Alice In Chains & Soundgarden Well Represented in Seattle

Who’d of thought one of the best concerts I’ve ever seen would be a free admission DVD video shoot at the Columbia City Theater in south Seattle. I’m not trying to blow smoke up your tailpipe…..it really was that good. I’d heard from many people say how great JAR OF FLIES (”Alice In Chains” tribute band) was and had planned on checking them out eventually. Well, I recently seen a bulletin on MySpace about A DVD video shoot featuring “Jar Of Flies” and a newly formed “Soundgarden / Temple Of The Dog” tribute band called SUPERUNKNOWN . I thought I’d go check it out even though I was really skeptical that anyone could pull off Chris Cornell’s vocals. Not many people can emulate his style and range. When JOF hit the stage and opened the show, I damn near fell off my chair. The lead vocals of Rane Stone and harmonies of Jonny Smokes nailed the late Layne Staley and Jerry Cantrell’s vocals flawlessly. Not to mention the band was spot on. The sound in the room was mixed perfect. I knew I was in for one hell of night. After a tasty helping of some AIC tunes, Rane announced that “Superunknown” would be up next. A vocalist by the name of Kevin Hoffman was backed by the JOF band minus Rane. It was announced that they put this project together on that Monday and this was Thursday night. Once again, I was in a state of shock. Hoffman nailed Chris Cornell’s vocals effortlessly and the band was amazing. They opened their set with one of my all-time favorite tunes “Say Hello To Heaven” by “Temple Of The Dog”. After that, they belted out some classic Soundgarden hits that brought back some very good memories for me. As if I wasn’t in seventh heaven enough, “Jar Of Flies” came back on stage for another set. When they played “I Don’t Know Anything” by “Mad Season”, it almost brought a tear to my eye. There was more than once that evening when I momentarily forgot that this wasn’t “Alice In Chains” or “Soundgarden” on the stage. Once again, I have to say this was one of my favorite concerts I’ve been to. If you can’t have the real deal, you can’t do better than this. One point that I’d like to make is, Rane mentioned several times through out the night that it wasn’t about them, it was about the music of Layne Staley and “Alice In Chains”. I’m totally convinced that Rane, Jonny, Kevin, and the rest of the band have a great respect for the music they emulate and are performing it from their heart with love…..and very, very well I might add. The other local band that I feel performs with the same love for the music they play that comes to mind is the “Randy Hansen band” (Jimi Hendrix tribute). It is one thing to play other people’s music and be fortunate enough to even make a living at it, but to perform it with the love and respect for the original artists I believe is the true meaning of integrity.

-Gary Draper, president

RockTheBlues.com

Tags: Alice in Chains, Columbia City Theater, Jar of Flies, Jonny Smokes, Kevin Hoffman, Mad Season, Rane Stone, Soundgarden, Superunknown, Temple of the Dog