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I've been reading various internet musings regarding a reunited Alice In Chains recently, and how they're going to be touring this summer across Europe, and to a lesser extent, the U.S. From everything I've read, they've lined up a singer to fill the shoes of Layne Staley, but will also be having plenty of guest singers on stage to sing a song or two. I like that idea. Layne Staley's voice and the moods he painted with it were both very diverse, and varied widely from song to song. There are very few singers I know of that could rival the diversity that Layne had. One of them is Maynard James Keenan, and he actually sang a few songs with them for a benefit concert a few months ago. He was pretty good, but he's got his own thing going on with Tool and A Perfect Circle, so I seriously doubt that he would ever join up with Cantrell and Company for anything more than a few guest appearances.

One person that I have heard rumors about is Phil Anselmo, singer of the now-defunct Pantera. I had reservations about him being any kind of permanent singer as well. While he can sing when he chooses, his singing style just doesn't really fit a good portion of their music. Harmony is a big part of the AIC vocal style, and I don't think that he has a lot of practice in that area, but I could be wrong. There are a few songs that I think he could totally nail, and I was given evidence of this last night. AIC played on a VH1 special last night with a vocalist carousel, and a few people were good enough to record it and post song clips online. The one I was interested in was Phil singing "Would" with Alice In Chains. I have to say that I liked the combo, even if Phil sounded a bit restrained. I think he could have let go a bit more and really let himself get into it with more of his singing style. He's obviously not on stage with them because he sounds like Layne Staley, and "Would" is one of the songs in the AIC catalog where he could let loose and still be in the proper form for the song.

I have to say that I like the fact that AIC is touring again. They've been one of my favorite bands for a long time, yet I've never seen them live. Hopefully they don't limit themselves to the limited amount of American tour dates they currently have lined up.

Alex: i think i saw kiss at cobo
Alex: ...
Alex: naw that was silverdome.
Mike: or tiger stadium
Mike: I know they played there too
Alex: on they're final farewell tour?
Mike: along with aerosmith or something crazy like that
Mike: with AIC opening
Alex: what?
Mike: if I remember right
Alex: AIC opened for KISS?
Alex: WTF
Alex: AIC will always reign over kiss in ways we cannot even comprehend!
Mike: http://www.bacus.net/alice/aliceliv.htm
Mike: scroll to the end
Mike: 6/28/96
Alex: i see
Alex: goddamittttttt
Alex: thats just not fair!
Mike: yah, it's an embarassment
Mike: a sacrelege
Alex: seriously. I saw kiss as my first real concert. AIC is ACTUALLY an awesome band.
Alex: not fake awesome.

Alex is right. Alice in Chains is an awesome band. Kiss? Eh, not so much... in this dude's eyes at least.

Hmmm... song by Alice in Chains, or my stint on midnights? Well, both. As far as working 13 days in a row goes, this stretch of midnight shifts wasn't all bad, but it would have been a lot nicer had I not been coughing my head into oblivion the whole time. The cough is better now, but I still hack my brains out when I lay down, which is kinda necessary in the process of sleeping. It's part of the reason I'm up now, the other being that Joe and Shauna were a little loud when they got back... apparently they decided to do the dishes, because all I heard was plates and glasses banging around. Hmm.... hope it was the dishes they were doing!

My midnights ended friday night/saturday morning, which left the weekend mostly open. I finished up the midnights a day earlier than I normally would have due to Darin's bachelor party on Saturday night. It was a really good time, except for the fact that Jon menioned that he got laid off on Thursday... :( Very shitty... He had worked at his job for close to three years, just bought a house, and gets married at the end of the summer... definitely a sucky time for a sucky event. :( Other than that, the party was great, but no details will be released to protect the 'innocent'.

Sunday was mothers day, and I spent it at home with my family. My grandma Neir, cousin Ellie, and her daughter Karlee came up to visit as well, which was cool. The latter two live in Colorado, so we don't get to see them all that often. Dad cooked up steaks for everyone, and they were delicious. He got a little wet in the process from the thunderstorms and their associated downpours that passed over, but I don't think he cared much.

Today was one of my recuperation days, where I try to shake the midnights out of my system and get back on a normal schedule. I sorta did, waking up at 9am after about 9 hours of sleep, but I felt I could have slept for another couple of hours. I didn't, mostly due to the nagging cough, but that's all right. I took on a geek project today... I installed a new firewall for the network here, and got the configuration set up so I can interface with the VPN at work. That way Joe and I can do stuff from home with no added configuration to our machines, and it's nice and secure.

I wish I was tired right now, but I guess that doesn't really happen when you go to bed after being up for only 13 hours. I guess my body thought I was taking a nap, because when I woke up, I didn't feel like I was going to be able to get back to bed anytime soon. Arg. Oh well, I don't have to work tomorrow either... :)

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