left little room for improvisation, and the songs were mostly performed as acoustic versions of how they would have sounded on their original album. Over half the album's songs needed multiple takes due to error. Inez and Kinney did pay tribute to Metallica, however, playing the intro to their hit song "Enter Sandman" just before "Sludge Factory". Before "Angry Chair," Cantrell paid further tribute by playing the intro to "Battery" going into the Hee Haw song, "Gloom, Despair, and Agony on Me". This was omitted from the CD but can be found on the VHS and DVD. On the CD version of the MTV Unplugged concert, as Staley says "Okay, that's it," at the end of the song, booing can be heard (presumably due to the performance concluding). Staley responded to the heckler by shouting, "Hey, fuck you, man!" which was greeted by laughter from the audience. The taping took approximately three hours to finish. Cantrell said that one of his favorite things from the concert was when Staley said at the end of the show, "I wish I could hug you all, but I'm not gonna". ==Release and reception==

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 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 on October 26, 1999. 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 was re-released as a CD/DVD package on September 18, 2007. The album initially received mixed reviews from critics. AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote in his review of the album: "It doesn't offer anything that the albums don't already. The acoustic arrangements of the harder songs sound like novelties, and the rest sound like rehashes of their previous work, only without much energy." ==Track listing==

• "Angry Chair", "Frogs" and "The Killer Is Me" were removed from the original broadcast, but are included in rereleases. DVD release • The DVD release shows another take of "Sludge Factory," in which Layne Staley mixes up the lyrics at the beginning of the song which is ended shortly after. They then go into the "formal" take which was used on the CD. The DVD's introduction to "Sludge Factory" also contains portions of Metallica's "Enter Sandman", written by James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, and Kirk Hammett. • On the DVD, the final song's title is listed onscreen as "Killer Is Me", right after Jerry Cantrell introduced it as "The Killer Is Me." Note that while the CD and the vinyl also list the final song as "Killer Is Me", the DVD's track list lists the song as "The Killer Is Me." The song was also released in the Music Bank box set, where the title is again listed as "The Killer Is Me." ==Personnel==

;Alice in Chains • Layne Staley – vocals; additional acoustic guitar on "Angry Chair" • Jerry Cantrell – acoustic guitar, vocals • Mike Inez – acoustic bass; acoustic guitar on "Killer Is Me" • Sean Kinney – drums ;Additional performer • Scott Olson – acoustic guitar; acoustic bass on "Killer Is Me" ;Production • Produced by Toby Wright and Alice in Chains • Produced for MTV by Alex Coletti • Recorded by Toby Wright and John Harris, assisted by Brian Kingman, John Bates, and Rich Lamb • Mixed by Toby Wright, assisted by John Bleich and John Seymour • Digitally edited by Don C. Tyler • Mastered by Stephen Marcussen • DVD audio by John Alberts, Toby Wright, and Mike Fisher • Directed by Joe Perota • Line producer – Audrey Morrissey • Art direction – Mary Maurer • Design – Doug Erb • Photography – Danny Clinch ==Charts==

Weekly charts Year-end charts Singles Video ==Certifications==