Alice in Chains conjure the ghosts of grunge at Minnesota State Fair Grandstand opener

Ross Raihala, Pioneer Press
·3 min read
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The grunge era came roaring back to life Thursday as Alice in Chains headlined opening night at the Minnesota State Fair Grandstand on a bill with Bush and Breaking Benjamin.

Alice in Chains stood with Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden as the biggest acts to emerge from the early-’90s genre, which upended the music business, (temporarily) disrupted hairspray metal and awarded a whole lot of major label deals to off-kilter rock bands around the world.

British band Bush is best known for lead singer Gavin Rossdale’s longtime relationship with Gwen Stefani, which ended in divorce in 2016. They’re also notorious for their 1994 debut album “Sixteen Stone,” which plucked all the most commercial parts of grunge and gave them a sonic polish. They scored a string of Top 10 hits for a few years there before breaking up in 2002.

Rossdale brought the band back with an entirely new lineup in 2010 and has continued to record and tour for the past dozen years. Now 56, he’s still got a powerful, if deeper, voice. He’s also impressively fit and worked up an honest sweat after sprinting his way through the crowd.

The newer material didn’t get much of a reaction, but the old hits sure did, including an impressive solo turn from Rossdale on “Glycerine,” where he was backed solely by his own electric guitar.

Breaking Benjamin emerged in the early ’00s with a series of angry, angst-ridden anthems that drew from both grunge and complaint rockers like Korn, Disturbed and 3 Doors Down who were doing big business at the time.

The group actually played the Grandstand with the latter back in 2005, but Thursday’s lineup was entirely different save for lead singer Benjamin Burnley, who I guess broke his own band after a dispute over a greatest hits album. His new version of BB really benefits from the presence of two strong vocalists — guitarist Keith Wallen and bassist Aaron Bruch — whose vocal harmonies bring a real richness to the group’s sound.

The music, though, is largely an acquired taste full of lapses into Cookie Monster-style growling and “I hate my dad” lyrical sentiment. The strongest number of the show turned out to be a cover of Queen’s “Who Wants to Live Forever.”

Near the end of BB’s set, Burnley told the cheering crowd he was 15 when he saw his first concert, which was Alice in Chains. Cool, right? Then he said his second-ever show was Bush. Big, if true, but perhaps just a convenient embellishment.

While they rose to fame during grunge, Alice in Chain always seemed more like a ’70s-era hard rock band with unusually bleak lyrics. They scored a steady stream of big hits in the ’90s, despite lead singer Layne Staley’s ongoing struggles with heroin addiction. Alice in Chain’s first era came to a halt when Staley was found dead from an overdose in his Seattle condo in April 2002.

Guitarist, primary songwriter and occasional lead vocalist Jerry Cantrell started performing again with surviving members in 2005 and eventually hired William DuVall to front the group. They’ve since released three albums and returned to radio with a string of hits, including “Hollow” and “Your Decision,” which made Thursday’s set list.

Still, the crowd of 11,049 was there for the Staley songs and Alice in Chains more than pulled them off. It helps that DuVall’s voice is reminiscent of Staley’s distinctive croon without falling into mimicry. “Them Bones,” “Would?” and “Rooster” stood out in a performance full of memorable moments.

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