The “lame” band Alice in Chains couldn’t stand touring with
After Alice in Chains released their debut album, Facelift, in August 1990, it was clear they were on the brink of large-scale success.
The album produced the hit single ‘Man in the Box’ and became the first grunge record to be certified gold, signalling the commercial potential of the decidedly uncommercial movement. Their unique blend of metal, psychedelia, and hard rock resonated with audiences, leading to opportunities to support a host of well-known bands. But touring in the shadow of a star isn’t always easy.
Not long after their celebrated debut record arrived, Alice in Chains played a series of warm-up shows in their hometown of Seattle. It was suddenly a melting pot of talent, a febrile place with numerous artists on the verge of taking over the world.
At the time, fellow grunge purveyors Soundgarden had just completed the tour for Louder Than Love. Accordingly, their shared manager, Susan Silver, who was also the wife of Chris Cornell, hired their crew to work on Alice in Chains’ first major tour and threw in their tour bus for good measure. It was the sort of kindness that made the scene flourish so freely.
The promotional run for Facelift culminated in Alice in Chains showcasing their talents as the opening act for the Clash of the Titans concert tour in early 1991, alongside thrash legends Anthrax, Megadeth, and Slayer. This tour highlighted their musical prowess and frontman Layne Staley’s unrelenting energy, which earned them respect, particularly when Staley confronted hostile audience members in a manner fitting the era’s rebellious spirit.
A legion of fans began to flock to them. This experience set the stage for the undeniable power of their next album, Dirt, which was released in September 1992. It was geared towards the live setting too, with the band really coming into their own as a touring entity.
So, they wanted to showcase this new confidence under the spotlight as best they could. So, before the Dirt run, Alice in Chains took up an offer they couldn’t refuse and also promoted Facelift by opening for less-cool stadium-filling acts such as Van Halen and Poison, who, ironically, the grunge scene would all but spell the end of.
Yet, holistically, even this was a great experience for the group. They might have been slightly misaligned, but they grew to admire the other two acts on the bill and wrestled with the prospect of playing stadium shows. However, because of the perpetual run of successes as a support band, they were perhaps becoming a little too comfortable in the role, and the next job they accepted, they lived to regret.
It was during the month-long run of shows opening for the Boston hard rock outfit Extreme, that the band learned what not to do on the road.
What was so bad about touring with Extreme?
However, Alice in Chains despised touring with Extreme. At the time, the Boston band was promoting Extreme II: Pornograffitti and the tour took place in the second half of the year. Although their number one hit, ‘More Than Words’, was included on the record, it wasn’t released as a single until March of the following year. Thus, it was only beginning to resonate with the band’s hardcore fans.
The tour played venues that sized between 500 and 1,500 capacity, and it instantly became felt by Alice in Chains’ experienced crew that most of the Extreme members didn’t know what they were doing, and it seemed like the band had simply hired close friends. Furthermore, there was very little humour or fellowship shared between both outfits, whose approaches to music and life were very different; Extreme’s name was appropriate for their serious nature.
Reflecting on this period, Alice in Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell told author Greg Prato: “Starting out with a really lame tour for us, opening for Extreme for 30 days. Jesus Christ, a couple of the guys were cool, but there were other guys who had egos. At the end of that 30 days, we had enough. We had been playing to empty rooms too. They didn’t have their ‘More Than Words’ hit yet. We had gotten attitude about what we could do, what we couldn’t do on stage.”
Extreme allegedly took themselves so seriously that Alice in Chains were prohibited from smoking or drinking on stage as frontman Gary Cherone liked to perform barefoot. Later, one of the grunge band’s crew members, who remained unnamed, reportedly said of the headliners: “They were really, really cheesy guys. Their music was exactly like they were.”
In reality, it all boiled down to old-school rock versus the new breed. Extreme’s traditional approach made life uncomfortable for their support act, something Alice in Chains wouldn’t forget. They dealt with issues like having their PA turned down, being given basic lighting, and the irritating Atlanta show where Extreme’s drum riser took up so much space that Staley was forced to sing from the side of the stage. These annoyances were significant enough that Alice in Chains resolved to treat their future opening acts with nothing but respect.
By the tour’s final show, Alice in Chains were so fed up that they wanted to have real fun not dictated by twinkle toes Cherone and his posse of East Coast posers. In a total aversion to the inane rules instituted by Extreme, they drank and smoked on stage, purposefully spilling their drinks. Bassist Mike Starr even puked on the drum kit. At an earlier show, he had drunkenly tumbled into Extreme’s bass cabs, and this proved to be the final indignity.
Drummer Sean Kinney opened up about touring with Extreme in an interview with Guitar World in 1999. He said their audience “dug” Alice in Chains, but there was “a lot of friction” between the bands. As it was his group’s first tour, they were going hard all the time, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. He said they were eventually kicked off the tour for their behaviour.
Luckily, they would next tour with someone who understood them, and a real icon. As Kinney added, “No matter where we were, we made sure we had a good time. We went out with Iggy Pop after that. Talk about day and night.”
He comically concluded, “He was up there whipping his cock out and doing windmills with it. We played to a lot of different audiences in the beginning.” But one set certainly stood out as the dreariest to the Seattle legends.
