Gig Review

Alice In Chains
Little Fish
Birmingham, Academy
13th November 2009
    
          
Alice In Chains           Little Fish                 
             
Photo Of Little Fish © Copyright Robert LawrenceIts an early start tonight, its pissing it down with rain outside, the academy is refuge from the outside world, after much uncertainty about whether i was doing this gig or not, thankfully it all came good in the end! Thanks Trigger!

First up and on early at 7pm was two piece rock band Little Fish, an unusual choice, but they went down well with the soggy Birmingham crowd. They opened with 'Your dress' not a bad opener and gave the audience an idea of what they were in for, for the next half an hour of rock, with juju on the guitar & vocals and Nez on the drums. Juju, she had a decent voice, a bit rough at times but good non the less, and her guitar playing was excellent, a mix of decent lead an rhythm playing. 'Whiplash' the second song they played another decent song, seemed fast paced. One thing i noticed was the sound tonight was decent in the venue. Nez the drummer, his playing wasn't bad either, it was simple but effective. After they closed with 'Am I Crazy' they received a decent applause from the crowd who were now nicely warmed up for Alice in Chains.

Photo Of Alice In Chains © Copyright Robert LawrenceAlice in Chains, a band from my youth, I was disappointed that i never saw them when Layne Staley was still alive, simply because by the time i could afford to go to gigs, it was too late! But enough of memory lane, AIC open with 'It Aint Like That' a fairly slow but heavy song, got the crowd going nicely, the vocals were spot on too, couldn't fault it! An early surprise and only 3 songs in was 'Them bones' quite possibley the one AIC song pretty much everone knows, still sounding great after all these years with its chugging riff, the crowd also adding to the vocals! Later on in the set they bring it down a notch by entering the Acoustic part of there set, opening with 'Down in a Hole', hearing it live so much better than the album version, the vocals again stellar, and Jerry Cantrells guitar playing still excellent as it was all night long, not sure he made any mistakes tonight. There were some technical faults tonight though, first effecting William DuValls mic after 'Damn that River' then it was Mike Inezs turn briefly during the acoustic part of the set but that was swiftly solved. Bringing it back to the heavy again was 'God Am', which the crowd really got into as the crowd surfing started, and even the odd mosh pit opened up too. Closing the main set was Man in the box, pretty much the definitive AIC sound! and Jerrys solo is still killer! Coming back out for the encore they open with Lesson Learned which is followed by a personal favorite of mine 'Would' then the one most of the crowd has been waiting to hear and sing along to was 'Rooster' complete with crowd vocals as they sang pretty much the entire song. An absolutely fantastic performance, and worth the wait for me for sure, cant wait to see them again along with the rest of the crowd which was heading back into the rain to cool down!

If you are yet to see Alice In Chains then you are in a bit of luck as they are back to play a couple more shows at the start of December and you will be able to catch them at the following.

06/12/09 Nottingham Rock City
07/12/09 London O2 Academy Brixton

Little Fish – 4/5
Alice In Chains – 5/5

Review By Robert Lawrence

 Alice In Chains


Jerry Cantrell
Sean Kinney
Mike Inez
William DuVall

 Little Fish


Juju (Guitar, Vocals)
Nez (Drums, Vocals)

 Band Related Links
Alice In Chains Myspace
Little Fish Myspace
 Review Score Code
- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
- What Was That?