[PREORDER] Alice In Chains - Unplugged

On April 10, 1996, Alice In Chains walked onto the stage of the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Majestic Theatre for their first concert in more than two years. The band had come off the road in 1994 and stayed off it, and almost nobody expected them back. What the audience got that night was one of the most quietly devastating performances in the history of the MTV Unplugged series.

Stripped of the sludge and the volume, these songs turn out to be even heavier. "Nutshell" opens the set as a hushed confession, "Down in a Hole" and "Rooster" trade their weight for space, and the harmonies between Layne Staley and Jerry Cantrell sit right at the front of the mix where they belong. "Would?" and "Brother" land with a clarity the studio versions never quite had, and the band debuted a new song, "Killer Is Me," in front of the cameras. Toby Wright produced, and the recording captures every string squeak and room reflection.

The broadcast aired that May and the album followed on July 30, 1996, debuting at number three on the Billboard 200 and eventually going double platinum. It was also Staley's final headlining performance with the band, which has given the record a weight over the decades that no one in the room could have known it would carry.

This 2LP edition marks thirty years since that night, spreading the full set across four sides in a gatefold jacket. One of the few live albums that stands with the studio records that made it.