Former Alice In Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell has taken to the road again for
the second time in three years, without the band that made him famous. This time
around, he's touring in part to showcase a two-record set that he has in the can
(but doesn't have a distribution deal for yet) called Degradation Trip, Vol I
and II. He's also satisfying some AiC-starved die-hards with a hefty live
helping of their best tunes while he's at it. Earlier this month, Cantrell's
road show passed through Orlando long enough for the locals to (as one of my
pals put it later) "have their fookin' faces rocked off." Truer words were never
spoken, as I had a hard time finding my eardrums later...
The paint peeling commenced with the first of two opening bands, both products
of San Francisco: Swarm and M.I.R.V. The former is the remnants of metal-
meisters Death Angel, and were quite loud, yet melodic (not to mention they were
pretty easy on the eyes, in that not-quite-dead-yet, emaciated-yet-hunky-punk-
rock-metalhead-dude sort of way). One came away from their set with the
impression that these guys listened to a lot of Aerosmith and Motorhead records
along with their favorite warp-speed death-metal bands when they were growing
up. Which in this instance is a good thing, the resulting chaos was amazing. By
the end of their brief set, fists were pumping, and heads were banging.
Following them was the one and only M.I.R.V. These guys are the kind of band you
either love or hate, there's just no middle ground at all here. Think
Frank Zappa and ZZ Top careening through a train tunnel at high speed and
colliding head-on with Devo and The Red Hot Chili Peppers. That should give you
some idea, anyway. During their brief (four year) existence, M.I.R.V have honed
their chops opening for a multitude of bands in various modern rock and pop
genres, sounding right at home in every last one of them. A link out on Yahoo!
lists them as "San Francisco's industrial surf opera band." Pigeonhole-able
these guys are not. At any rate, all four guys rate way high on the ability-
meter with their instruments, especially the pair of six-strings hoisted by Mark
Haggard and Bryan Kehoe. Highlights of their set included a faaaabulous little C
& W/punk/thrash ditty called "Doin' The ATF," and their signature tune, the
heavy-duty deep-fried metal-funk of "Monkeyboy."
Finally (very, very late in the evening) Cantrell took to the stage, along with
his current touring band: sometimes Ozzy bassist Robert Trujillo; Comes With
The Fall drummer Bevan Davies; and not one, but two guys from ...M.I.R.V., Kehoe
and Haggard (turns out Cantrell is a huge fan of these guys)! They got right
down to business, opening with a pair of new compositions, "Howard" and
"Castaway." These songs seemed to be a tad mellower and more classic-rock
oriented than most AiC tunes, but by and large, they both kind of pick up where
Cantrell's solo debut, Boggy Depot, left off. In fact, Cantrell even thought to
include a tune from that '98 release, "Cut You In" in the set. It was apparent
that Cantrell has a soft spot in his heart for old rock, as he also turned out a
true-to-the-original cover of the classic "Hey Joe." But the rest was all Alice
all the way, much to the delight of the packed house. Rafter-shaking highlights
included "No Excuses," "Down In A Hole" and a fine rendition of "What The Hell
Have I," and by the time they got to "Angry Chair," the place was about to bust
wide open. The only drawback was the length of the set - it was shorter than
usual, due to Cantrell's just-healed-hand, which he'd broken not long before
this date. But the band made up for it, by turning out a stellar encore:
"Would?," "Rooster" and "Them Bones."
It was terrific to see the man and hear this great music live. No doubt people
were beginning to wonder if any AiC songs would ever see the light of day again
in a live setting, what with various and sundry band members holed up in
seclusion fighting drug monkeys and God knows what other demons. Meanwhile,
happily, at least one of 'em has his act together. So if it shows up in a venue
near you, be sure not to miss it...
